A Complete Guide on How to Do Social Media Marketing

From marketers being able to expose their products and services to a limited number of people, to have a global audience as their stage - with the advent of social media, marketing has evolved quite significantly. . And with the introduction to social media, the role of social media marketing is on the rise too. And this social media marketing tutorial will help you with some data, insights, and quick tips and tricks to win your social media marketing game. 

How was Marketing Done Earlier?

Before the introduction of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, marketers had to use some innovative methods to market their content. They used:

And a lot of these marketing practices have evolved over the years, and thanks to social media marketing, the process of marketing products and services has gotten a whole lot tougher. Now, let’s have a look at what social marketing actually is. 

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing includes increasing website traffic, engagement, brand awareness, and other marketing goals by designing various types of content for different social media platforms. The content can be in the form of videos, blogs, infographics, or any other forms that have the potential to go viral.

If it’s done right, social media marketing can be beneficial to you in several ways:

• Increase brand awareness 
• Boost conversions rates 
• Improve search engine ratings
• Build top-funnel traffic
• Lower marketing campaign costs

While Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter are the most popular platforms, there are hundreds of others out there. They come in many flavors, like — microblogging, B2B networking, video sharing, content sharing, bookmarking, Q&A, and so on. Let’s dig in a little deeper.

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Why is Social Media Marketing Useful?

Social media marketing can be highly beneficial to your business when done right. Here are some reasons why:

1. It improves brand awareness
2. Higher conversion rates
3. Improved search engine rankings
4. Cost-effectiveness
5. Increased top-funnel traffic

What are the Channels Used for Social Media Marketing? 

Although there are several channels through which you can perform Social Media Marketing, some of the most commonly used social media platforms are: 

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. LinkedIn
4. YouTube
5. Twitter

Next? Next, we will explore each of these apps and platforms in detail.

1. Facebook 

By far, Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world, and arguably, the most popular social media platform. It allows users with common interests to build online communities. Facebook can also be used to improve brand awareness. If you have a business, you should create a separate Facebook page from your profile. Create original or share engaging content with a little self-promotion here and there. If you look at Coca-Cola’s Facebook page, for instance, they don’t necessarily use their Facebook page to push their products on people. Instead,  the company publishes a variety of posts about things like recycling and community involvement to build brand awareness. Companies can also leverage user-generated content to promote their brand by sharing how much other customers love their products or services.

What’s extra helpful for businesses and marketers is Facebook Insights. Updated weekly, these give you insight into how people are interacting with your posts, or how successful your campaign is. Metrics include page views, engagement, likes, shares of your posts, and more. It’s worth noting that data is only accessible for the last two years, and demographic data like age, gender, and location, are only available once there are at least 100 users.

Source: Clickz

Here are some features of Facebook you need to know. 

1. 62 percent of Facebook users are aged over 35 (Oblero)
2. 76 percent of the audience is below the age of 25 (SproutSocial)
3. 75 and 63 percent of females and males respectively are on Facebook (SproutSocial)
4. Video content provides the greatest amount of engagement
5. Industries that can capitalize on Facebook are: food and beverages, news and media, and e-commerce
6. Some of the most liked pages on Facebook are of the brands Samsung, Coca Cola, Amazon, etc. 

How Can You Take Advantage of Facebook?

1. Create a Facebook page for your business
2. Create original content that is relevant to your audience and with occasional self-promotion
3. Take advantage of user-generated content like sharing a user’s experience of using your product
4. Fix a schedule for posting your content
5. Advertise your posts using Facebook Ads (single image ads, video ads, etc.)
6. Use insights obtained from FB ads for continuous optimization

2. Instagram 

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, enables you to promote your brand or products through photos and videos. It has over 1 billion monthly users. Instagram’s popularity is primarily due to its simplicity — all you need is a mobile phone to upload a photo or video.  You can also post ads on Instagram, and since Facebook owns it, you can run Facebook ads alongside Instagram ads to boost your posts. Facebook Ads Manager allows you to choose to also advertise on Instagram, and you can also decide whether to post the ad as a story or feed. Instagram is not limited to any industry, but it’s used most often in beauty, food and beverage, and eCommerce. With eCommerce, for instance, customers can purchase products through the platform.

Here are some features of Instagram you need to know:

1. The average number of monthly users on Instagram is 1 billion (Instagram)
2. 43 percent of females are Instagram users (SproutSocial)
3. 29 percent of the audience is between the ages of 18 and 24 (Statista)
4. Content that works better on Instagram are photos and videos
5. Industries that are successful on Instagram are: beauty, food and beverages, and e-commerce
6. Some of the most followed brands on Instagram are Chanel, Starbucks, and Nike

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Here Are Some Ways to Take Advantage of Instagram

1. Have a compelling bio, a good profile picture, and a link to your website, and don’t be afraid to use emojis
2. Follow relevant accounts from your industry
3. Use plenty of relevant hashtags, and also use both video and image content
4. Get shoutouts from other influencers
5. Regularly update your Instagram stories
6. Run contests to boost engagement, and Instagram ads to give your posts a boost

3. LinkedIn 

In the B2B arena, LinkedIn reigns. LinkedIn is a powerful B2B platform that also serves as a sort of online resume for a person or a business. For lead generation, LinkedIn should be the first platform to consider as it is 277% more effective at generating leads than other social media platforms.  You can create an engaging business profile for your LinkedIn page by giving information about the products and services you offer, a history of the business, accolades, and so on. 

Like Facebook and Instagram, you can also advertise on LinkedIn. Images, videos, and slideshow presentations perform well. You can also “pin” updates on your page to promote specific content and use LinkedIn metrics to determine the success of your ad campaigns. So, LinkedIn marketing is crucial for professionals who are studying how to start social media marketing.

Let’s have a look at some features of LinkedIn:

1. Average number of monthly active users is around 675 million (LinkedIn)
2. 57 percent of the user base are men, and 24 percent of the user base are millennials (HootSuite)
3. LinkedIn Is 277 percent more effective at generating B2B leads
4. Content that works on LinkedIn are blogs, industry news, and work tips and best practices,

Here Are Some Ways to Take Advantage of LinkedIn

1. Create an engaging profile for yourself
2. Create a company page for your business
3. Optimize your companies’ page for search engines
4. Use more media like images, videos, and SlideShare presentations
5. Boost content that you feel is the best 
6. Use LinkedIn ads campaigns (sponsored content, text ads, or dynamic ads)

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4. YouTube 

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is a video sharing platform with over 1.9 billion monthly active users worldwide. Given the level of engagement that videos get, it’s no surprise that if it were a search engine, it would be the second most popular, after Google. Like Facebook and Instagram, the YouTube mobile app is top-rated — 70 percent of videos are viewed from mobile phones. A ton of industries and some of the world’s most successful brands are on YouTube, so if you are a business, you want to be on YouTube.

Here are some features of YouTube you need to know:

1. Average number of monthly active users: 1.9 billion (YouTube)
2. The highest number of active users are from the US, Brazil, Russia, Japan, and India
3. 70 percent of viewers use their smartphones to surf through YouTube
4. The only thing that works on YouTube: Videos
5. Industries that can capitalize on YouTube: gaming, entertainment, and vlogs
6. Some of the most successful brands on YouTube are: LEGO, RedBull, and Coca Cola

Now Let’s Have a Look at How You Can Take Advantage of YouTube

1. Optimize your video for SEO to get views
2. Upload new videos regularly and fix a schedule for making them live
3. Organize videos on playlists
4. Provide translations for video
5. Use Youtube Ads (skippable and non-skippable ads or display ads)
6. Collaborate with influencers

5. Twitter 

Your knowledge on ‘How to start social media marketing’ is incomplete without knowing about Twitter Marketing. Twitter is a microblogging platform where users create short messages (tweets) with links to other content. It is particularly popular with millennials and has over 326 million monthly active users. Many people around the world use Twitter to get instant news, media, and entertainment. Videos work well on Twitter, and as we keep pointing out, drive more engagement. Another way to help people find your content is by using hashtags in your tweets. Born in a tweet in 2007, hashtags are now widely used across many platforms. They are like a metadata tag, which helps users find specific content.

Because of the 280 character limit, we also recommend using Twitter Cards for social media marketing. Twitter Cards allow you to attach vibrant photos or videos and different media experiences to Tweets, helping to drive traffic to and engagement on your website. 

Here are features of Twitter you need to know: 

1. Average number of monthly active users: 330 million(Twitter)
2. 81 percent of millennials use Twitter on their smartphones (WebFx)
3. 71 percent of the audience in America uses Twitter to get access to news and recent updates. (HootSuite)
4. Content that works: videos, infographics, evergreen articles, etc.
5. Industries that can capitalize on Twitter: beauty and fitness, news and media, entertainment
6. Some of the most influential brands on Twitter are: MAC Cosmetics, CNN and Playstation

Now, Let’s Have a Look at How to Make Good Use of the Features Offered by Twitter

1. Implement Twitter cards: images, videos, media experiences
2. Build up a Twitter following
3. Engage with influencers
4. Us Twitter ads (promoted tweets, accounts, and trends)
5. Use appropriate hashtags
6. Use tweet chat to find new connections who might be interested in your product/ service

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Tools for Social Media Marketing

When you start posting more and leveraging multiple platforms, it can become a challenge to manage the process or monitor the success of your efforts in social media marketing. There are several powerful social media management platforms available to automate and keep track of many of the tasks in your campaigns.

Some of these tools have free trial versions or low monthly subscription rates. Regardless of whether you're using a free or paid version of one of these tools, they are worth looking. No matter how many social media platforms you are using. Social media management tools not only help you schedule and organize your content, but they can also help you:

• Measure the engagement of your posts 
• Find ideas for the new and relevant content
• Analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns
• Use insights to improve your campaigns
• Monitor and analyze how your brand is performing through social listening

Next Step to Win Your Social Media Marketing Game

Social media platforms are evolving day by day, and so should your social media marketing strategy and knowledge about various social media platforms. 

You can also enroll in Simplilearn’s IMT Ghaziabad Digital Marketing Program which will transform you into an industry-ready social media marketer, and also help you accelerate your brand and execute top-notch social media campaigns.