Social media can be an extremely powerful and effective marketing tool. But “likes” and shares are meaningless if they aren’t leading to conversions. Effective social media marketing will mean greater profits for your business but in order to achieve that, your social media strategy needs to be integrated into your broader marketing efforts. Social media on its own can only do so much. Here are some tips.

Social media and content marketing

Social media should be an extension of your content marketing efforts. If you have a company blog and/or a Youtube channel, or any other platforms you’re using to publish or upload content, your social media platforms should be a way to extend the reach of that content. Videos uploaded to Youtube should be shared on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Posting an excerpt from your latest blog post along with a link to the full article is a great way to leverage your social media presence to get more blog followers. You can also use your content marketing to get more social media followers by including social media links in your blog posts so that people can share your blog articles with their family and friends.

Social media and email

A weekly newsletter for loyal customers is a great way to keep them up to date on new products or services or special offers. You can use social media to get more email subscribers by making the occasional post about your email campaign. You can also use your email campaign to gain more social media followers by including social media links in every email you send.

Social media and SMS

Similar to integrating email and social media is integrating SMS (text messaging) with social media. If you have SMS subscribers who aren’t already following you on social media, you need to fix that by sending out links to social media profiles via text. Your SMS subscribers are already big fans of your brand so connect with them on social media and they’ll reward you by engaging with your content there and expanding your reach. You can also use social media to encourage followers there to subscribe to your SMS list to get exclusive offers and peeks at upcoming products before anyone else.

Social media and your website

Your website should be directing visitors to your social media pages and vice versa. Great landing pages on your website are essential for converting social media followers into customers. When you include a link to your website from your social media pages, make sure that the landing page is as interesting as the content that got them to click on the link in the first place. A great way to do this is with a teaser that requires them to head over to your website to get the rest of the information they’re craving.

Consistency across channels

Whatever channels you’re trying to bridge together with social media, their needs to be consistency. Consistency can come in the form of color scheme and company logos but it should also come in the form of consistency in the message. Even though different channels will require different features and strategies, the overarching message behind the content needs to be uniform.