Social media marketing is when you take your business online to reach and engage with potential customers using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This type of marketing can be extremely effective and help you to connect with people who might be interested in your products or services. One of the best things about social media marketing is that you can put it into practice and see immediate results.
The Difference Between Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing
If you’re new to marketing, it might be tricky to understand what exactly social media marketing is. In reality, social media marketing is just one part of digital marketing. Digital marketing is all of the activities and practices of marketing and selling online, whether it’s SEO, PPC, or content marketing.
So, what is the difference between these two?
- Digital marketing is when you use online marketing to gain attention for your products or services.
- Social media marketing is when you use social media to spread your message about your products or services.
- Traditional marketing is when you use print or television ads to gain attention for your products or services.
- E-mail marketing is when you send promotional materials to potential customers via electronic mail.
- PPC (Pay Per Click) is when you pay for each click on your adverts.
Why Do I Need To Understand Digital Marketing?
If you want to market and sell your products or services online, you’ll need to understand the ins and outs of digital marketing. A good digital marketer will be able to explain the various platforms available and how you can use them to get the most exposure for your business.
Why? So you can pick the right one. Different platforms have different capabilities and, as a beginner, it’s hard for you to know which one to choose. That’s why you need to know what makes each platform special.
- Twitter — Twitter is quite possibly the best platform for marketers because it’s easy to use and highly interactive. The platform makes money from advertisers who want to reach the 1.43 billion monthly active users on the network. So, if you’re looking to market on this platform, you’ll want to make sure you get your money’s worth.
- LinkedIn — LinkedIn is the professional network with over 279 million members worldwide. If you’re looking to create a customer base, this is the best place to do it. Marketers can earn up to 45% of their revenue from products related to their LinkedIn Activity.
- Facebook — If you have a business page on Facebook, you’ll want to make sure you engage with your fans on the platform. Like Twitter, Facebook also makes money from advertisers who pay to reach the nearly 1.52 billion monthly active users on the platform. If you’re unsure of how to market on this sprawling network, this is a good place to start.
- Instagram — With over 1.3 billion monthly active users, Instagram is the largest social media platform globally. As a business owner or marketer, you’ll want to be sure you’re using the right strategies to get the most out of this popular network.
- Snapchat — If you’ve got an iPhone, you’ve got Snapchat. This is the best platform to gain exposure and interact with potential customers. Plus, it’s hugely popular, so even if you do have a small following, you may well have hundreds of thousands of potential customers on the platform. With so much demand for your services, you may as well get in on the action and join the 1.53 million monthly active users on SnapChat.
The Three Main Strategies for Social Media Marketing
As a beginner in social media marketing, you’ll need to understand the different strategies available to help you grow your business. Three main strategies exist:
- Engagement — This is where you decide to engage with your target audiences on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. This involves the content you share and the interactions you have with your followers. The more you engage with your followers, the more they’ll come back for more.
- Attraction — Using stories and articles written by famous journalists, this is a great way to attract potential customers. When someone encounters an article featuring an authoritative voice and reputable brand, they’ll naturally want to know more about the topic. By creating highly targeted content that speaks to a specific audience, you can attract all of those customers to your side.
- Conversion — Using both paid and unpaid resources and instruments, you can drive people to action and encourage them to take a specific course of action, whether it’s to make a purchase, donate money, or fill out a form. This involves using tools like Google Analytics to track the activity of your website visitors.
How To Market On Facebook
If you’re new to marketing, you may wonder how to properly go about marketing on Facebook. With over a billion active monthly users, this is one place you may want to consider prioritising your marketing efforts. While it’s possible to build a business page and try to market on this platform, you may not see the results you’re looking for if you don’t use the right strategy. Here are a few tips on how to market on Facebook:
- Create a business page — Every business owner or marketer on Facebook should have a business page with a link to their website. Having a business page allows you to easily communicate with customers and potential customers via status updates, photos, and videos. So, if you want to market your product or service on Facebook, create a business page and start using it.
- Find your audience — Before you put out content and try to engage with your followers, you’ll need to find out who exactly you’re trying to reach. With a business page, you can set up an audience that suits your niche. Once you’ve found this audience, you can begin to post content that’s relevant to them.
- Use stories — These are narrative posts that enable you to share content that’s both interesting and engaging. According to HubSpot Blogs, stories get 68% of the audience’s attention compared to other forms of content.
- Interact — Through both paid and unpaid measures, you can gain reputation on the platform. If you receive a good response to your content, you’ll gain credibility and attract more potential customers to your business.
- Measure — To know if your efforts are paying off, you’ll need to measure the results of your marketing activity. To find these results, you can use a tool like Google Analytics. This will help you set up a custom metric for the success of your campaigns and allows you to identify which platform is bringing in the most revenue.
How To Market On Twitter
If you’re looking to start a business or are in the process of doing so, you may wonder where to focus your marketing efforts. While it’s possible to market on Twitter, like Facebook, you may not see the results you’re looking for if you don’t use the right strategy. Here are a few tips on how to market on Twitter:
- Build your following — One of the best things about Twitter is how easy it is to get started and how much you can accomplish with just a few thousand followers. If you want to market on this platform, you’ll want to build a small but loyal following. To do this, you can use tools like Growthoid, which helps you find relevant and engaging content to share on the platform to gain popularity.
- Create engaging content — To attract potential customers to your side, you’ll need to create content that’s both interesting and engaging. To do this, you can draw upon your experience as a business owner or marketer and use your unique insights to create useful and informative content that will keep people coming back for more.
- Interact — Like Facebook, Twitter makes money from advertisers who pay to have their content seen by as many people possible. If you’re not sure how to market on this platform, just remember to engage with your followers by replying to their tweets, retweeting their content, and sharing your own.
- Measure — Like Google Analytics, which we mentioned earlier, Twitter has a very in-depth analytics tool available to users. This allows you to track your marketing efforts and identify the platforms, messages, and content that’s performing the best.
How To Market On Linkedin
If you’re looking to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you may wonder where to focus your marketing efforts. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Linkedin is a professional network that allows you to network with and showcase your work to prominent industry figures. If you want to market on this platform, you’re going to need to use a mix of both paid and unpaid strategies to establish yourself as an expert in your industry.