Social media marketing is a marketing method that uses the power of social networks to reach an audience. Through platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, your business can stand in front of your ideal customer or client to boost brand awareness, share useful information, generate leads, and more. With 49% of the global population using social media – a number that’s only expected to increase – it’s never been more critical for a business to be active on social platforms.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Business
Social media can be a necessary bridge between a brand and its customers. It’s one of the easiest ways for people to learn more about what your business offers, decide if your brand is for them, and contact you. Social media marketing can do all of the following for your business:
Build Relationships
Social platforms are where many customers go to socialize with the brands they love. Whether they comment on a post or share your content with their followers, they’re doing it because they feel connected to your business and content. Your business can use social media to interact with your customers in ways you can’t elsewhere. You can even use social media as additional platforms for customers to contact you with questions or concerns.
Improve Brand Awareness
Through your social media posts, you get to let the world know what your brand is about. Share videos, create thoughtful posts, and share content from others in your industry. Give sneak peeks into your brand’s behind-the-scenes life and offer your audience brand stories to help people connect with your business on a deeper level.
Inform
Your social media content can let people know what products and services you offer and how they can make the most of them. You can share tutorials, provide step-by-step guides, post informational videos, and let people know when a new product is dropping. Social media posts are also perfect for sharing industry news and authoritative content that helps you position your business as a go-to in your niche.
Market
Of course, social media marketing allows you to market your business! What’s unique about social media marketing compared to other forms of marketing is the incredible reach potential it has. One paid advertisement on social media can become viral as more of your followers and non-followers engage with it through comments, likes, and shares.
Creating a Successful Marketing Strategy with Social Media
These high-level tips can get you started with using social media to your advantage
Focus on Specific Platforms
Not all platforms are going to include your target audience. Too many businesses make the mistake of thinking they need to be present everywhere. But doing so makes it nearly impossible to focus your efforts on the few places you should be.
For example, Facebook can be a difficult platform to compete on because so many businesses are already there. Your pictures, video, and copy could get lost in the mix. You might find that positioning your home improvement brand on Instagram draws a bigger audience because people are attracted to your eye-catching photos.
Start with two or three platforms to focus your energy on. You can always expand later once those platforms take off.
Target Your Ideal Customer
Now that you know where your customers are hanging out, you need to learn to target them on each platform. Twitter and Instagram rely heavily on hashtags, but keywords direct a lot of traffic on Pinterest and YouTube.
More important than hashtag and keyword targeting is understanding your buyers’ personalities. Dive into the mind of someone who would look for your product, service, or type of brand on social media. What would they want to see or read? What information are they looking for, and how will they use social media to learn more? Develop your content strategy around your research.
Automate the Process
Social media tools are everywhere nowadays to help casual users and professionals manage their accounts. You can save time by using scheduling tools that keep your social media profiles topped with new information throughout the day.
Placing social media share buttons on your website can also automate some of your social media posting by encouraging others to share your content from your site. You’ll get free shares as visitors discover and digest your content!
Analyze and Tweak
Social media algorithms change often, so staying on top of your analytics is crucial to ensuring that your social media marketing strategy is successful. Most platforms have analytics tools for businesses to track their impressions, engagements, reach, views, and other metrics.
Pay close attention to engagement – likes, comments, and shares – to determine how well your content resonates with your audience. Thousands of views but little engagement is an indicator that your current content is underperforming.
Check out these social media statistics to learn more about each social channel, social media user behaviors, and social engagement to hone in on a strategy that works for your business.
One of the best ways to streamline your social media marketing efforts is by installing social media share buttons and social media follow buttons on your website, making it easy for your visitors to share your content or follow your social media profiles. For instance, the TikTok follow button links to your TikTok account so your website visitors can subscribe in seconds – and you can start building your audience, effortlessly!
