Social Media Marketing - A Complete Guide.

Statista estimates that in 2020, more than 3.6 billion people used social media worldwide. This number is expected to rise to 4.41 billion by 2025, according to Statista. Social media marketing is crucial for any business that sells products or services locally, nationally, and internationally.

Social media, unlike traditional media like radio and television, does not provide a single solution. Instead, it works in accordance with the goal. There are so many social media marketing techniques that you can use. All those techniques will allow you to create a strong impression and drive value for your audience.

The power of social media marketing for businesses is unimaginable. But often, businesses struggle to utilize their full potential to their benefit. Here’s a complete guide to social media marketing that you can use to create your strong brand and drive online growth.

Social Media Marketing and Content.

Social media marketing involves creating content that will boost your business’s visibility on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. To increase brand awareness and conversions, the content should be tailored to each platform.

Social media marketing is about satisfying your customers and target audience wherever they may be, as long as they communicate with you and your brand.

Social media marketing in its entirety is important and beneficial to company growth. However, the strategy you use will depend on which social networks you would utilize.

Before we go further into social media marketing, let’s split the strategy platform-wise.

1. Facebook

According to Statista, Facebook has 1.9 billion daily active users globally. Its audience basically comprises millennials and generation X. Facebook is used for creating brand awareness and advertising. It is predominantly a B2C (Business To Customer) social media marketing platform.

2. Instagram

Instagram has about 1 billion daily active users worldwide as stated by Statista. Its audience is primarily millennials and is used for creating content, advertising, and brand awareness. Like Facebook, it is also a B2C social media marketing platform.

3. LinkedIn

According to Foundation (a content marketing agency), LinkedIn has over 722 million users with 675 active monthly users. Its audience consists of baby boomers, millennials, and generation X. This social media platform is used for business development, employment marketing, and much more. It is a B2B ( Business to Business) social media marketing platform.

4. YouTube

According to Statista, as of 2020, there are about 201 billion YouTube users worldwide. Its audience mainly consists of millennials followed by generation Z. It is used for brand awareness as well as for entertainment purposes. It is also a B2C social media marketing platform.

5. Snapchat

According to data compiled by Statista, Snapchat has around 249 million daily active users globally used primarily by generation Z. Snapchat is used for brand awareness and advertising and is also a B2C social media marketing platform.

Now that we’ve listed the fundamentals of some social media platforms, let’s discuss why social media marketing is useful for your company.

Benefits Of Social Media Marketing

There are many reasons why your business should use social media marketing. We have made a list of some beneficial reasons to consider.

Let’s jump in.

1. Boost Brand Awareness

In 2020, there were around 3.6 billion people on social media globally. Due to a large number of people on social media, you can see why sharing content related to your products as well as details about your firm on any social media platform can help you promote brand awareness.

In fact, social media has proven to increase brand awareness by driving up engagement. Social engagement includes things like comments, likes, shares, and retweets. Social media can help you boost brand awareness by directing traffic straight to your website. You can do this by posting direct links to your website in your profile, bio, tweets, and posts.

2. Lead Generation and Boost Conversions

Advertising and sharing your goods on social media is an easy way to increase lead generation, boost conversions, and improve sales because you’re promoting to people who have opted to engage with you by following your profile.

Following are some examples of ways you can use social media to create more leads.

Organize contests for your audience to join in on your social media profiles.
Include links to your website and offers in the posts, tweets, and bio sections of your social media profiles.
Host live videos to make announcements about your products and give updates about exciting news at your firm.
Execute a social media marketing campaign on one of your social media channels.
Sell your goods through your social media profiles.

3. Encourage Relationships With Customers

By engaging with your social media audience, you’ll be able to build long-lasting relationships between them and your company. You can do this by interacting with them on your posts, responding to their queries and comments, and providing them with any assistance they may need.

You can also ask your audience questions about your products, or create giveaways to help you develop trust and show them how much you esteem their feedback and support.

4. Learn From Competitors

Social media is a great means to keep a check on your competitors — whether that’s about their social media tactics, the products they’re advertising, the campaigns they’re executing, or their level of communication with their audience.

Social media empowers you to get a look at what is and isn’t working for your opponent, and therefore helps you decide what to do and what not to do in terms of your company’s approach. Lastly, analyzing the social accounts of your competitors can help you make sure your marketing stands out and is unique to your brand.

Now let’s talk about strategy — How to create a social media marketing strategy?

Creating a Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are several steps or stages to make a meaningful and compelling social media campaign. It is a pretty simple cycle. However, you need to do a lot of research and ensure that your method suits your business and objectives.

Following are the steps you need to create a successful social media marketing campaign:

1. Research Your Audience

The first step to creating a social media marketing strategy is to determine your target market and customers. So you can focus on your content according to their interests and needs. To execute this, think about the people you’re trying to target and the way you would characterize them as a group.

By considering your audience, you’ll be able to determine what type of content will attract the followers and customers you hope to gain and how you can create engaging content to keep your audience involved.

2. Determine Which Platforms Will Work For You

There are numerous social media platforms out there each with its own benefits. As a social media marketer, you must decide which platforms you’re going to share your content on.

In reality, being decisive on which platform to share your content is advantageous. Consider what business you run and which sites your intended audience spends most of their time on.

For instance, if you run a blogging website, you need to advertise on the blog-sharing sites more frequently, or if you are in the B2B industry and looking to build thought leadership? Go for LinkedIn.

3. Create A Schedule For Your Posts

When your online media promotion gets moving, it may be a hectic job to determine which posts are going on which sites and when. Get your posts on a standard timetable by employing social media management tools.

These tools allow you to write titles, arrange pictures and videos, and schedule posts in advance. They also automatically share your content on schedule and monitor interactions and engagement on all of your posts. Social media management tools save you time and allow you to concentrate on your other assignments.

4. Create Engaging And Unique Content

With billions of people using social media around the globe, there is no doubt that at least some of your followers or the people checking your profile has also seen the content of other businesses in your industry.

That is why you must create engaging social media content that catches the eye and provides viewers with a reason to interact with your brand.

5. Analyse The Results

One of the most vital aspects of social media marketing is ensuring your efforts are bearing good quality fruits. To determine this, you’ll need to maintain a record of all of your posts on every channel.

You can do this by analyzing and managing your social media metrics. These metrics include engagement, reach, followers, impressions, video views, profile visits, mentions, tags, shares, offers, labels, and reposts.

You can use these metrics to direct changes to your advertising techniques or even to assist you with choosing new marketing endeavors.

Conclusion

Social media marketing has a large and diverse audience, and it is free and easily accessible. Social media is a great place to maintain relationships and solidify your position in your customer’s lives.