The average person spends two hours and 27 minutes on social media every day. This figure is up by two minutes since 2021, and the highest average ever recorded in human history. But while the dizzying amount of content on platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram can cause some worrying dopamine patterns, there’s no denying that social media has played an integral role in helping brands and businesses all over the world find great success.
When used strategically, social media channels can serve as a powerful way for businesses to market their goods and services to demographic-specific audiences and drive both sales and conversion rates. And in this day and age, if your business isn't on social media, you’re losing out on an abundance of marketing opportunities. In fact, a lack of social media presence is as bad as not having a website—or worse.
Are you ready to take the leap into the world of social media for your business? Take a closer look at what social media marketing really is, and how to leverage it to your business’s advantage in a methodical and growth-oriented way.
Defining social media marketing
Social media marketing is the practice of using social media channels (such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook) as marketing platforms to advocate your brand and generate company growth. There are lots of powerful benefits to implementing social media marketing, including:
-
Reaching and connecting with a larger audience Your business can reach exponentially more consumers online than it can in the physical world. And it also allows you to target more specific audiences for higher engagement rates.
-
Cultivating positive brand awareness – The world needs to know about your business and what it offers. You can showcase your brand in all its strengths via active social media channels.
-
Driving sales and conversions – Many social media platforms now offer direct sale options for products making them ideal launchpads for funneling potential customers into other sales or conversion portals on your website.
-
Developing relationships with customers Many people use social media as a way to learn more about their favorite brands and find different ways to relate to them. This gives your business an opportunity to connect with its audience on a deeper level and foster trust.
There’s a reason why social media marketing is considered a main priority by 91.9% of marketing professionals in the US. It’s accessible, highly effective, and more than likely here to stay.
How To Leverage Social Media Marketing To Your Advantage
Social media can be used for so much more than creating digital photo albums and chatting with friends. It is also an incredible tool that you can use to uplift a business and hit major marketing goals.
Create a content plan
- When it comes to social media, you need to be intentional about the kind of content you post. Other brands are competing for consumer’s attention like it’s an Olympic sport, and that means your content needs to be of a high caliber if it’s going to score you their engagement.
- Developing a content plan for your social media channels will help boost your business image and provide structure to your marketing goals. Most businesses will hire a social media manager or content creator to develop content concepts and schedule them into a results-driven system.
Engage and participate to stay active
- Setting up an established social media presence isn’t where the work ends. It’s where it begins. Engaging, responding, and participating with others on these platforms is essential for success.
- Engagement breeds engagement. When customers comment or directly message your accounts, respond as often as you can. This will get trickier as your following grows, but making an effort to stay consistently active is tantamount to high engagement rates that boost your visibility.
Develop different strategies for different channels
- There are a variety of different social media platforms out there, and each of them needs its own unique strategies. LinkedIn, for example, puts a focus on text-based content such as blogs, while Instagram is centered around visual content that includes everything from videos to product photographs that drive online sales.
- Don’t make the mistake of applying the same content strategy to all of your existing channels. There may be overlap in some areas, but each platform should be approached in a site-specific way.
-
Set engagement goals and work towards them
When developing a social media marketing strategy, it’s important to understand what your goals are and how you can work towards achieving them. What are the main objectives of your social media marketing strategy? Some popular goals could be:
-
Boosting brand awareness
-
Expanding your target audience
-
Redirecting traffic to your website
-
Showcasing new products
-
Establishing brand identity
Identifying your goals will help you shape a marketing strategy that aligns with your overarching business mission and purpose. Setting data-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can provide further structure to your strategy. You can also use data analytics tools to track them over time.
Try out paid ads
- There are plenty of opportunities to boost online visibility through the use of paid ads. However, some brands at the beginning stages buy Instagram followers just to gain the trust of viewers. This will help you reach a much wider audience and see faster, higher growth in a short period of time. Popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all offer paid advertising options, all of which have high success rates.
- You can do this by making your account a Business Account and utilizing the paid advertising tools available. Many of these sites also offer performance-tracking tools for tracking growth and ROI, but installing an external data analytics tool is also a good idea.
Use Social Media Marketing To Elevate And Broadcast Your Business
Without social media, it will be very difficult (some might even say impossible) to compete with other businesses in your industry. There's simply too much consumer activity on these platforms to ignore.
Fortunately, navigating the world of social media marketing has never been easier. Plus, most of these strategies can be implemented regardless of what your business’s marketing budget is or how much previous experience you have with social media management.
By harnessing the extensive powers of social media, any business can cultivate a bigger online audience, drive sales, and funnel consumers onto other conversion-focused pages, such as a website.
