Did you know that by 2024 the average user was spending 143 minutes on social media platforms? There’s hardly anyone with a smartphone today who doesn’t have an account on one of the popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter (now X), and Instagram. With the increase in the usage of social media, the opportunity arose for businesses to use this medium for increasing brand awareness. As a result, the field of social media marketing was born and has been successfully thriving since then.
In this guide, you will learn what social media marketing is, how it differentiates from digital marketing, and how you can implement it to connect with a wider audience!
What is Social Media Marketing?
Simply put, social media marketing (SMM) is the process of utilizing social media platforms for promoting a business. However, with every brand setting up its profile on social media, the competition has increased considerably. The social media marketing of today doesn’t simply involve placing an ad for a business online.
It requires strategic planning to attract the attention of potential customers and ensure that they don’t go to other brands. Social media marketers of today utilize modern analytic tools to keep tabs on the performance of each post and change their strategies accordingly.
What is the Difference Between Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing?
If you have been thinking of investing in digital marketing and have just now found out that social media marketing is also important for your business, you might have a few questions. However, the difference between digital marketing and social media marketing isn’t grand. Digital marketing refers to using all kinds of digital mediums to connect with your target audience. Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing where the focus is solely on social media platforms.
Building a Social Media Marketing Strategy
To make the most of SMM, you should start by building a foolproof strategy. Here are the necessary steps for building a successful SMM strategy:
1. Identify Your Target Audience
Social media is populated by people of all ages with their unique needs and wants. If you don’t identify your target audience when starting your SMM, you are bound to fail. Start by deciding the age group of people you want to sell your product or services to. You should not only know their income but also their pain points, interests, and hobbies. Another factor to consider is how your target audience interacts with posts online.
2. Define Your Goals
Whether you are hiring a social media marketing agency or handling your SMM yourself, defining your goals is crucial. When setting up your SMM goals, try to be as specific as you can. For instance, if your main goal is to increase brand awareness, define some relevant parameters so you know what exactly you are aiming for.
3. Decide on Your Content Pillars
This is the part of your social media marketing strategy where knowing your audience will benefit you the most. While almost every social media user watches videos nowadays, not everyone will be attracted to long-form videos. Short videos are more popular among younger audiences.
You can also conduct competitor research to find out which content format is working for other businesses in your industry. Keep in mind that your content pillars aren’t fixed and can be changed later depending on how well they perform with your target audience. It is also important to know that different types of formats are popular on each of the main social media platforms.
4. Select Social Media Platforms
The popularity of social media led to the creation of multiple platforms for the purpose of connecting people. While you can find businesses on almost all of the social media platforms, not every business has to have a profile on every app. If your target audience is young, Twitter (now X), Instagram, and TikTok are the platforms you should create content for. On the other hand, Facebook is more popular among older generations.
5. Establish Your Brand’s Personality
Your social media personality can become the defining feature for your audiences. However, to get to that point, you must first decide on the brand voice you wish to use to connect with people. Are you aiming for a light-hearted approach or do you wish to come across as a sophisticated brand? The answer to this question can help you decide on a brand voice to use on social media platforms.
6. Create Your Content Calendar
One of the most important aspects of social media posting is being regular with it. You are more likely to attract your audience by posting at the same time every day instead of dumping all of your posts at once. However, if you don’t have your posts prepared in advance, you will end up missing your daily deadline frequently. To avoid that, create your content calendar complete with captions or texts and the details of what image or video will go with them.
7. Develop Unique & Original Content
If you hire an agency for social media marketing services, you won’t have to worry about content creation. However, if you are handling SMM yourself, you will have to create unique and original content to connect with your target audience. Make sure to reference popular trends in your content to make it interesting for the intended audiences.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can be a great way to improve brand awareness and increase sales. However, handling SMM without a social media marketing course often proves to be impossible. Your investment in SMM will also go to waste if it is handled by those who have no experience as social media marketers. To make the most of SMM, you should get in touch with experts and let them do what they do best.
If you are looking to benefit from social media marketing, you can get in touch with Aerox Digital to get started!
FAQs
Why is social media marketing important?
The popularity of social media directly proves the importance of social media marketing. SMM can also help brands establish a strong connection with their target audience and drive up sales.
What are the five benefits of social media marketing?
The top five benefits of SMM are:
I. Brand awareness.
II. Lead generation.
III. Improved sales.
IV. Better engagement.
V. Customer loyalty.
