Scrolling through social media has practically become a reflex for (almost) all of the generations. So if there’s one thing every business needs to nail — it’s their social media marketing (SMM).
From Instagram to TikTok, these platforms are more than just a place to share memes and memories; social media is the nucleus of connecting brands with their audiences, building their community, and driving serious growth.
And it starts with a really, really good social media marketing strategy.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing (SMM) refers to the use of social media platforms to promote a business’s products or services, build brand awareness, create customer relationships, loyalty, and ultimately, to drive traffic to a website or ecommerce shop. In one sentence, it’s creating and sharing content such as posts, images, videos, and ads that engage with your target audience across social networks.
A few core fundamentals include:
- Content Creation: valuable, relevant content to attract and engage followers.
- Community Engagement: through comments, direct messages, or polls.
- Paid Advertising: promoting your content to reach a larger audience.
- Social Listening: monitoring what people are saying about your brand and industry.
The Benefits of Social Media Marketing
A strong social media marketing strategy offers several benefits for businesses:
Increased Brand Awareness
With 5.17 billion active users collectively using social platforms, social media provides an unparalleled opportunity for businesses to reach new audiences, targeted audiences, and niche markets. Sharing valuable content and engaging with followers helps build brand recognition and trust.
Higher Website Traffic
Social media platforms give businesses the capability to share direct links to their websites, blog posts, sales, products, and online shops, driving traffic from engaged users directly where you want them to go (to have the UX you want them to have)!
Improved Customer Engagement
By being consistent with your audience through your branding, messaging, content, and interactive content (collectively called the user journey), social media helps you maintain a relationship with your customers in a more personalised way.
Cost-Effective Advertising
Compared to traditional advertising, social media advertising offers a more budget-friendly solution. You can target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors with your ads to reach the most relevant audience and gain momentum with your return on investment (ROI) regardless of budget.
Data, Data, Data
Social platforms also provide analytics and hard data that provides invaluable insights into your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns. This data can help you optimize your content, pivot when needed, and ultimately build strategies for better results.
How to Turn Social Data into Actionable Business Growth
One of the most valuable ROI’s of social media marketing is (again) the data it accumulates. But raw data alone won’t drive growth—you need to turn that data into actionable, strategic moves for business growth.
Here’s how:
Set Clear Objectives
Before diving into social data, you need to have landmarks in mind, or KPIs (key performance indicators) so that you have data to measure your success against. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, boost engagement, or grow sales? These objectives will guide your analysis and help you determine which data points are most important.
Leverage Social Listening Tools ASAP
Tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Brandwatch make monitoring conversations (called social listening) around your brand, products, and industry accessible. By analyzing these chats, you can identify trends, keywords, customer pain points, gaps in the market, and preferences.
Analyze Audience Behavior
Look at how your audience interacts with your content. What posts get the most likes, shares, or comments? Which types of content (videos, images, stories) drive the highest engagement? Understanding audience behavior can help you refine your content strategy and to really hone in on content that converts.
Measure Engagement and Reach
Use social media analytics to track key performance metrics (particularly against the KPI’s you set) like likes, shares, comments, conversions, and impressions. This will give you insight into how well your content is resonating with your audience and whether you’re reaching your target demographics effectively – or if you need to pivot.
Track Competitor Performance
Keep an eye on your competitors’ social media activities. Which platforms are they using? What content strategies are working for them? This information can help you identify gaps in your own strategy or inspire new approaches. You can use platforms like Semrush to make this data mining a little easier.
How to Build Your Social Media Strategy
Now that you understand the why of social media marketing, you’ve got to make a strategic plan for the HOW:
- Define Your Goals: KPI’s like increasing brand awareness, driving web traffic, generating leads, conversions, engagement, or boosting sales so you can continually optimize your strategy over time.
- Know Your Audience: Use tools like Google Analytics and your social media insights to gather data – all the time. Tailor your content to your audience.
- Choose the Right Platforms: Not all social media platforms are right for every business. Focus on the platforms where your target audience is most active.
- Create a Content Calendar: Consistency is key. Plan and schedule your content in advance by creating a content calendar that aligns with your brand values.
- Mix Paid and Organic Strategies: Organic, but amplify with paid ads. Use social media ads to boost your reach and target specific demographics that align with your business goals with Facebook Ads Manager.
- Track and Optimize: Regularly monitor your performance, track metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions, identify what’s working and what needs improvement, and adjust accordingly.
Ready to make a plan that works?