With a great social media strategy at the ready, a new company can turn into a billion-dollar organization. Just look at what happened with Dollar Shave Club. When the company launched in 2012, it released a YouTube video that quickly went viral. At last count, it had nearly 28 million views. The video would go on to win numerous awards, but more importantly, it brought attention (and customers) to Dollar Shave Club.
It wasn’t long before the company became a huge success. With its innovative subscription service, quality products, and strong social media presence, customers found something they liked. By 2016, a mere four years after launching, Unilever purchased Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion.
Companies without a social media marketing strategy miss out on millions of potential customers. According to recent stats, around 40 percent of people who use social media follow their favorite brands’ accounts. Even about 25 percent of them follow brands they might purchase from. These insights show that to profit and grow, companies need to create a social media plan that connects with their target audience.
With a social media marketing plan in place, organizations can increase brand awareness, gain more followers, convert new fans, and ultimately bring in more profits. Social media is the perfect way to get people into your marketing flywheel and continually deliver delight.
In this article, learn about the following:
- How to create a social media flywheel
- Why social media is the perfect tool for creating a flywheel
- Some of the top tips for creating a million-dollar social media strategy
What is a Flywheel and How Does it Relate to Social Media?
A marketing flywheel is a specific growth model that acts in a cycle, delighting customers in such a way that they become fans of the brand. Since they like the brand so much, they turn into repeat customers and advocate for the brand to those around them. If done correctly, a marketing flywheel can create legions of fans at a minimal cost.
Social media has made digital marketing flywheels that much easier to create and execute. This is because connecting with your customers doesn’t require a large budget or working with an expensive marketing company. Publishing a single YouTube video comes at a fraction of the price compared to launching a nationwide ad campaign on television.
The marketing flywheel has three goals in mind: attract, engage, and delight the audience. The flywheel differs from a marketing funnel in that it focuses on these three aspects, turning the customer experience into one that constantly feeds itself. Let’s take a look at each aspect and how you might use it for your social media strategy.
Attract
The attract step is what gets potential customers into your flywheel in the first place. When you create a social media strategy, attracting an audience becomes crucial with so much competition out there.
One of the ways to attract more people through social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram is through the combination of entertainment and education. One of the best case studies is Dollar Shave Club. When you watch the video they used to launch the company, you’ll notice that it is highly entertaining even a decade later. But the video does more than entertain on social media—it tells you about the product. The ad reels in the viewer, creates brand awareness, and gets them interested in learning more.
As you attract people through a social media marketing strategy, it’s important to do so without any strings attached. Create social media content that engages the viewer without blindsiding them with pleas to buy the product. An ad like what FiberFix created can be enjoyed on its own. Even so, it still educates about the product. If the customer wants to know more, they can do so.
Think of other ways to hook in your audience through a strong social media plan. Create a content calendar with attracting more customers as the goal. Podcasts, for example, are a great way to attract people to your brand. As long as you constantly create nurturing content, you’ll bring more people to you.
Engage
When you engage your audience, you create brand awareness and let people get to know you a little better. Engaging means showing a more vulnerable side on social media, something that people wouldn’t know about you. As they connect with you on a more personal level, they feel motivated to know more.
The right social media accounts can help you engage with your audience. Things like Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories can show your personal side in short bursts that last 15 seconds to one minute long. In fact, studies show that 57 percent of people say Facebook Stories help them to feel part of a community since they feel more authentic.
These short bursts of information and storytelling can work as a social media strategy because they engage with people immediately and capture their attention for the duration. This keeps your engagement rate high. Longer videos can be effective in helping you reach your social media goals as well, provided you give them something of value. Look at Dr. Tanda Cook and her Tuesday Tips to see how she informs while also showing her personality.
Too many people and companies miss the engagement side of social media marketing strategy. They’d rather just get people to buy their products, but engagement is where you create that personal connection. When you engage with someone, they’re much more likely to buy from you in the future. This can be done through live videos or even live chats on social media. After all, people are 53 percent more likely to purchase something from a business if they use the live chat feature.
Delight
Ultimately, you want to use your social media marketing plan to delight your customers. When you delight people, you create fans for a lifetime. This applies even after they’ve bought from you. Delighting is a crucial step because it’s how customers will keep talking about you after interacting with your content. It’s the step that gets them to buy from you again after the first experience.
Even better is when these same people go on to tell others about their experiences. The power of this content strategy is that customers drive traffic by promoting your brand to their friends, family, and colleagues. They might do this through five-star reviews, user-generated content, and word-of-mouth marketing.
When you delight people on social media, you’re helping them get a win whenever you interact with them. This is the type of content that helps them get results without paying any money. Delighting might also include providing excellent customer service to people who encounter issues or problems. You might host special events to help others get connected to people who can help them further. Referral programs and personalized email campaigns may also do the trick.
5 Tips for Creating a Social Media Strategy
The above points are highlights of what an effective social media marketing strategy can do when you combine it with a marketing flywheel. The following are further tips you can utilize to make your social media strategy one of the best out there.
1. Model Successful Social Media Strategies
Experimentation is a big part of how you find the best of the best.
Kari Skogland
There is no single template for success with a social media strategy. Otherwise, every company and individual would be following it. To get a better idea of what works for you, you’ll need to model social media strategies that have proven successful.
One of the best ways to do this is to look at other people and brands that your core audience enjoys. If you have a skincare business, look at what people involved in skincare are doing to be successful. If you’re offering a new book, check out what other self-improvement writers do to reach their audience. Ask yourself how you can bring their traffic to your website.
Take a step back and look at your social media approach from the consumer’s perspective. See things through their eyes and determine if your content is good enough to attract, engage, and delight them. Otherwise, you’ll need to revise your plan. Don’t be afraid to test new approaches, try unique things, and ramp up your social media goals. As long as you adjust, you’ll find what works for you.
Other ways to model social media strategies:
- Spend the most time operating on the social network most aligned with your core audience.
- Note what types of content get the most engagement.
- Develop a content strategy around these tactics.
- Set measurable goals that are within reach for you.
- Don’t be afraid to use secondary channels when appropriate.
- Select the tone for your content that most reflects who you are.
2. Build a Relationship with Your Customers
We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.
Joyce Meyer
One advantage social media gives is that it allows you to establish and build a unique relationship with your customers. Building this rapport means telling them more about yourself and how you can help them. As demonstrated with MLMs, customers want to buy from people and brands they trust, which is why this strategy is so effective.
To build relationships, you must start by offering something of value first. If a customer likes what you’ve given, they’ll want to return the favor. Think of it like you’ve been mowing a neighbor’s lawn for free every week. Eventually, they’ll likely want to start paying you for it.
A successful social media strategy provides an authentic personal connection. Just look at Shawn and Andrew East’s content strategy and social media presence. They share vulnerability and inspiring stories to connect with people. Once that connection is made, people are more willing to pay attention to the products they advertise.
How to first provide value to customers:
- Have them take a fun quiz to provide insight into their problems.
- Provide a free product offering on social media.
- Share a personal story that can motivate them when times are tough.
- Get them to sign up for a daily newsletter.
- Offer helpful tips for solving a common problem.
3. Take People From Point A to Point B
To keep a customer demands as much skill as to win one.
American Proverb
Getting customers to start on a journey is one thing. Getting them to travel from Point A to Point B on social media is even more challenging. This is part of the engagement process in digital marketing. The goal is to lead customers to a better destination than where they started from.
Think of this process visually by creating a board. On the left side of this board, you’ll identify who your core audience is. On the right side, you identify what type of person they want to become. That is the journey you need to lead them on. The content you create to get them there should be part of your social media planning.
One of the best ways to see this in action is through diet and exercise plans promoted on social media channels. There is real value in taking people on a journey from where they are now to becoming healthier. If you can help someone reach a tangible goal, they’ll be more willing to follow you so they can accomplish larger objectives.
How to take customers on the journey:
- Present the journey as a series of easy-to-follow steps.
- Encourage them along the way, providing motivation and inspiration when the going gets tough.
- Pose questions that get them to think about what they want to change.
- Create entertaining and educational social media content.
- Make sure your content comes with actions they can take right away to improve.
4. Specify What Your Channel is For
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
What is your social media channel for? Did you create it to get tons of likes and views? Do you want to promote brands or sell a product? Answering these questions helps you with your social media strategy since you’ll know what to focus on.
Let’s say you have a channel where you want to promote a brand. From that viewpoint, you want to drive as much traffic as possible to your channel. In this case, it’s all about the volume. Get more volume, and you’ll see more profit.
No matter the reason for your social media channel’s existence, be upfront about it. Don’t pretend to be one thing but secretly be focused on something else. Everything must be in alignment with who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. People can spot when someone is being phony from miles away. If they detect it in you, they’ll stay away from your channel.
Questions to ask yourself about your channel’s purpose:
- What is the overall goal for my social media channel?
- How do I want to help other people?
- What will bring in the best high-quality traffic?
- What does my core audience want from me?
- Is there an optimal way to reach people with my message?
5. Be Vulnerable and Gain Trust
Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.
Seth Godin
Let’s return to the importance of gaining trust in digital marketing. Without people who trust you, you don’t have an audience. Gaining that trust requires you to put yourself out there. Show a side that demonstrates your vulnerability. In much of social media, so many people act like they live the perfect life. As part of your social media marketing strategy, you need to show you’re human.
Much of this trust starts with sharing your own struggles. For instance, Dr. Natalie Underberg has gained attention as the PCOS Doc (polycystic ovarian syndrome). By sharing her story and knowledge of PCOS, she helps women with similar problems find solutions. By showing vulnerability, Dr. Underberg makes it easier for others to trust her.
Vulnerability leads to trust, which leads to more interactions. As the relationship grows, you’ll be able to help people even more.
Tips for showing vulnerability:
- Don’t be afraid to go deeper into the challenges you’ve faced.
- Speak from the heart, even if you have to write it out beforehand.
- If it still feels uncomfortable, don’t hesitate to pull back until you’re ready.
- Don’t have an agenda resting behind your social media posts and videos. People can tell.
- Be open and show emotion. You don’t want to act like a robot.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool that can make or break a business. Everyone should take it seriously, especially when you consider that more than a third of the entire population of the world uses Facebook every month and that more than 72 percent of them also use platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
With the right social media marketing strategy, you can take advantage of social networks, bring increased traffic to your website, and reach people who would otherwise stay hidden. To read about what this looks like in action, check out this case study on the Hype House.
Also, make sure to avoid making serious mistakes. You can read more about marketing concepts that turned into major failures and learn from what others have done wrong.