Nowadays, every marketer talks about social media marketing strategy. Some of the most common ongoing topics of discussion among marketers include how to increase the number of shares, likes, followers, etc.?

How to make the optimal use of social media channels? What to post on social media platforms to engage more viewers? etc. Social media marketing has become a prime focus for all marketers.

What is social media marketing? Why has it become so important?  What are social media marketing benefits? Can we have similar social media marketing for start-ups and established businesses? How to do social media marketing?

If you are looking for the answers to these questions, this article might be helpful.  In this article, we will discuss various aspects of social media marketing.

But, before going into the details of the social media marketing business, let us understand the meaning of social media marketing definition.

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing Definition

Social media marketing is a part of digital/internet marketing which aims at increasing traffic or attention by creating and posting content on various social media platforms.

Social media marketing strategy includes planning and creating engaging, unique, and informational content to attract an audience, increase the number of shares, and work out strategies to sustain their interests.

This can be done by posting new content and updating existing content on social media platforms. Content can be in the form of an image, text, or videos.

Social Media and Its Importance

The term ‘Social media’ is used for apps and websites where people can connect and communicate with each other. People can share their thoughts, photos, videos, and other content efficiently, in a much faster way and that too in real-time.

Today, being active at social media channels has become part of our daily life. People, as well as businesses, try their best to get as much as likes and shares as possible. Social media marketing has proved to be an essential tool for digital marketing.

With the right planning and execution, these channels can increase the traffic also help businesses to connect with their customers, increase their brand awareness. This would further help them to improve their leads as well as revenue.

Some of the most famous social media channels are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Social media allows businesses to connect with potential buyers from all over the world. It works for all kinds of businesses.

Social Media Marketing Benefits

Helps in Improving Brand Awareness

Using the right marketing strategies may help you in enhancing your product/service/ organization. For any business, having a social media profile page is a must. Businesses can use this platform for connecting with their existing and potential customers.

Marketers can use social media pages to increase their brand awareness. You can show your expertise by answering questions related to your industry. This way, you can gain the viewer’s trust and increase your brand awareness among the viewers. Buyers prefer buying products from the organization which they can trust.

Cost-effective

Among various marketing strategies, social media marketing can be considered as the most cost-effective way. Registration at most of the social media channels is free.

You need to fill up a basic form and submit it. Once registered, you can start posting content on your social page.

You can even opt for paid advertising. If you are using paid advertising, it’s better to start it on a small scale. You can check the results, if the campaign turns out to be successful, you can continue with the campaign. Hence, by investing a small amount, you can increase your ROI.

Allows Connecting to Customers

Social media channels are virtual reality platform where you can connect with your customers. These channels allow you to have two-way communication with your customers. You can update your viewers with ongoing and futuristic news related to your product/services.

You can strengthen the bond with your viewers by answering to their questions related to your product or your industry. This way, you can keep your customers engaged and keep them connected to your brand. 

Increases Brand Loyalty

Doing business online is not that easy. You face competition from businesses from all over the country. Having a strong social media presence would give you an edge over your competitors. Viewers tend to connect easily to companies that have a strong and positive social media image.

This would increase customer loyalty and would also help you in retaining your existing customers.

You need to be active on social media channels. Faster you solve your viewer’s queries better would be your reputation among them. Buyers prefer buying product/service from organizations which have more positive reviews. 

Marketplace Awareness

Market research holds an essential position in the growth of an organization. Finding the needs and wants of the customer is very important. Through social media channels, you can interact directly with your customers and find out their requirements.

Based on the viewer’s reaction to your content, you can find out your customers’ likings and disliking’s about your product/services.

Besides this, social media also allows you to understand ongoing market trends. You can study your competitor’s strategies and find out what’s working for them. You can work out ways to create more engaging content based on the same lines.

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Increases Traffic

Social media platforms improve traffic. Many times, when people like any content, they also visit the source. Hence, posting original, exciting, and engaging content on social media platforms is very important. The traffic you get via sharing content is organic, and the chances of conversion of these viewers into buyers are much higher.

Improves SEO Rankings

The main aim of any digital marketing is to increase SEO ranking. Various factors affect SEO ranking. Social media plays a vital role in SEO. Your social media presence has a direct effect on your brand integrity, validity, and reliability.

How to Do Social Media Marketing

Every marketer is well aware of the effectiveness of social media marketing. Still, not every social media campaign gives a desirable result. What is the reason behind it? How to make your social media campaign successful? Well, the answer lies in the planning and execution of the strategy.

Having the right social media strategy is very important. Just posting content on social media channels won’t work.

Before starting sharing the content, you need to be clear about your marketing goals, identify your target audience, identify the right social media channels, understand the likings and disliking of your viewers, the list goes on and on.

Below are a few tips that may help you in making your social media marketing business successful.

Set Your Goals

Before planning a social media marketing strategy, you need to find an answer to the question, what you want to achieve from your marketing strategy. Some of the most common goals are:

• Increasing traffic
• Improving brand awareness
• Generate leads
• Increase sales
• Providing customer service
• Engaging customers and build a bond
• Improving Conversions

You may want to accomplish more than one goal through your social media marketing. However, it’s essential to have specific, time-bound, and measurable goals.

Tracking the performance of your strategy is very important. This would help you in finding what is working for your audience and what is not.

Find Your Customer’s Pain Point

Before starting with planning your strategy, you need to find your target audience’s weak points. What are their most preferred social media channels? What kind of content do they like or share? Their common queries? Their likes and, most importantly, their dislikes.

There is no point in posting content that fails to attract viewers. As far as content is concerned, finding the needs and wants of your target audience is concerned. This way, you can post interesting and useful content for your viewers.

Also, be active and approachable on social media. This way, you can interact with your audience and answer their queries within no time.

Research Your Market and Trends

Thorough market research will allow you to understand what are the ongoing trends in your industry. You can study your competitor’s social media profile and find out what kind of content is liked by your target audience. This way, you will get an idea about the type of materials you need to create for your social media marketing.

Market research on social media platforms will also help you in identifying opportunities. For example, you can go through customer reviews or feedback given on your competitor’s site, and you can create your content based on that.

Through your research, you can find out the social media channel where your target audience is most active. You can focus more on those channels to get fruitful results.

Create A Content Strategy for Social Media

Creating a social media profile is not sufficient. You need to update it regularly with fresh, exciting, and engaging content. Plan a content strategy for various social media channels and plan accordingly.

Remember, different social media channels work differently, the same content may not get you similar results on different social media channels.

If you fall into the category of social media marketing startups, below, we have mentioned some most popular types of social media content.

Types of content you can post or share on social media channels:

• Blogs
• Photos
• Videos
• Landing pages
• Website pages
• Infographics
• Product/ service/ organization related announcements

Customer Testimonials

While creating a content strategy, keep your marketing goals in your mind. Be versatile with your content. Instead of posting content only about yourself, share other informational content related to your industry. This way, you increase your audience base.

Follow the 80-20 rule. 20% of your efforts and time on social media channels should be self-promotional activities, whereas 80% should not be self-promotional. 

Use Videos and Images Wisely

Videos and photos get more attention as compared to text. Hence be creative and innovative while sharing images and videos on social media channels. Make optimized use of video and image content. For example, if you are in a real estate business, post attractive images of the properties.

You can hire a professional to get good quality pictures. Similarly, if you are creating a video about the property, make it engaging and informative. You can even create a video to give the audience an experience of a virtual tour of the property.

While creating a video or image content, try to make it mobile friendly so that your viewers can see, enjoy, like, and share from their smartphones.

Use the Right Tools to Publish Contents

If you want to increase your productivity, use the right social media management tool. Social media channels are very active. Handling marketing and other promotional activities on various social media channels can be time-consuming. You can create a social media channel with these tools. This way, you can post content on scheduled time.

Create Good Quality Content

Avoid becoming a part of the ongoing race of posting more and more content. Try to focus more on quality than on numbers. Getting likes is good, but it’s the number of shares that matter more. Few loyal followers would be more beneficial for your business than having numerous one-time followers. Think about the long run.

Check out this Content Marketing Toolkit to create quality content for your website. 

Finally, you aim to increase your profits. This can be achieved by attracting viewers that can be converted into potential buyers and, finally, customers.

Track Your Results

Though it comes quite late, it is crucial for the success of social media marketing strategy. Most of the social media content posting is based on the trial and testing method. Once you have shared your content tracking, the result is very important.

You need to analyze your social media marketing strategy at every step. Trust the facts and figures. If you are getting better results on Facebook, shift your focus and efforts toward it.

A good social media marketing strategy is the one that never gets stagnant. Track your results and bring changes in your strategy accordingly. A good social media marketer is the one that keeps learning from the mistakes and creates engaging and unique content.