In the past, marketing on social media has mainly focused on paid advertising, with the aim of driving as many leads as possible to a website. However, the lines between ‘traditional’ and ‘digital’ marketing have blurred, and social media is now a crucial part of many marketing campaigns.

Marketing on social media doesn’t have to be limited to ads, and companies are realizing this. Therefore, over the next five weeks, we will highlight tips and tricks for social media marketing from an online marketing perspective.

1. Post Regularly & Consistently

Just like with any other marketing channel, frequency and consistency are crucial when it comes to social media marketing. This means that you should post often (at least once a week) and make sure that you post regularly (at least once every two weeks).

If you’re posting once every two weeks, you’re probably wondering what kind of impact that will have on your traffic. Well, it depends on your target audience. Generally, people prefer consistency, which means that they’ll likely notice when you go on a 2-week hiatus and won’t get as excited about your next post when you come back. Thus, posting regularly will help you establish trust with your audience and encourage them to visit your page to learn more about your products or services.

2. Personalize Your Posts

While it’s important to have a general theme or slogan for your Facebook page, the content of your posts should be personalized to appeal to your followers. In other words, when you’re tweeting, you should include @mentions for the individuals you’re sending your message to, as well as describe the theme or topic of your tweet in your first sentence.

For example, if you run an automotive dealership, your posts can include vehicle images and descriptions of new car models. But if you’re really trying to establish credibility as an independent service provider, you can describe the benefits of your company’s products or how individuals can achieve greater productivity at work.

3. Use Numbers

Numbers are always the best way to make data-driven arguments, which is why all credible sources, including the Wall Street Journal, use them increasingly frequently to report on real-world results. If you’re using social media to promote your products or services, you should consider using these numbers to back up your claims.

For example, let’s say that you run a social media agency, and one of your clients is a furniture company that’s looking to increase their online presence. You’ve agreed to help them establish an online community, and over the next few months, you’ll be working closely with their staff to identify and analyze trends, analyze user behavior, and set up automated email campaigns. Now, it’s important to note that you’re not a digital marketer by trade, but you do have a decent grasp of SEO and digital marketing.

To support the work that you’re doing, you could use numbers, such as the number of times that a specific piece of content went viral, how many individuals visited a specific webpage, or how many engaged with a certain hashtag.

4. Measure The Right Metrics

In order to truly understand the impact of your social media efforts, you should be measuring the right metrics.

As an enthusiast of both SEO and social media, when you’re measuring the results of your campaign, you should look at indicators that are specific to both of these channels. For example, when analyzing the results of your automotive client’s social media campaign, you’ll want to look at the following:

• Retweets (re-tweets) – the total number of times a user has retweeted a specific piece of content
• Mentions (mentions) – the total number of times an individual has mentioned your client’s brand or product in a tweet
• Hashtags – the #’s that have been used to identify the content

When measuring the results of a social media campaign, it’s important to look at not just the numbers but also the analytics, or the analysis of the data. For example, you could use a tool like Hootsuite to quickly identify the most popular posts across your various platforms, or you can use Google Analytics to determine the following:

• The total number of page views for a specific webpage
• The total number of conversions (i.e., the number of individuals who’ve made a purchase after viewing a specific webpage)
• The average amount of time that visitors spend on a webpage
• The bounce rate (i.e., the percentage of users who visit a specific webpage and then leave), which you can use to determine the effectiveness of your content
• The total number of individuals who’ve shared your content (i.e., the tweet, article, or video)
• The location of your followers, whether they’re physically located in the U.S. or another country

5. Be Unique

If you want to be able to stand out from the crowd, you need to be unique. This doesn’t mean that you have to be different from other brands or companies, but instead, it means that you have to find a way to be exceptional. To do this, you can follow a few simple steps. First, establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry by creating and curating content that is both informative and useful. Second, create and release content at regular intervals to keep your subscribers interested and engaging. Third, make sure that you act with integrity, never resorting to unethical practices to gain popularity.

If you’re looking for inspiration, you can also check out some of the other marketing blogs on the Learn Blogger platform. In addition to sharing tips and tricks for marketing on social media, they’ll also be regularly posting about brand awareness, content marketing, and SEO.