Are you looking for social media marketing tips to help ignite your social platforms? Do you want to learn how to better leverage your social media marketing strategy to delight your target audience? We've compiled some of the best social media tips and answered some of the biggest questions to help you get your social media channels working harder than ever.
Social media is used by over 4.6 billion people globally. People use social networks not only to connect with their friends and family but to also engage with their favorite brands and celebrities.
Any business in this era that is not present on social media is losing out on a huge number of potential customers. However, there are certain things you need to do right as a business if you want to enjoy the full benefits of social media.
Your business success depends on the quality of your marketing campaigns and overall marketing efforts. There is no surer way to build a brand than through social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, which can be used for both advertising purposes as well as customer engagement!
In this article, we shall share the top social media marketing tips that you can use to increase your brand awareness and boost sales using your social media channel. Let’s jump right in!
Social Media Marketing Tips for Success
Choose the right social media sites
Determining the social media sites that best support your brand might be challenging, especially if you are still new to the market. However, you can do basic research to determine the social media platforms your target audience uses. For instance, if you are running a B2B business, LinkedIn and Twitter should be the first platforms you consider.
You don’t necessarily have to be on all social media platforms to thrive. In fact, it's best to be selective, as maintaining content and strengthening your brand on 2 or 3 platforms is a lot easier than on 5 or 6 sites. The goal should be creating an impact on the few that your brand is using.
Create an appealing and professional profile
When someone shows interest in your brand, their next likely step will be to check out your profile. You need to ensure your logo, cover page, imagery, and all the information on your profile reflect the brand you are trying to build.
Add the required information to ensure your target customer gets all the information they need whenever they visit your profile.
Some of the key details you need to add to your profile include your location (if you have one), website, operating hours, business description, portfolio, phone number, email address, etc. You should also ensure uniformity across all platforms when it comes to branding and the business details you add.
Additionally, if the platform allows for a call to action (CTA) on the cover page, ensure you've selected a strong option. Sending someone to your home page is okay, but not at the expense of sending someone to a lead magnet or a sign-up.
Give value first
You need to give value to your target audience before you start thinking of extracting value from them. Publishing valuable content on your social media pages is one of the best ways to give value to your followers. Your followers need to learn or get entertained by the content you publish on your pages.
Take time and research your audience to find out the kind of content they find valuable. However, you should always stick to creating content that is relevant to your niche or industry. Make sure your social media pages become the go-to place whenever someone needs to know something new that is happening within your industry.
Taking time to come up with a good content strategy that people engage with by content curation and following well-established brands that are already doing well is a very good idea. It also helps to note down a great idea for content whenever you have it.
Quality over quantity
When it comes to social media marketing strategy, one element you must focus on is quality over quantity. It’s important to remember that your social channels reflect your brand, so it’s important to make sure that you keep posting high-quality and engaging content.
You only have so much time in a day, whether you operate as a small business or have a marketing team or outsourced team at your disposal. Ensuring each post is quality allows you to maximize your social media marketing benefits and social efforts with fewer resources.
Be consistent
Your followers need to see a consistent pattern in the social posts you publish. It is best to publish a similar number of posts every day or every week to maintain a specific post frequency. Don’t publish 10 posts in one week and then publish 2 in the following week.
You should also think of the number of posts to publish on each platform within a given period according to your content marketing plan. For example, most experts recommend publishing 2 to 3 times on Instagram and 2 to 5 times on Twitter. For some platforms like LinkedIn and Pinterest, publishing 1 or 2 social media posts a day is what most experts recommend.
Understanding the frequency with which you should publish on each platform is paramount to long-term success and meeting your business objectives.
Pro Tip
Make sure you are posting at a velocity that your business can keep up with. You don't want to run up against a content deficiency or depletion scenario, and you don't want to lose the proper cadence that you've set and have to skip days or even weeks.
Engage with your followers
When your followers leave a comment on your posts and social accounts with a reaction or question, make sure to respond to them as soon as possible. Social media is the place people come to interact, so make sure your brand is interactive.
Responding to comments and DMs is a sign that you care about your followers, which is one of the ways you will create a loyal following for your social media accounts.
Of course, when your brand gets bigger, it will start getting harder for your marketing team to respond to all the comments. However, you need to try responding to as many comments as possible. You may also like or react to the comments if you cannot respond to them all.
Know when to post
The time you publish your posts has a huge impact on how many people will actually get to see the posts. The best time to post is when most of your followers are online.
This could be during lunch breaks or in the evening when everyone is back from work. Most social channels have a feature that allows you to see the times when most of your followers are online.
It should also be noted that each post you publish is given a limited number of hours within which it is shown to your followers organically. If you publish when most of your followers are online, your post will likely get more engagement.
Learn the art of storytelling
By nature, human beings are emotional, so they will always dig deeper and connect more with brands that trigger their emotions. People also want to know “the why” behind the products and services which you can use to encourage people to buy from you.
Using stories is the best way to explain “the why” behind your products/services, which helps build relationships with your audience.
Creating and publishing animated videos is one of the ways you can create emotional stories that could motivate your customers to buy from your brand. Long-form posts and live videos on Facebook Page or LinkedIn can also work, especially for an audience that loves reading.
You don’t have to tell stories in every post you publish. However, publishing one per week or two per month could be a good start.
Try different content formats
Depending on which social platform you are using, you can either post a photo, video, text, or a combination of these. Make sure you try out different formats to see what works best for meeting your social media goals.
Most social media websites give posts with photos and videos more visibility than posts with only text.
If you choose to use video or photos, you need to make their aspect ratio sync with what the platform recommends. For instance, Instagram recommends posting square photos, whereas Twitter recommends a 16:9 aspect ratio. As you capture and edit your videos and photos, consider these aspect ratios.
We've compiled a list of the best graphics tools that can easily enhance all your social media marketing efforts.
Your followers should see the human side of your brand
Social media is a platform for human beings. Once in a while, you should post photos or live videos of your team at work or real customers using your products.
These types of images tend to stick in the minds of your followers, who will always have them in mind whenever they are interacting with your brand.
If you have a relatively big following, consider doing a live s once in a while to interact with your audience and possibly answer some of their questions in real time. This will further build a bond between your brand and its audience.
Consider using social media management tools
Managing multiple social media pages can be a challenge if you are running a business with a presence on 3 or 4 platforms. By utilizing social media management software, you can streamline certain tedious processes to allow you to focus on those that require human judgment and critical thinking.
You may also set up posts in advance and automatically respond to certain of the most typical queries your fans ask using these tools. You can respond to comments and DMs with these tools, which saves you time by allowing you to do it all from one application.
We've reviewed and ranked the best social media management tools to get you started.
Take advantage of hashtags
Most social platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram support hashtags. As you create content for these platforms, try to research the most trending hashtags in your niche and then find a way of integrating them into your posts. Hashtags will help push awareness for your posts to people that don’t even follow your pages.
Research shows that using the right hashtags on Twitter can increase engagement by almost 100% for individuals and 50% for brands. Take time to find the trending hashtags that are relevant to your brand.
Pro Tip
Hashtag use will vary by the social network in terms of quantity. You'll likely want to invest some time in finding which hashtags are common for your industry and then get creative in deciding the additional hashtags that extend your brand uniquely. Try for 3-5 hashtags consistently and measure performance.
Work with influencers
Almost every niche or industry has relevant influencers on social media. These influencers usually have loyal followers that see them as their role models or a source of inspiration. When they talk about your brand to their followers, a significant number of them might show interest and follow your page to learn more about your products.
Yes, you will have to pay the influencers, but this investment will be worth it in the long run, especially if you chose an influencer that shares the same values as your brand.
Questions to Guide Your Social Media Strategy
1. What social media platforms are best for marketing a business?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Every business is different, and each social media platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. That said, some platforms are definitely better for your social media marketing plan than others.
Facebook Groups, Twitter, and LinkedIn are some of the best social media platforms for marketing a business. These platforms allow businesses to create profiles and pages, post updates and photos, connect with customers and followers, and reach out to a wider audience.
Pinterest and Instagram are also great platforms for marketing a business. These platforms allow businesses to post images and videos, connect with customers and followers, and reach out to a wider audience. However, Pinterest is better suited for small businesses as they allow posting links to sell your products online, while Instagram is better suited for brands that have strong visual content and appeal.
2. How can I create high-quality content for my social media platforms?
To create high-quality informative content for your social channels, start by thinking about what topics and themes your target audience is interested in. Once you have a few ideas, do some research to find out what kind of content is already being produced on those topics. Then, use that information to create quality content that is original, informative, and entertaining.
Also, be sure to keep in mind the type of social media platform you are using. For example, if you use Twitter, your tweets should be short and concise, while if you use Facebook, you can post longer updates with more details.
Finally, always make sure to proofread your content before publishing it to ensure that it is error-free.
3. How often should I be posting on my social media platforms?
How often you should post on social media really depends on a number of factors, including what platforms you're using, what kind of content you're sharing, and who your right audience is.
If you're using social media for business purposes, then you'll want to make sure you're posting frequently enough to keep your audience engaged but not so much that they feel overwhelmed or start to ignore your posts.
A good rule of thumb is to post at least once a day on each platform, but how often you actually post will also depend on the specific platform. For example, on Facebook, it's generally advisable to post several times a day, whereas on Twitter posting several times an hour is more common.
4. How can I better interact with my followers on social media?
You can do a few things to better interact with your followers on social media. First, regular updates and interesting social media content will keep them coming back for more. You can also try engaging with them in the comments section or running contests and polls.
Another great way to interact with your followers is to provide valuable insights and advice that they can benefit from. Of course, you should also respond to their messages and questions promptly.
5. What type of content is most effective for social media marketing?
Visual content is most effective for social media marketing. A study by BuzzSumo found that the most popular content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn was visual.
Video content is more engaging than text-based social media content, so it's more likely to be shared. In fact, posts with images receive 94% more views than posts without images. And tweets with images are retweeted 150% more often than tweets without images.
The good news is that there are many tools out there to help you get a handle on content production and visual media.
6. How often should businesses post on social media?
As a general rule of thumb, businesses should aim to post on social media at least 2-3 times per week. However, a number of factors can influence how often you should be posting, such as the nature of your business, your target audience, and the platforms you're using.
For example, if you're a B2B business, LinkedIn would be a better platform for thought leadership content than Facebook or Instagram. In this case, you might want to focus on quality over quantity and aim for 1-2 well-crafted posts per week.
Alternatively, if you run a retail store that's constantly launching new products, you'll want to be more active on platforms like Instagram, where your brand engagement rate will benefit from the activity level.
7. What's the best way to measure the success of a social media campaign?
Nowadays, social media success can be measured in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most important metric is engagement, which refers to the number of people who are interacting with your organic content.
Other metrics you might look at include reach (the number of people who see your content), impressions (the number of times your content is displayed), and leads/sales (if you're using social media for commercial purposes).
There's no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to measuring social media success. It all depends on your goals and objectives. If you're looking to increase brand awareness, then reach and impressions would be more important than engagement. On the other hand, likes and shares are valuable key performance indicators if you're looking to generate leads or sales.
8. Are there any social media marketing tips that you would recommend avoiding?
Avoid spamming your followers with too many messages or ads. This will only turn them off and make them less likely to engage with your content.
Avoid posting too much personal information on social media. This can jeopardize your privacy and security, as well as that of your followers.
Avoid being too negative or controversial on social media. This can damage your reputation and relationships with others in the industry.
Social Media Marketing Success Wrap-up
The use of a content calendar can be helpful in keeping track of when, where, and what to post. Content calendars can help achieve consistency, which will help you build a following and keep your ideal audience engaged.
WTA Recommends CoSchedule
CoSchedule provides multiple tools to assist with content marketing and social media.
Finally, always try to create interaction with your followers, as this will help create a community around your brand and make your social media platforms more enjoyable for everyone.
Remember, the secret to a successful social media presence is to create outstanding relevant content that people find informative or entertaining. The more engagement you can generate, the better your social media posts will be perceived, and the better off your brand image will be because of all the hard work.
By following these social media marketing strategies, you’ll be on your way to delighting your audience and igniting your social platforms!
