For as long as the internet has existed, people have used it to connect with one another. SixDegrees, widely considered the first social media site, launched in 1997. But even before that, platforms like email, Usenet, and bulletin board systems (BBS) enabled global communication.
In 2024, connecting with others remains the primary reason people use social media, with YouTube and Facebook among the top three most popular websites. This ease of connection, combined with these platforms’ global reach, makes social media a goldmine for brands. In fact, in our digital age, many businesses would say that some form of social media marketing is a must.
However, if you’ve only used social media for entertainment or following others, venturing into social media marketing can feel overwhelming. That’s why, in this article, we’ll explore the most popular platforms, how to tailor your content for each, and proven strategies to ensure your brand's success on social media.
Why Social Media Marketing Is Important
Some brands avoid social media marketing because of the time it takes to master it. However, even if you’ve never tried social media marketing before and intend to learn on the job, this strategy still offers significant benefits.
- Drive Visibility and Engagement: Did you know that 70% of the global population uses some form of social media? With such vast user bases, it’s highly likely that the most popular social media sites will have users in your niche, no matter how original or unique your brand is. Rather than simply showing them an ad, you can engage with them directly and push them to your other social media pages or website. This increases your brand’s SEO and visibility across the entirety of the internet.
- Cost-Effective Marketing: For many successful small businesses, social media marketing will always have a spot in their digital marketing strategy because it’s completely free. However, creating quality content that captures your potential customers’ attention takes time, and often requires a budget in itself.
- Honing Your Brand: While your website is your brand’s digital hub, there’s only so much you can do to build and hone your brand there. Social media, on the other hand, offers the chance to post consistently and interact with potential customers, with each action adding to your brand’s impression and reputation.
- Direct Customer Interaction: Social media allows for real-time communication, so it’s a great touch-point for any customers who need help or require more information. Additionally, you can receive immediate feedback on any ad campaigns, new product launches or services you offer, and make adjustments based on what your followers think. This is enhanced with social media analytics, the data provided by some social media sites about how your followers behave. It’s essentially another form of market research, which helps improve your marketing strategies and can be used in product development.
- Other Forms of Marketing - Your content isn’t the only form of marketing you can post on social media. Many platforms offer sophisticated campaign builders with targeting options, allowing you to deliver personalized ads to specific niches. Or, if influencer marketing is more your thing, there’s no better place to reach out to potential partners than on the social media site where they built their following.
The opportunity to target potential customers in your niche across the world, hone your brand, and convert followers into long-time loyalists all for free (unless you decide to take advantage of paid social media ad campaigns) is exactly why 77% of small businesses in America use social media marketing.
Which Social Media Sites Should You Focus On?
There are a lot of social media sites on the internet, each offering something slightly different. However, creating content for and connecting with users on all of these sites will take up far too much time. Instead, it’s best to focus on the most popular options. These are:
In 2023, Facebook racked up three billion monthly users. According to Statista, the average age of Facebook users is 25-34, and male users are more common than female users across all age groups. Additionally, according to Oberlo, the most common reasons for using Facebook are messaging friends and family, posting or sharing photos or videos, keeping up to date with news or current events, and looking for entertaining content.
X (Formerly Twitter)
According to explodingtopics.com, X’s 556 million-strong user base is primarily made up of under 35s, with two male users for every female user. The average X user spends 35 minutes a day on the site, keeping up to date with current events and looking for entertaining posts. Notably, 33% of X users cite following brands and companies as one of the main reasons they use this social media.
TikTok
Something of a ‘new kid on the block’, TikTok gained ground in the pandemic and now boasts over a billion active users. What’s more, users spend on average just under an hour looking at video posts and watching TikTok livestreams every single day. While its user-base is primarily made up of Gen Z, TikTok appeals to users of all ages and genders, drawing 11% of its billion from the over 50+ age group.
Instagram is similar to Facebook and X in that, according to Statista, those under 34 years of age make up its biggest age demographic. However, it’s one of the only social media sites with over two billion users on which female users outnumber male users, with a percentage split of 57% to 42%. Instagram is also a great site for brands, with 62.7% of its users citing ‘following or researching brands and products’ as their main reason for using the site.
YouTube
The most popular video sharing site, YouTube attracts 2.7 billion monthly users. However, its users expect a certain standard of quality with the videos they consume. As such, creating content for YouTube can often be time-consuming, and have specific resource and skill requirements. For example, if you want to build a following on YouTube, you’ll need a camera, microphone, editing software, and the skills to use them effectively. Having said that, creating content for YouTube is definitely worth it, with 70% of YouTube users having bought a product after seeing it in a video.
Using this information, you can tailor your brand’s content for each individual site to achieve maximum reach and engagement. Of course, there are other social media sites like Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Pinterest that have their own unique benefits and user-bases. If you find that these sites better fit your brand and capabilities, you can incorporate them into your strategy instead of, or as well as, those above.
Crafting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Your social media marketing strategy will form a significant part of your overall digital marketing strategy. Thankfully, this makes crafting a social media strategy relatively easy as, hopefully, you already know who your ideal customer is and what you want to say to them.
However, there are some unique questions your social media strategy will need to answer, such as…
- If every social media site offers a variety of post-types, will you create all kinds of content or stick to what you know best?
- Will you focus on organic growth or allocate funds and resources for paid social media ad campaigns?
- Will you repost content from one social media site to another to save time and resources, or create unique posts for each site to avoid followers seeing repeat posts?
- Will you take advantage of trends and memes to stay relevant, or rise above and create a completely original image?
- How will you balance promotional content with value-driven or entertaining posts to avoid overwhelming your followers?
- Will you encourage employee advocacy by having team members share company posts on their personal profiles? Will you feature your employees on your social media pages or stick strictly to product imagery and infographics?
- Will you standardize your brand's visuals across all platforms for maximum consistency, or tailor them to the aesthetics of each social media site to better market to their user bases?
- Will you integrate social media efforts with offline marketing campaigns to maintain a consistent brand, or keep them separate?
Once you’ve discussed these questions with your team and noted your answers, you’ll need to do three things:
- Set Out Your Goals - Clearly define what you want to achieve with your social media marketing efforts. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating leads, or building a community, your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed (SMART) for the best results.
- Create a Schedule - Next, develop a content calendar. At this early stage, the dates and times that you intend to post don’t need to be set in stone. Rather, you’re creating a guide that lets you know rough deadlines for content creation and posting. There are a variety of scheduling tools available for small businesses that can make this process much easier, such as Adobe’s free content scheduler.
- Create Your To-Do List - Finally, break down your social media strategy into actionable tasks. This should include setting up and optimizing your social media profiles with engaging profile pictures, headers, and bios. Most importantly, you’ll need to make a note of the exact content you intend to create, any resources you’ll need to do so, and pen captions or text posts in advance. Then, assign responsibilities to your team members to ensure accountability and keep the strategy on track.
Social Media Marketing Best Practices
Let’s end with some general tips and guidelines you should follow to ensure your social media marketing efforts get the best possible results.
Communicate with your followers - Social media is social, so don’t hesitate to reply to comments, assist customers in your direct messages (DMs), and even host livestreams to answer questions or demonstrate products.
Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) - A great way to foster a sense of community among your followers is by encouraging them to create content related to your brand. User-generated content not only boosts engagement but also, when shared to your page, provides authentic social proof that can influence potential customers.
Monitor your competition - Take a look at your competitors’ social media streams to identify trends, discover gaps in their strategy, and find inspiration for your own content. Understanding what works (and what doesn’t) for your competitors can help you refine your own approach.
Experiment with different content formats - Most social media sites offer a variety of post types, such as text posts, photos, videos, temporary ‘stories’, and interactive content like polls and Q+As. Different posts will resonate with different segments of your following, even if they’re using the same social media site, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Don’t neglect SEO - Chances are you’ve already picked out keywords and phrases for search engine optimization as part of your wider digital marketing strategy. SEO is just as important on social media, so make sure to include the same keywords and techniques where possible.
Set KPIs and monitor analytics - One of the best ways to measure success on social media is by setting KPIs alongside your goals. For example, if an increase in brand awareness is your aim, you’ll need to track metrics like follower growth and post reach. This gives you a benchmark for success, and helps you find out where you’re going wrong.
Pivot if needed - Your social media strategy won’t be perfect from the off. Monitor your analytics closely and make tweaks where needed. It’s also worth evaluating your entire social media strategy every 3-6 months to ensure its evolving with your brand and customers.
In Conclusion…
Social media marketing can seem inaccessible at first, but with a strong plan, daily effort, and a willingness to adapt your approach, the process becomes much easier. But, success on social media doesn’t happen overnight. Stay consistent and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and you’ll position your brand to reap the many rewards that social media marketing has to offer.
Sources and Resources
- https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-marketing/
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-marketing-strategy/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-marketing
- https://mailchimp.com/resources/how-to-market-on-social-media/
- https://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing
- https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/smm-benefits
- https://jetpack.com/blog/best-social-media-platforms-for-business/
- https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/social-media-strategy
- https://asana.com/resources/social-media-content-calendar
- https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/social-media-best-practices/
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