How to market on social media?

Social Media Marketing is a form of Internet Marketing that involves creating and sharing content on social networks.

Social Media Marketing includes activities such as:

Textual content, images, and videos that encourage public participation…
As well as paid ad formats.

This guide provides an introduction to Social Media and some tips for improving your company’s social presence.

By following these tips, you can create your own plan for your Social Media Marketing.

With these nice words, you want to start using social platforms to promote your product and/or service offer. So, let us try to find out how to start with social media marketing effectively and efficiently.

But don’t know where to start?

Our Social Media Marketing guide teaches you everything to get you started.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Basically, Social Media Marketing brings together all the Marketing actions you implement on social platforms.

So whenever it comes to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn… then it’s Social Media Marketing.

In addition, most of the actions taken are not exclusive to social platforms.

You just have to adapt your communication strategy to each of the platforms.

On the other hand, the number of social networks is very important.

But as We Are Social points out, the main networks are a dime a dozen: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, medium, Reddit…

Note: Social media are platforms used to publish content such as articles or videos on the internet. Blogs and discussion forums are among them. Social networks are designed to connect users directly.

Start your marketing actions on social networks

Marketing can be summarized as analyzing the needs of your target customers and taking specific actions to achieve your goal.

However, when we talk about the Internet, your customers mainly spend their days on:

Google and possibly other search engines,
Also on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest…
You use SEO techniques to reach as many Internet users as possible on Google.

Because all of your customers and potential customers spend time on social platforms, taking action on these platforms is an opportunity for any business.

do you have doubts

The average daily time spent on social networks in the U.S. is 1h17.

And yet there are 49.6 million active users, so 75.9% of the population is broken up as follows:

YouTube: 52.6 million users,
Facebook: 31.35 million users,
Instagram: 26.55 million users,
Snapchat: 24.20 million users,
LinkedIn: 23 million users,
TikTok: 17.48 million users,
Pinterest: 11 million users,
Twitter: 10 million users…

These numbers are enough to make your head spin (source BDM).

Laurent said, “Not being active on social networks means losing opportunities! ”.

In summary, social networks give you easy access to a wide audience, whether by revitalizing your social accounts for free or allocating a budget for advertising campaigns on these platforms.

Of course, it takes time to broadcast, animate, and chat… but it’s easy to find new opportunities with the right method and little time.

On the other hand, it is wrong to think of Social Media Marketing as a simple and fast way to gain new customers.

Unfortunately, sending a few tweets isn’t enough to get an order.

However, there is great potential for a business to use Social Media Marketing appropriately.

What are the benefits of doing Social Media Marketing?

Working on your presence on social platforms has many benefits.

Of course, it all depends on your initial goal.

But here is an overview of the main advantages of Social Media Marketing:

Promote your offer in additional channels,
Reach new audiences by promoting your content for free,
Build customer loyalty,
To provide fast customer service,
Show your expertise,
Increase your awareness on the Internet,
Generate web traffic…

Note: All these advantages strengthen the sustainability of your business. Note, however, that none of these are directly related to sales promotion.

Where to start?

Start by carefully defining the goal to be achieved.

Then choose the best platforms for that purpose and your personality.

To do this, ask yourself these questions:

Do you sell products or services?
Do you have a B2B or B2C event?
Who is your target customer?

Let’s take an example.

Imagine you work for a company that provides services to other companies (B2B).

You decide to drive traffic to your website where you are offering your offer.

Your ultimate goal is to generate a steady stream of leads.

This gives clear targets for designing the approach to be adopted.

For example, here are some actions to get started:

Decide to focus on LinkedIn, the best professional social network,
Refine your profiles to highlight how you are helping your customers,
run your network,
Mark the floor by regularly reposting your top published content on your website,
Create and animate a LinkedIn group,
Follow and interact with influencers in your business,
Add the “LinkedIn” share button to your website,
Have useful conversations with anyone who appears in your notifications,
And why not launch targeted paid ad campaigns to increase their following and sales…

These are just a few ideas.

But it’s easy to imagine that your connections on LinkedIn will know you like you do and visit your website to learn more.

This is the best way to find clients today, at least for a B2B event.

8 reflexes you must-have for your Social Media Marketing

Now, here are some general tips for your Social Media to consider:

Diagnose your social presence

First, analyze your current efforts:

Which networks are you active on?
Are they suitable for your purpose?
Do your contacts match your contacts?
In which networks are you more successful?
What kind of posts in the past didn’t work?
Is there any irrelevant or outdated content that needs to be cleaned up?…

Assign one or more administrators to liven up your social networks.

My advice: As a business owner, you should get involved.

Define your communication style

Again, the style of communication in social networks depends on:

Your offer and your company,
Your general communication style
And of course your audience…

For example, a slightly sarcastic comment can go very well on Twitter. On the other hand, be more concrete and give advice on LinkedIn.

Undoubtedly, social platforms are very suitable for having extraordinary communication.

But most of the time it’s not worth it. It can even be dangerous.

A joke went wrong or a misunderstood opinion can take a negative turn for your message.

Make sure the person managing your social networks is aware of the importance of your reputation.

If necessary, write a good conduct statement with a list of prohibited topics.

But also leave room for creativity.

And plan some instructions in case of “crisis”.

Finally, don’t spam your contacts by aggressively promoting your products and/or services.

No one is using social media to shop. So don’t try to sell at any price.

Instead, try to get in touch to start a conversation.

However, you can post promotional content from time to time, but with caution.

Classic proportions of 8 informative messages for 2 promotional messages.

Understand each of the selected social platforms

I’m not going to review all the networks one by one.

Indeed, the type of content available is different.

You post videos, you use YouTube,
On the other hand, prefer Pinterest for infographics,
Share your photos and videos on Instagram in B2C,
You attended a conference, share your presentation game on Slideshare…
Also, current and active populations are not the same.

For example, the typical demographic profile on LinkedIn:

One male (57%),
30-49 years old (37%),
Those living in urban or inner neighborhoods (63%),
With a salary of over $70,000 (49%),
University graduate (51%),

Finally, there are algorithms!

Just as Google has developed an SEO algorithm to rank these search results, each platform has its own algorithm for boosting its members’ posts.

An algorithm gives the rules of the game.

You don’t respect that and you go out:

On the other hand, you can work miracles if you master them.

That’s why it’s important to know the general principles:

Fill in all the requested information on your profile and company page,
Publish regularly.
Engage with other members to get engagement i.e. likes, shares, comments…
Next, you need to refine it based on the selected platforms.

Here are some details to understand the algorithm of Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Provide customer service

For Internet users, social networks provide instant and easy access to your work.

No need to call, no need to write… just go to the company’s Facebook page to complain.

Moreover, it is open to the public.

Therefore, take all the positive and negative comments on social platforms as seriously as you do on Google My Business.

Of course, your complaint may be unfounded or unfair, but you should always respond to it professionally.

And your answer is also public.

In this way, you increase the satisfaction of your customers while showing this to everyone.

build your network

Unless you’re a well-known brand, this is definitely the hardest thing to do.

There is not just one way to achieve this, but several tricks that must be performed simultaneously:

Start by connecting with your customers,
And with the network effect, connect with the connections of your interested customers
And such…
Take your time and do it right. Eventually, you will have a loyal network.

Then, here are some steps to gain the necessary commitment:

Create content that your people want to share to reach people outside your network,
Become a point of information for your customers,
Share information from other members about your industry…

Note: It is a recommendation to share information that your contacts will want to share in turn.

What is shareable content? That’s the right question.

Invest in ads

Companies spend billions of dollars worldwide to reach audiences via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn…

Social ads are really no different from other types of ads.

You are targeting a certain portion of the people you show ads to them.

The only difference that matters is using social data to create Custom Audiences to target.

Also, platforms today are reducing organic reach to encourage more and more companies to use their paid ads.

Take the time to review each platform in detail. They all work differently with different costs.

See my articles on Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads if needed…

Either way, social ads are a great way to introduce yourself to new people. Don’t reject them.

Schedule your posts with a calendar

Another thing to consider is the frequency of your posts.

Again, it depends on the platforms.

For example, one post a day works well on Facebook, while on Twitter you can reach ten.

It’s not always easy for a company to produce content on a regular basis.

So don’t feel like you have to constantly post on Twitter.

Your followers will quickly get tired of seeing the same press release multiple times.

At #mixwithmarketing we post on social networks:

Essentially our content: articles, infographics, etc.
But also our colleagues’ content on Digital Marketing.
And we regularly share old articles as well, as long as they don’t get obsolete.

We are also republishing some of our articles on LinkedIn with these few precautions in mind.

Many companies schedule several releases in advance.

On the other hand, always keep an eye on the news in your industry.

This way, you ensure that recent events do not make your posts irrelevant or unpleasant.

Finally, define the release schedules for each of the platforms. It depends on the time of day your contacts are connected.

The best way is to experiment to understand what works best for you and your followers.

Monitoring and analysis of your social media marketing

As always in Digital Marketing, it’s easy to measure the results of your work by analyzing the results.

Each of the social platforms has its own dashboard to measure your performance, such as:

Social Sales Index on LinkedIn,
Twitter Analytics,
Pinterest Analytics…

You can also rely on a social listening tool like a promise that gives you real-time everything said about your company or your competitors.

9 points for a good start to your marketing activities on social networks

Below is a summary of the checklist of steps to take:

Assign one or more administrators for the animation of your accounts,
Set your goals and share them with your team,
Diagnose your actions on social platforms regularly,
Implementing a special approach to customer service in social networks,
Plan a budget and set goals for your advertising campaigns,
Determine a publication schedule suitable for your goals,
Monitor and analyze your performance,
Developing and adapting your strategy according to these results,
try something new…

FAQ – 3 frequently asked questions about Social Media Marketing (SMM)

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing refers to all the techniques used to spread your company’s reputation or promote your offer on social networks.

What are the benefits of Social Media Marketing?

The benefits of social media marketing for your business are endless: increasing your reputation, driving traffic to your website, increasing your conversion rate, and indirectly affecting your ranking in search engines.

What is the right approach to networks for your marketing activities?

Interacting with your customers and potential customers on social platforms should be the primary goal. This way, you build strong relationships with them and gain their trust. It will also differentiate you from your competitors by showing how much your company cares about its customers.