Social Media Marketing for Beginners
New to social media marketing? No worries, we’ve got you. Understanding social media marketing doesn’t have to be complicated, but there is more to it than simply creating a social profile and posting.
As social media advertising specialists who work with numerous clients across many industries, we understand the pitfalls of social media marketing and the challenges it poses for companies. Here is our concise beginner’s guide to social media for businesses.
What is social media marketing?
Let’s start firstly, with what social media marketing isn’t. Social media marketing is not simply the execution of building a Facebook page, posting on Instagram, having a Snapchat account, or sending out a few tweets. Whilst this all contributes to building your brand on social media, you need social media plans in place to carry out effective and successful social media marketing.
Social media marketing is the process of using social media to sell your products or services and achieve your business goals.
Why is social media marketing important?
90% of Instagram users follow businesses on the platform, and social media networks garner more users by the day, with usage now in the billions.
Furthermore, 69% of people bought something because of a tweet and a whopping 94% of social media users plan to make a purchase from a business they follow. The proof really is in the pudding.
Not only are so many potential customers out there to be found on social media, but it also offers businesses the chance to learn more about their target audiences and what would benefit them. It provides companies with the opportunity to build a relationship with their customers and increase brand loyalty and customer retention.
What is the goal of social media marketing?
Your social media goals should be measurable, trackable, and realistic – you cannot expect 10,000 followers overnight, nor should you focus on that.
Social media goals include boosting your brand’s awareness, creating a community around your business, building engagement with audiences, driving website traffic, and generating new business leads – these are all trackable and advisable social media marketing goals that contribute to increasing your business’s sales.
Social media goals can be carried out organically or you can execute paid social media advertising and marketing methods to achieve them – effective social media strategies involve doing both. Organic social media marketing involves all your non-paid for social media content and efforts. Paid social media marketing is known as social media advertising, such as running targeted Facebook Ad campaigns. You can use both organic and paid methods to improve your social media presence.
How do I do social media marketing?
To market your business on social media, you firstly need to figure out a recognisable brand voice, find your target audience, and understand which social media channels they are using, and build a presence on those platforms. We have a definitive guide to finding the best social media channels for marketing your business.
You should execute targeted advertising campaigns to reach your target market, and create engaging, varied content that reflects your business’s personality to build brand loyalty and engagement. Ensure that you are focused on engaging with your audience, and consistently posting content to maintain your presence. Focus on engagement rather than vanity metrics (such as followers) for measurements of success.
There are numerous ways you can generate high-quality content for social media – including sneak peaks, how to’s, guides, downloadable resources, videos, reels and so much more – but remember that whatever you create, it should add value to your audience, not noise.
Ensure that your social media strategies are part of your consumer journey funnel. Where are your social media posts leading audiences? What are they encouraging them to do?
Furthermore, make sure you track all your efforts. Facebook offers conversion tracking, and Instagram offers insights into promotion performance. Do more of what is working and less of what is not.
Should I pay for my social media marketing?
70% of companies are investing in content marketing for social media. If it is going to bring you ROI (and social media campaigns, when executed properly, certainly bring in a lot of that) then the answer is simply, yes, open those purse strings! When done effectively, social media advertising more than pays for itself.
It’s worth noting that social media advertising costs less than more traditional forms of advertising, despite being targeted to demographic segments unlike traditional means such as advertising on a bus.
Furthermore, you can track and measure all your social media marketing efforts, so you can figure out which audience demographics you should focus on, the best times for you to post, which content types generate the most engagement, and so on.
Should I use a social marketing agency?
Even businesses with in-house marketing teams outsource to social media marketing companies.
Why? Because social media agencies save businesses time, and they have worked with hundreds of clients across a huge industry range, so they know what works well and what does not work well for all types of businesses on social media. A digital marketing agency will take the time to uncover your marketing needs, they will tailor your campaigns to meet them. Using a social media agency can overhaul your marketing strategy, and such digital agencies own unique digital marketing technology and unrivaled marketing data that most businesses do not.
Furthermore, social media marketing specialists will work on your campaigns constantly and continuously, giving your business’ social media marketing strategy the special attention it needs. Marketing agencies will monitor your campaigns closely and adjust them accordingly, when you are unable to, and they have a number of digital marketing specialists covering all marketing niches – and the marketing spectrum is broad! – meaning you will receive your business will receive industry-leading marketing expertise and treatment.
Want more information?
Read more about our dynamic social media advertising and social media marketing solutions or get in touch with us today.
