What is Social Media Marketing & Social Media Tips

 Social Media Tips 

Social media is a huge part of our daily lives, whether we like it or not. A study by Global We Index shows that over half of the global population has social media accounts, and over 70% of the UK population are active social media users.

Social media is tricky to earn, and going viral is next to impossible to predict.

These days, nearly every business is on social media, and it isn’t hard to spot an ad on all social media platforms within a few seconds. According to Statists, impressions of advertisements have gone up 20% each year for several years in a row.

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been spending even more time on social media, which is unsurprising due to the amount of time we’ve been spending indoors. Research from Embarked ER found that Americans spent 7 more minutes a day on social media in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching a total of 82 minutes. Despite this, the click-through rate of advertisements has decreased each year since 2018.

With these statistics in mind, it is clear that social media marketing is a vital digital marketing tactic and one that’ll only continue to grow with possibility as time goes on. In this article, we’ll be discussing the what, how and why of social media marketing so that you can transform your approach to digital marketing and harness the power of social media.

That data shows that the competition for attention on social media is fiercer than ever.

What is Social Media Marketing? 

Social Media Marketing

First of all, let’s discuss what social media marketing is. In our open step by RMIT, it’s described as a collection of applications, platforms and websites in an online community that allows the creation and sharing of content, information and contacts. In more simple terms, it’s the use of social media platforms to drive traffic to your website.

Social media are websites and programmes that help people talk to each other, get involved, share information, and work together. People use social media to stay in touch with their friends, family, and neighbours.

There is a wide range of social media tools that are used within the field, from forums and blogs to social networks and wikis. The primary role of those who work in social media marketing is to organize and run marketing campaigns over social media platforms through publishing content, engaging with followers, and checking social media analytics to analyse success; as well as running social media advertisements.

You can improve your digital skills and learn about social media in our course Digital Skills: Social Media by Accenture. Alternatively, you can check out our fantastic range of social media courses and find something that suits you.

What parts do Social Media Marketing have?

Social media is a computer technology that lets people share ideas, opinions, and information through online networks and communities. People use web-based software or apps on a computer, tablet, or phone to use social media. Social media on the Internet make it easy to quickly and electronically share personal information, documents, movies, and photos. Even though people use social media a lot in the U.S. and Europe, the countries that use it the most are in Asia, like Indonesia.

Recognizing Social Media Marketing

Social media started to keep in touch with friends and family, but businesses soon saw it as a way to reach customers through a popular new way to talk. Social media is powerful because it lets you connect with and share information with anyone on Earth or many people at once.

About 3.8 billion people all over the world use social media. Social media is an area that changes all the time. Almost every year, big social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are joined by new apps like TikTok and Clubhouse. By 2023, about 257 million people in the United States are expected to use social media.

Different ways to use Social Media Marketing

With social media, there are many different ways to use technology. Governments and politicians use social media to talk to voters and people in their area. This includes sharing photos, blogging, social gaming, social networks, sharing videos, business networks, virtual worlds, and more.

People who live far away from their friends and family use social media to stay in touch. Some people use different social media platforms to network for job opportunities, find people worldwide who share their interests, and share their ideas, opinions, insights, and feelings. People who do these things are part of a social network online.

Social networking is the most important thing a business needs. Companies use the platform to find and talk to customers, increase sales through advertising and promotion, keep an eye on consumer trends, and help or care for customers.

Social media is very important when it comes to helping businesses. It makes it easier for customers to connect and lets e-commerce sites add social features. It makes it easier to focus on marketing and market research because it can gather data. It helps sell products and services by making it easier to give discounts and coupons to potential customers at the right time and in the right place. Loyalty programmes that work with social media can also make it easier to build relationships with customers.

Different ways to use social media 

With social media, there are many different ways to use technology. Governments and politicians use social media to talk to voters and people in their area. This includes sharing photos, blogging, social gaming, social networks, sharing videos, business networks, virtual worlds, and more.

People who live far away from their friends and family use social media to stay in touch. Some people use different social media platforms to network for job opportunities, find people worldwide who share their interests, and share their ideas, opinions, insights, and feelings. People who do these things are part of a social network online.

Social networking is the most important thing a business needs. Companies use the platform to find and talk to customers, increase sales through advertising and promotion, keep an eye on consumer trends, and help or care for customers.

Social media is very important when it comes to helping businesses. It makes it easier for customers to connect and lets e-commerce sites add social features. It makes it easier to focus on marketing and market research because it can gather data. It helps sell products and services by making it easier to give discounts and coupons to potential customers at the right time and in the right place. Loyalty programmes that work with social media can also make it easier to build relationships with customers.

The types of social media marketing 

Social media marketing can be a very broad role, given the amount of social media platforms that are out there. Each social media platform works differently and appeals to different kinds of content and different target audiences, so your social media marketing strategy must consider this. Here, we give a rundown of some of the main platforms and how to use them, with some advice taken from RMIT’s social media tips and tricks open step. 

Seeing the popularity and power of Social Media Channels, businesses and marketers look for different types of Social Media networks that they can use to target and convert their audiences.

General people are only aware of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram sorts of social channels.

Social media will help you build up the loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.

Over 88% of companies are now marketing on Social Media.

But for a marketer or any brand, many other types of Social Media channels are there to explore, as they play a significant role in targeting and converting prospects.

Do you wish to become a Full Stack Digital Marketing?

Check out our Certified Digital Marketer Masters Course!

In this post, we shall deep dive into all the different types of Social Media Marketing networks that can optimize your reach and brand awareness on the web.

Different Types of Social Media Networks 

1. Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Such types of Social Media are used to associate with individuals (and brands) on the web. They help your business via branding, social awareness, relationship building, customer service, lead generation, and conversion.

You can channel different types of Social Media campaigns on these networks that will help you widen your reach. Some of the benefits of these Social Marketing Networks are-

Facebook 
Having a Facebook page is one of the best free ways to use social media marketing. With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, it is the most popular social media platform out there, making it a must for any social media marketing strategy.

That’s not the only thing Facebook has to offer, however. As well as being able to create a Facebook business page to help develop a brand identity, companies can also use Facebook advertisements to bring more people to their page, create promoted posts, and use Facebook for a range of other marketing tactics.

People of all ages use Facebook, making it the ideal place to target different audiences. However, the largest demographic of users is between ages 25 and 35. As of 2021, 56% of users are male, making it a pretty even split between men and women.

Instagram 

Another very popular social media network is Instagram, which is another great place to advertise your company. Overload  estimates that 71% of US businesses are currently on Instagram, demonstrating how popular and successful it is as part of a marketing strategy.

Many companies use Instagram as a kind of catalogue of their products, where they share images that fit their brand aesthetic, as well as sharing photos from their customers using their products – this is called ‘user-generated content. Alternatively, companies can use Instagram to raise awareness about their brand, hold competitions that gain more followers, and create sponsored posts. 

Whether you want to create a fun brand narrative on Instagram stories, partner with an influencer to target a particular audience with your products or spread your brand’s message, Instagram has a great range of features and tools that can help you.

LinkedIn

The most professional of all social media platforms, LinkedIn can help businesses build credibility, hire talented employees, and connect with customers.

• They encourage individuals and businesses to interact online and share data and thoughts for ensuring mutually productive relationships.

• In case you are searching for the best ways to optimize current marketing campaigns then you will discover a variety of organic and paid ways to do this on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn sorts of social networks.

2. Media Sharing to Networks: TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube 

Media sharing types of Social Media are used to find and share photographs, live videos, videos and other kinds of media on the web.

They are also going to help you in brand building, lead generation, targeting and so on. They give individuals and brands a place to discover and share media so the target audiences can be targeted and converted in the most convincing and result-driven way possible.

TikTok: 

The fastest-growing social media platform ever, and proving extremely popular with Gen-Z audiences, TikTok can be used to gain followers through tactics such as influencer marketing and posting short educational videos. 

Snapchat: 

Also appealing to younger audiences, Snapchat can be a good way to spread brand awareness, for example, by posting real customer stories or videos about business operations.

Pinterest:  

Pinterest has nearly 500 million users and favours image content similar to Instagram. Customers frequently buy directly from Pinterest, so it’s a good place to advertise products.

YouTube

You might be surprised to learn that YouTube has more active monthly users than Instagram, making it a fantastic place to gain supporters. Although Instagram is a much better place to advertise your brand using images and short-form content, YouTube could be a great option if you’re creating longer videos.

Other than making videos on a Youtube channel, companies can pay to advertise through YouTube and use influencer marketing strategies. It’s very common for influencers to create sponsored videos where they use or talk about a certain brand in their videos, so this can be a great opportunity to target a specific demographic. 

YouTube advertising is managed through Google. To create a campaign for YouTube, you will need to set up a Google AdWords account.

Social networks nowadays also offer these features, however, for Media Sharing Networks, sharing of media is their basic role.

• Starting with an image or video on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat types of media sharing networks would be more videos official for you.

• To decide whether you should use these networks for your business or not, you should consider your resources and target audiences. These channels will help you run well-planned campaigns to generate leads and widen your audience base.

3. Discussion Forums: Reddit, Quora, Digg 

Such types of Social Media channels are used for finding, sharing and discussing different kinds of information, opinions, and news.

They help businesses by being top-notch resources for doing immaculate market research. These forums are the oldest ways of running Social Media Marketing campaigns.

Before the entry of popular Social Media players like Facebook, these forums were the places where professionals, experts and enthusiasts used to do different kinds of discussions concerning a variety of fields.

• These discussion forums have a massive number of users and it ensures unprecedented reach for your business. These are the places that provide the answers to different queries of any domain.

• In case your business needs deep customer research then these places would the most befitting ones for your business.

• Along with sharing information and knowing answers, these places are very impactful in advertising as well.

4. Bookmarking & Content Curation Networks: Pinterest, Flipboard 

Opting for such types of Social Media will help you find out, share, discuss and save a variety of the latest content and media that are trending as well.

They are very helpful in channelizing brand awareness for your business, plus, choosing this one to run different types of Social Media Marketing campaigns will help you generate website traffic and customer engagement.

In case you want to run some out-of-the-box highly creative campaigns that can not only inform your audience but also attract them then this one is the best fit.

• To run a Social Media campaign on Pinterest, you need to have a site that is bookmark-friendly. You should optimize headlines and images for the feeds that Bookmarking and Content Curation Networks use for accessing and sharing your content.

• Flipboard lets you create your own Flipboard magazine by using the most engaging content and then you can showcase that to your audiences.

5. Consumer Review Networks: Yelp, Zomato, TripAdvisor 

Using Customer Review networks will help you find out, share and review different information about a variety of products, services or brands.

When a business has positive reviews on these networks, their claims turn more credible because reviews on these networks act as Social Proof.

For running successful Social Media Marketing Campaigns, today’s businesses need to have positive reviews on these sites.

In addition, resolving all the issues that your customers are posting on these Review platforms is another thing that is going to be very important for the positive and productive outcomes for your business.

• These networks offer a place to users for reviewing different kinds of products and services that they have used.
• Review content adds great value to any brand because it will influence more and the number of new buyers to attempt your service
• Yelp and Zomato are the types of social media platforms that offer location-based review services that will help you run location-based social campaigns.

6. Blogging & Publishing Networks: WordPress, Tumblr, Medium 

You should choose these types of Social Media networks for publishing, discovering and commenting on articles, social media blogs and other content on the web.

Content marketing is one of the most powerful ways to target, attract, engage and convert a target audience. It is going to be the base of successful online marketing campaigns that play the most important role in conversion funnels of Digital Marketing campaigns.

WordPress and Blogger are the traditional blogging platforms while Tumblr (a micro-blogging service) and Medium (a Social Publishing Platform) are the latest blogging and publishing networks.

• These networks are e must for businesses that want to effectively use Content Marketing, plus, you can share this content on a variety of Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

• Content that you use on these networks will also help you create a niche for your business and audiences who are in search of information concerning that niche will for sure visit your blog or site.

7. Social Shopping Networks: Polyvore, Etsy, Fancy 

Want to find out all the latest trends in marketing or crave to-know shopping tips then such types of Social Media channels are for you.

In addition, they help you follow different brands, share interesting things and make a purchase on these Social Shopping networks.

Businesses can use such types of Social Media Platforms for creating brand awareness, boosting engagement and selling products on some new and effective platforms. These channels transform e-commerce by making them more engaging via some interesting social elements.

• To use these networks effectively you should create a site that integrates the shopping experience with the social experience.
• These networks are very result-driven for small businesses and startups as they can sell their products without any land-based office or store.

Social Media Marketing tips for every platform 

Both new and well-established brands are using social media to grow their following, generate leads and increase sales. Building a brand using social media might feel like a massive undertaking with all of the platforms available to you. But it’s easier than ever to use social media to connect with people and grow your brand organically.

Whether you’re just getting started or have been active on video media platforms for years, there’s always room for improvement. Each platform has different uses.

In this article, we’ll cover social media tips and tricks you can apply that will optimize your marketing strategy. Then we’ll break down the top social media platforms you should be using and give suggestions for making the most out of each one.

Social media tips for any platform

• Social media tips for Facebook
• Social media tips for Twitter
• Social media tips for Instagram
• Social media tips for LinkedIn
• Social media tips for any platform

Create a specific strategy for each social media platform 

In the same way, you prepare other aspects of your marketing plan, you need to have a specific and intentional plan for each platform you use. Each platform has nuances and best practices for generating engagement. Your brand may not need to have a presence on every platform, but for your posts to be targeted, you need to have a strategy that is specific to the platform you’re using.

Be consistent 

How consistently you post should be specific to each social media site you’re utilizing. Some platforms like Twitter and Instagram Stories require you to be active multiple times per day to get the maximum potential from your audience. Other post types, like regular Instagram Posts and Facebook updates, don’t have as much urgency and can be used less sparingly. When determining your post strategy, look at factors such as how the algorithm works for each platform and whether content posts chronologically or is curated based on other factors.

This ties back in with your social media marketing plan. You should outline:

• How often do you plan to publish on each social media platform based on best practices for that platform
• What type of content do you plan to post on each platform
• Who is your target audience on each platform

Remember, your followers are likely following hundreds or even thousands of other people. If you’re not publishing new content as often as the other accounts out there, it’s easy to get lost and forgotten.

Focus your messaging 

Each platform you use will have its own unique demographic. There will be an overlap of the people you’re targeting on each platform, but it’s still essential to understand your demographics so you can tailor your message to have the most impact.

Having a focused message will help you create higher-quality content that is on brand and resonates with your audience. When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can count on your social media posts to always be relevant to your audience.

Sprout Social has a great social media targeting feature that gives you flexibility on who sees your social media posts. Depending on the network, you can target your posts by location, language, demographics and other criteria.

Let’s say you want to share a post on LinkedIn targeting the finance industry. Your followers who are in IT or the health industry might not find it relevant. Instead of filling their stream with irrelevant content, you can choose to only show that post to people within your network in the finance industry.

You can try out Sprout’s audience targeting feature with a free trial.

Keep an eye on what’s trending 

Once you have your key messaging determined, keep an eye on popular trends emerging on each platform. If you notice a pattern or strategy rising in popularity and it aligns with your messaging, then it’s a great idea to capitalize on it to drive engagement.

Be wary of jumping on board every new internet trend you see. Creating posts that don’t align with your overall messaging to appear relevant is a quick way to alienate your target audience. You never need to create a particular type of content just because you see other brands doing it.

This is why it’s so essential to create a focused message that you can use as a baseline against which to measure all of your future social media posts.

One way to have a steady supply of popular content is to create a list of sites in your industry that publish high-quality, current content. Add them to an RSS reader like Feedly. Then you’ll have a dashboard full of the latest posts from sites you trust. You’ll also know that you have relevant content you can confidently share with your followers. You can even integrate Feedly within the Sprout Social dashboard!

Use that content as inspiration for original posts you create for your brand that features a unique twist that the other brands in your niche aren’t doing.

Social Media Marketing Tips to Skyrocket Your Traffic 

Stay tuned with us as we break down each of these social media tips for you!

If you already think this is not worth the hassle, look at these social media statistics.

Did you know that using social media is the number one daily activity among Americans? A US user spends 38 minutes or more on Facebook daily. No wonder 92% of marketers consider it significant to use social media platforms for their businesses.

Social media networks keep growing year after year. So, developing an effective social media marketing strategy is vital. Otherwise, you will lose out on valuable customers and rewarding outcomes.

Let’s begin with the ultimate 15 social media marketing tips for businesses to boost your branding and make your life easier.

1. Define Your Goals 

Well, what will you aim at if you have no target? You need to know the 5 Whys behind your actions. Your goal will be the driving force of your social media marketing strategy.

So without delaying anymore, grab a piece of paper, and pen down your goals!

But before we jump ahead, here are a few things you must keep in mind while setting goals:

• Be specific
• Set attainable goals
• Make sure that your goals are measurable 

2. Learn About Your Target Audience 

Now that you have your goal in mind let’s look at the audience. Without the support of your audience, your strategy will be in vain.

Drawing your social media strategy around your audience is a must. Your target audience will help you figure out everything, right from the social media platforms you need to be on to every ounce of content you’ll ever create.

Still, wondering why your audience should have all the spotlight?

Here’s the reason.

If you want to create messages that resonate with your audience, you need to know what they care about the most.

It is essential to define their questions, concerns, and problems. For most businesses, one of the biggest challenges is to connect with the right audience. To find your ideal audience, you need to figure out your target demographic and what social networks they use.

3. Select Your Social Media Platforms 

It is not necessary to be available on all social media platforms, but what matters is to create an impact on a few that you are present on. It is probably one of the best tips for social media marketing.

Suppose your brand’s Instagram marketing strategy works the best. Then focus all your efforts on it instead of half-heartedly trying to establish your reach on other platforms equally. It is better to ace one platform than try to be the jack of them all.

It is not the quantity that matters; it’s the quality that counts! Putting out substandard content will only make things worse for you. Instead, research and plan your social media presence to align with your goals and appeal to your target audience.

Focus on the platforms that are preferred by your targeted demographic. This principle holds especially true when making social media marketing strategies for small businesses, as they can’t go around throwing resources on unfruitful activities.

4. Build a Winning Game Plan for Social Media Marketing 

Several research reports suggest that marketers who document their strategy are 538% more likely to succeed, which calls for some real-time action!

After all, penning down a social media marketing strategy is the key to turning your vision into reality.

While you prepare your strategy, consider the relevant social media platforms you’ll be posting on. Make sure your posts appeal to your target audience and align with your goals.

Here are a few things to help you out with your social media strategy:

Make a list of upcoming festivals and special days

• Create a content theme to provide your audience with a unified experience
• Prepare a list of hashtags for different platforms
• Make sure it covers your primary events, features, and campaigns
• Use social media marketing tools to schedule your posts and manage multiple accounts

5. Set Up a Social Media Content Calendar 

There is a saying – failing to plan is planning to fail.

This is especially true when it comes to content.

So matter what you do, have a solid social media content marketing plan in place! So, use social media content calendar tools to organize and publish all your content timely and efficient.

Content calendars also help distribute resources effectively, improve team collaboration and give a more in-depth understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

You’ll find ample templates online to prepare your calendar. You can use SocialPilot’s calendar or any other social media scheduling tools to plan your content calendar.

The best thing about it is that it enables you to put up images, set timings for your posts for multiple social media, and much more from a single dashboard.

Just create and update the publishing calendar once a week, set workflows, and accommodate last-minute changes at one go with SocialPilot.

6. Use the Art of Storytelling 

It’s the stories that sell, not the product! We, humans, connect to stories. It is the emotional attachment that a brand builds with its audience. Stories inspire ideas and encourage interaction.

Here’s a perfect example of Airbnb that will make you go all emotional. A super cool animation that is executed perfectly. Check out how they convey their message.

But this is not the only way to tell a story. There are simpler ways too, to move your audience. Share successive posts to build excitement and relate the whole story from the beginning to the end.

Here’s an example of a Nike tweet thread to hook their audience right.

7. Humanize Your Brand 

As much as all the digital innovations have made it easier to communicate, it is the emotion that we miss out on.

By the term ‘humanize your brand,’ we mean to go beyond the glass tops of these digital screens. Show your audience what goes in your office, introduce them to your employees, and show the people behind your brand.

Remember that brand stories are no ads or sales pitches. They help the audience connect to your brand. Your stories tell them what you stand for, and they display your culture as well as your values.

For instance, share your plans for Friday and the fun team-building activities. Let employees take over your social media for once and connect with the audience.

Take a look at how SE Ranking does it on their Facebook page.

8. Use Emotions 

Well, there is a reason there are emoticons. Emojis serve the purpose of conveying emotion by depicting facial expressions.

Apt use of emotions is extremely important to convey the desired tone and emotion behind the message. The glitch with written texts is that, if not formatted correctly, they can be easily misinterpreted. Here’s a small example.

You are an idiot! 😆

You are an idiot! 😡

The above phrases consist of the same words but with different emojis and convey separate messages.

It is the emoticons that get the readers more excited about your content. So, next time you write, feel free to play around and include these.

9. Let the Tools Empower Your Strategy 

Social media tools are going to be your savior. Imagine being on 8 different platforms and posting manually on each of them 3 times a day.

Damn, what a nightmare! All you’ll possibly do is publish hastily without any real productivity

Instead, how about we leave the monotonous work for the tools? Yup! That is possible.

Try to automate as much of the activity as possible. For example, schedule your social media updates ahead of time.

Use social media scheduling tools like SocialPilot to auto-post your updates to all your social accounts, then evaluate the results with their analytics.

So, the whole point of using tools is to plan ahead of time. Plan, create, and schedule posts on your content calendar. Scheduling tools have an inbuilt content calendar that makes it easier to keep an eye on your posts.

Schedule your pins, tweets, posts, hashtags, and social media mentions all in one go for the month. Such an approach will save you time, helping you be more productive and focused on the overall strategy.

10. Embrace Your Mistakes 

We are all humans, and we make mistakes. This is especially important to accept in the fast-growing world of social media. Instead of being ignorant of your mistakes, accept and apologize for the same. Work on them and tell your customers about them. They’ll love to hear that you worked on your mistakes to provide them with better services.

Don’t delete the post if you’ve made a grammar mistake or missed a comma. Probably, people liked your post, and they will notice your continuous re-posting.

Concerned about bigger mistakes?

For example, a product error or accidentally charging a customer’s credit card twice. Immediately respond in such scenarios. Publish a post from your social media accounts telling how you handled the error.

For instance, Pamela Vaughan from HubSpot regulated her baby bump error. Instead of her personal Twitter account, she accidentally published a picture of her growing pregnant belly on HubSpot’s Twitter account, which had over 340,000 followers.

She didn’t get bogged down and created an excellent blog post about her 15 minutes of shame on Twitter that got a lot of shares and comments.

11. Optimize Your Frequency 

Every audience uses various social networks at different times of the day. To connect with them, you need to know what type of content interests them, who is the potential purchaser of your services or products, and what age group is more accessible to sell to.

But this is followed by another set of questions:

How often should you post per day?

What type of content should you post?

What is the ideal number of posts per day?

These are some of the most common questions that any social media marketer is expected to answer.

Honestly, there is no ideal answer. Your answers come with your analysis, experience, and tests of what works for you and what doesn’t.

Start with finding out the right time to post. Your social media marketing strategy needs to work in your favor. It is important to publish high-quality content and find the ideal posting frequency for integrating a successful marketing strategy.

We found many studies, and each one showed a different social media timing with the recommended number of posts for each network. Here’s the average timing and frequency.

12. Cut Back on the Number of Hashtags 

Hashtags are great if you want to organize your social media posts. You can click on a specific hashtag, and all the content for a certain topic becomes visible. Hashtags are identifiers of your brand that help you initiate conversations and engage with your followers.

But you know what?

The more hashtags you use, the less engagement you get. The following chart from LINCHPIN SEO gathers the acquired data.

Too many hashtags can annoy people and can scale back your engagement rate. To avoid that, use 2 or 3 targeted hashtags per post on your social media channels and use only relevant, high-volume hashtags you can find using hashtag generator tools.

13. Treat Each Social Channel Uniquely 

Many people believe that social media is a useful distribution tool and use the same message on each channel.

But it is not right. If you want to succeed in social media, you should treat each social media platform uniquely and consider its functionalities and features. There are multiple social media tools for agencies that not only help you by scheduling your posts but also let you customize your post for the individual platform.

Gary Vaynerchuk gives single-eyed explanations for his most used social channel differently. Facebook is a great communication tool for his entire community to promote books, web-shows and ask many questions. Twitter is perfect for real-time news and offers one-on-one interactions.

If you follow his Instagram marketing strategy, it involves sharing a bunch of real and impressive images about his travels and daily life. This platform is a great place to share high-quality visuals.

When it comes to LinkedIn, includes a more business-oriented audience that is searching for insightful and informative content.

If you want to grow a loyal fanbase, use a creative strategy for each social channel. Take into consideration your follower demographics and share content that appeals most to them.

14. Share Quality Visual Content 

Do you leverage visual content while sharing blog posts on your social media platforms? We guess, yes. Visual content is a must to boost your social media engagement.

The Wyzowl study showed that we remember only 20% of what we read and 80% of what we see. The research from Software Advice and Adobe revealed that photos and images are the most powerful social media strategy.

People are more likely to share visual content on social networks. They find visuals attractive as they offer more value and assist in generating more traffic, increasing sales, and taking you to the top. Using visuals should be the main ingredient of your social media marketing strategy. Such visuals can even come in the form of interactive documents – you can post a PDF flipbook on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter to engage your readers.

15. Dive Deep into Social Media Analytics 

Analytics help you understand your audience and learn what generates more traffic. Without these, you can’t make accurate sales forecasts and perfect your products. You can effectively use social media data to drive performance.

Reviewing analytics emphasizes stats like follower growth, page views, number of posts, likes, shares, impressions, clicks, etc.

Social media analytics and reporting by SocialPilot help you keep track of your social media analytics. Use your results and organize monthly meetings with your marketing team to discuss the analytics, reevaluate your strategy, if needed, and make plans for the future.

Its report exporting feature is a great help in sharing the results of your social efforts with team members and clients. Especially, the scheduled report function allows you to share reports automatically via emails on your chosen weekday or the 1st of every month.

These social media marketing tips surely will help all businesses in boosting their brand in the public eye. But social media is not a tool just for bigger enterprises. 71% of small to mid-sized companies use the aid of social media to make a name for themselves.

And they need to pay a little more attention to their social media activities. So here are some bonus tips for them.

Points to remember for Social media marketing for a small business

• Increase your brand awareness in the eye of your target audience
• Understand the moves and strategies of your competitor brands
• Interact and build long-term relationships with your valuable customers
• Participate in current trends to appear of more feeds
• Use the free-of-cost platforms provided by social media to sell your products

Benefits of Advertising on Social Media

Why advertise on social media?

Advertising on social media offers several major benefits. It boosts brand awareness, increases traffic, and offers insight into your current and potential customers.

Marketing is cost-effective.

Creating a social media account and many content marketing efforts are entirely free. Paid options like ads are lower-cost than traditional advertising methods.

The cost per thousand (CPM), or the cost per 1,000 advertising impressions for social media, is just $2.50, compared to $16 for a newspaper or $28 for television. 

Determining how much you should spend on your social media marketing efforts depends on several factors, including how large your business is.

According to Gartner, companies spend 11.3% of their revenue on marketing efforts. Of this marketing budget, it’s estimated that businesses will spend 24.5% exclusively on social media.

How To Advertise Your Business on Social Media? 

1. Set business goals

2. Gather data

3. Figure out how your audience spends their time online

4. Optimize your profile

5. Create engaging content

6. Understand your advertising options

7. Encourage interaction 

1. Set Business Goals 

You need to understand what you want out of your social media strategy before it can be effective.

When you create an ad campaign on a social media platform, you’ll often need to choose your advertising objective. Those can be divided into three main categories with subcategories:

• Awareness
• Reach
• Consideration
• Drive traffic
• Engagement
• Lead generation
• Downloads
• Clicks
• Conversion rates
• Make a purchase 

Another important aspect of setting goals is determining a timeline for them. That’s where a social media calendar comes in.

Posting new content regularly keeps your audience engaged and improves your organic reach. Determine a posting schedule, and stick to it.

A useful social media advertising tip is to use a social media automation tool like SocialPilot to schedule your posts ahead of time.

2. Gather Data 

Today’s social media trends rely on being relatable. To understand what your audience relates to, you’ll need to gather data. Social media should feel authentic but have concrete research.

Where can you gather data about your audience?

You can start with information from your website via Google Analytics. Take notice of when your audience is most active, the posts they engage with, and their demographics.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram’s integrated tools can also be a valuable sources of data. You will need a business account to gain access to raw information about your engagement.

One social media advertising tip for gathering data is to use a social media analytics tool like Hootsuite. These tools can simplify managing your social media account by monitoring your brand’s engagement, clicks, and reach.

3. Figure Out How Your Audience Spends Their Time Online 

It can be overwhelming to think about optimizing your business profile on every single social media channel.

Here’s the good news:

You don’t have to.

The best social media advertising tip is to focus on where most of your audience spends their time online.

Consider the kind of content that best serves your audience’s interests and your business. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest work well for visual content. Facebook and LinkedIn are better for longer information, and YouTube is ideal for videos.

Marketers should target different platforms based on audience demographics and age.

Be sure to take a look at the Pew Research Center’s 2021 demographics data of social media users.

4. Optimize Your Profile 

One of the simplest ways to kickstart your social media presence is to fill out your profile completely.

A quick social media advertising tip for your profile is to create a business hashtag and include it in your bio so customers can find content relevant to your brand. You should also:

• Fill out all your information.
• Follow relevant accounts.
• Understand which hashtags are relevant to your business and which aren’t.
• Upload eye-catching and branded profile images.
• Send traffic from your website and newsletter to your social media posts.

5. Create Engaging Content 

Social media can sometimes feel like a science, which is why it’s essential to remember that creating high-quality content is more important than obsessing over the exact time to post.

According to GoodFirms, 87.4% of people prefer to see photos on social media.

In addition to highly relevant, funny, and visual content, social media is perfect for interactive content.

6. Encourage Interaction 

Building relationships with your audience is a major benefit of social media. Interaction on your content is also a positive sign to social media algorithms, which can help your posts get discovered organically.

To gain followers and increase your engagement, try an interactive post like a giveaway, a contest, or a poll. Don’t underestimate the power of the age-old social media advertising tip of ending your post with a question. This call to action (CTA) subtly prompts users to comment and boosts engagement.

Interaction is a powerful aspect of social media because it empowers you to learn more about your audience’s likes and helps you improve as a business.

Don’t forget to share followers’ content, especially when they mention or use your brand. That increases engagement and makes your brand more relatable.

7. Understand Your Advertising Options 

Once you have a solid understanding of what works organically on your social media, it may make sense to dive into paid advertising options. Let’s take a look at several social networks:

Facebook

Facebook Ads offers highly targeted advertising options, as it tracks 86% of audience data. Many businesses already have a Facebook page, so users are familiar with interacting with brands there.

Facebook advertising offers several types of ad formats. These include photos, videos, and carousels that appear in a Facebook user’s news feed. Messenger ads appear in a user’s messages app, and story ads appear alongside their friends’ stories.

interests. Facebook pioneered a method called lookalike audiences, which lets you target ads based on a known audience.

Twitter

To advertise on Twitter, choose or create a tweet that you’d like the platform to show to people who aren’t following you. You can select an audience to target based on demographics, behavior, devices, device, or who they follow.

For a more hands-off option, Twitter Promote will advertise your tweets for a monthly fee.

Instagram

Similar to Facebook, Instagram also offers highly targeted advertising, along with similar ad formats.

You can advertise photo posts, videos, carousels, and Instagram stories. Instagram also offers IGTV advertisements.

TikTok

Due to TikTok’s younger target audience, this platform is ideal for businesses with a target demographic of 24 and under.

TikTok’s ad offerings include video ads, branded hashtags, and brand filters.

TikTok also offers automated creative optimization, which tests combinations of your images, video, and copies to find the most effective ads for you. That type of A/B testing on a large scale can be very effective for your social media marketing strategy.

Another common form of social media ad is working with influencers, which involves paying a user to post about your product or service. Influencer marketing is becoming more popular, and the market size is expected to grow to $13.8 billion in 2021.

Conclusion 

Social media marketing is one of the most essential tools in any marketing strategy and is at the forefront of any digital marketing campaign. With such a high number of people on social media at any one time, knowing how to structure a social media marketing campaign has never been more important. 

So if you’re looking for a greater audience eaches with a much higher possibility of conversions, then a social media marketing campaign is one of the best ways you can do this.

Social media is constantly changing. We’re seeing new updates and trends emerging every year, causing marketers to have to shift their strategies to keep up. Whether you have a huge social media following or are just getting started, use these tips to craft your social media marketing strategy. They can help put you ahead of your competitors and grow your audience in a way that adds value to them and your industry as a whole. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

What’s a social media strategy?

Social media strategy is detailed planning of all social media activities to increase the follower and lead count. These activities include content curation, visuals, scheduling, gauging analytics, running ad campaigns, engaging with audience and followers, tagging, replying, and more.

How to create a social media marketing strategy?

There are a few things you will need to consider before you start working on your social media marketing strategy. IDM provided some tips on their open step about creating a campaign strategy, and many of these are relevant to creating an overall strategy. These tips include:

• Consider business goals. What are the main goals of your business and how will your social media strategy help you reach those goals?
• Think about campaign objectives. What are your specific objectives for your next campaigns? Are you trying to sell something, create a community, and build awareness? Learn how to Create a Social Media Marketing Campaign in our course at the University of Leeds.
• Define social media objectives. Do you have specific social media goals you want to reach, like a certain amount of followers or a specific engagement rate?
• Decide on a target audience. Who is your target audience on social media and for your next campaign? Think about their age, gender, location, interests, attitudes, and what kind of content they generally engage with.
• Pick your channels. Which social media channels do you want to focus on, and does each one need a different strategy? Do you want to use any social media platforms for a temporary campaign, or do you want to build long-lasting communities?

For more information about how to create a successful social media marketing strategy, you can try our How to Create a Social Media Strategy ExpertTrack by IDM, where you will learn the basics of social media strategy, how to develop content, and how to run social media campaigns.

   Engaging your social media followers 

In our how to get started in social media an open step by RMIT, they explain that it’s important to think about how your content will inspire, incentivise or motivate your followers to become customers, where they buy your products or services. They suggest that there are three main things to think about when it comes to engaging followers:

• Self-exYour followers need to be to interact with you and your content and express themselves through commenting, sharing, and features like polls.
• Personalisation. Your target audience should understand how your brand interacts with their lives, and it should be simple to do things like embed video content into their site.
• Community. Your followers need to be able to have conversations with each other and share information with their friends. You can encourage this kind of community by posting content that gives them opportunities to connect.

What is a social media marketing strategy? 

It’s one thing to create a few social media accounts, but if you want to take your business to the next level, you need a social media marketing strategy. This will be your master plan for your social media content, including your content guidelines, what kind of content to post, marketing campaigns, and how to engage with your audience.