Social Media Marketing Tips You Can Start Using Today

Social media marketing has rapidly become one of the most effective and efficient marketing tools for businesses today. There are many reasons for social media marketing’s growing popularity but one of the main benefits of marketing on social media is because almost everyone is using it. Social media marketing reaches teenagers, boomers, small business owners, stay-at-home parents, successful CEOs, grandparents, and even celebrities. According to Statista, about 3.6 billion people are using social media today, which is almost half of the global population.

There are other benefits of social media marketing as well including the ability to engage with your current and potential customers, gathering customer feedback, responding to consumer grievances, learning more about your target audiences, and researching industry trends and gaps in the market.

Since the lion’s share of people in the world uses social media, it makes sense that your business should be too if it isn’t already. But how does your business transition from a passive social media user to a business that is actively using social media marketing strategies? Let’s start with some basic social media marketing tips to help your business grow.   

Social Media Marketing Tips for Growing Your Social Media Following

One of the biggest challenges for many businesses is growing their group of social media followers in an organic way. Organic social media follower growth is an important distinction because there are businesses out there that purchase their social media followers. Not only does this damage the authenticity of a business but it also can lead to social media profiles being penalized or removed entirely.

When a business grows its group of social media followers in a natural way, the earned followers are more valuable than any purchased social followers could ever be. One of the best ways to increase your social media following is by leveraging your existing followers and customers. By using a social media contest or posting something share-worthy on your social media accounts, you increase your chances of your followers sharing your post with their hundreds of followers. 

Another great way to land more social media followers is by partnering with other businesses, organizations, and influencers in order to tap into their network of followers. To do this you’ll need to find a partner that will be a good collaborator with your business, for example, another company in an adjacent product or service industry, an influencer involved in your business’ product/service industry, or an organization with relevant connections to your business goals. 

Social Media Marketing Tips for Posting on Social Media

There are many elements to a great social media post including: 

1. When a post was published on social media 
2. What content was included in a social media post and how it was written 
3. Whether or not there was a visual aspect to the social media post
4. Who or what was tagged in the social media post
5. What network a social media post was published on

All of these pieces combined can determine if your post on social media results in high engagement and conversions or if it gets lost to the ether. So let’s look at these 5 elements of posting on social media to explain what’s important about each factor.

When a post was published on social media

There are key engagement windows during the week that vary for each social network. Sprout Social found the best times for each day of the week to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to reach maximum engagement potential with the users of each social network. When you are planning to post on social media, try to find a time within guidelines like the ones below to maximize your social media engagement.

What content was included in a social media post and how it was written

The body of a social media post can be a crucial element of how well your social media post is received. Are the words gripping? Funny? Shocking? Unusual? Heartbreaking? Inspiring? When a post on social media can invoke feelings like this, that means they will resonate with someone. Finding a way to connect with your audience is one of the best ways to stand out from the sea of social media posts and advertisements competing for your audience’s attention.

Whether or not there was a visual aspect to the social media post

You should almost always include something visual in a social media post whenever possible. There are very few instances where adding a photo, GIF, or video won’t benefit your social media post in some way. Adding something visual to a post on social media makes the post inherently more eye-catching than a post without a visual element. Try using a branded link to redirect traffic back to your site after sharing- customization applies to links as well!

Who or what was tagged in the social media post

Whenever you are drafting a post for a social media network, keep in mind who or what you should tag in that post. If you’re mentioning a person or another brand in your post, be sure to tag them instead of simply using their name. Then do a bit of research into what hashtags would be the most relevant to incorporate into your post that help broaden your social media post’s reach to a wider audience.

What network a social media post was published on

Some social media posts are going to be better suited for specific social networks. For example, timely information such as a store closing or a site outage does very well on Twitter while an interview with an influencer about your brand will perform better on YouTube and Instagram. This doesn’t mean that each social media post is only going to relevant on one social network, there are simply situations where the context of a post is more likely to excel on some social networks rather than others. So whenever you’re planning to post on social media, think about the information being shared in your post and try to imagine where that message has a better chance to drive engagement.  

These are just a few social media marketing tips that can be applied to a social media marketing strategy for any business in any industry. We hope these social media marketing tips are able to help your business succeed online and grow your business. If you have any social media marketing tips your business wants to share with others, let us know so we can include them in our next post.