Social media marketing is a necessity, not an option, now that everyone, from large companies to small business owners, is passionate about marketing. According to one study, as of October 2021, 4.55 billion people were using social media. With over 53% of the world's population using social media, an effective social media strategy is critical to reaching your target audience for your business. So let's dive in from the definition of social media marketing to marketing strategies and metrics.
Social media marketing refers to the process of creating content for social media platforms to promote products and services, build target audiences and communities, and drive business traffic.
Social media marketing is constantly evolving with new features and multiple platforms appearing. Social media marketing takes place where the target audience is and drives communication between brands and customers or between customers. Therefore, it is necessary to select a platform mainly used by the target customer and to approach the customer by establishing a strategy suitable for the characteristics of each platform.
Before we dive into social media marketing in detail, let's take a look at the types of social media platforms and their characteristics.
Facebook is the largest social media platform and the most established. Since its launch in 2004, it has become an invaluable tool for B2C businesses, offering advanced advertising tools as well as organic opportunities.
When you think of the short-form video, you probably think of TikTok. The platform rose in popularity in 2020 and shows no signs of slowing down. It's one of the best platforms for community building, with marketers ranking it in second place behind YouTube.
Instagram was just launched, but the platform's impact took the world by storm. It is a platform that brands often use to share visual content. Another factor that sets Instagram apart from other platforms is its specialized e-commerce tools. Instagram users can search for brands, find and purchase products and services from within the app.
Where Instagram focuses on visuals, Twitter focuses on text. Twitter started with a 140-character tweet, followed by audio-based Twitter Spaces, Twitter Communities, and Twitter Moments to share interesting content with followers. It has grown into a platform that can do it.
LinkedIn can be described as “the career version of Facebook.” LinkedIn is a platform with more clearly defined users than Facebook or other platforms. LinkedIn is designed for working professionals who are networking and looking for new opportunities. This makes it an ideal platform for B2B companies looking to discover key decision-makers in their businesses or build industry-specific communities.
According to one statistic, YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. Also, marketers say YouTube is the best platform to build a community. Not only is it a hugely popular platform today, but it's mostly characterized by long formats of content, making it ideal for users to stay longer and share educational content.
There are many other social platforms, including Pinterest and Clubhouse. To achieve the business goals of the enterprise, it is necessary to consider the target customers and select and utilize the platform for the purpose of use.
There are so many reasons why businesses should do social media marketing, but the most obvious are:
When social media isn't running, businesses miss out on their potential to reach thousands or even millions of customers. In fact, it has already been proven that social media can increase brand awareness by engaging users. Social media users can comment, like, share, repost, save, and more, while also getting publicity done. Social media also helps increase brand awareness by driving traffic directly to your site.
By promoting and sharing your products on social media, you are exposed to customers who have chosen to follow your account and engage with your business. So, social media is a simple way to improve lead generation, increase conversions, and increase sales.
With social media, customers connect with your business by following them and build lasting relationships by engaging with your business. Businesses can reach customers by answering their questions and providing help. You can also build trust and show how much you value your customers' opinions by asking your followers about their difficulties in using a product or service, or by creating a giveaway.
Social media is a great way to learn about your competitors' social media marketing tactics, the products they are promoting, the campaigns they are implementing, or how much they are interacting with fans of your brand. Social media can help you decide what works and what doesn't in terms of your company's approach by seeing what works and what doesn't with competitors you already have experience with. Finally, reviewing your competitor's social accounts will help you determine how attractive and unique your current marketing is.
Social media is constantly evolving, but social media marketing strategies usually follow the same steps as when you develop a marketing strategy and narrow it down to a specific channel.
The first step in creating a social media marketing strategy is to determine who your buyer personas and audience are, so that you can properly target their needs and interests. To do this, companies need to think about their target audience, why they chose them, and how to break them down into specific groups. Consider your buyer persona when deciding which content to use to attract which types of followers and customers. You also need to plan compelling content that will keep your target audience interested.
Social media marketers need to decide which platforms to share their content on. There is no right or wrong answer when choosing which social platform a business will use. It is more important for companies to understand and select the needs of their customers and the tendencies they spend their time with. You need to keep an eye on your customers' behavior so you don't waste time on a platform where your target audience isn't active.
Regardless of your goal or industry, your social media strategy should be data-driven. Instead of focusing on futile metrics that don't help measure business performance or health, dig into data that directly aligns with your goals.
Representative indicators for measuring social media marketing results are as follows.
Do your market research to get to know your competitors and take the time to understand what they are doing well or are not doing well. Competitor research will give you a good idea of what the industry expects of you, so you can set your own social media goals.
With so many companies around the world doing social media marketing, most social media users have probably seen content from relevant businesses. So, you need content that makes users want to hit the “Follow” button and receive news about your brand.
Create a social media content calendar for planning content uploads, tracking published content, and collaborating with multi-departmental teams. The social media content calendar is even more useful if you manage multiple social media accounts. A social media content calendar lets you efficiently do the task of publishing content, managing content across platforms, and deciding what content to post to each account.
It is also very important to see how social media marketing has been done and what results it has produced to meet your business goals. To figure this out, you need to track every post on every social media you're using. Social media marketing metrics are data related to the content's success and the impact that content has on customers across multiple platforms. The important metrics to track on social media are many other than the ones mentioned earlier, and may vary by platform.
Just like generating marketing leads and increasing conversions, social media marketing can also create content with appropriate strategies according to the purpose, and check the metrics to determine the effectiveness of the content.
If you're still unsure of what to do, talk to a consultant.