The best ways to leverage social media in your marketing strategy

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Having a social media presence is essential for all businesses. Now more than ever, consumers connect with the brands they like on social media and use it as a search tool to find products and services. Being active on the platforms where your customers are helps to build your brand awareness and build social proof – evidence that other people found value in what you’re offering.

However, as many large and small businesses put a lot of time and money into building their social media presence, the competition is fierce. Using social media marketing doesn’t guarantee a following. Instead, you have to make sure you’re standing out from the crowd. You can only do this by building it into your marketing efforts and making a concerted effort into your profiles, pushing out valuable content, to reap the benefits.

In this blog, we’ll explore what the benefits of using social media for your business are, which social media channels are available, and the best social media campaign strategies you can implement.

What are the benefits of using social media?

The ultimate goal for all businesses is to create a profit and drive sales. In one survey by Curalate, they found that 76% of consumers have purchased a product they saw in a brand’s social media post. 11% of these bought immediately, 44% bought online later, and 21% bought later in a physical store.

There are other benefits which all contribute to growing your customer base and driving sales long-term. These include:

  • Attracting new customers
  • Building loyalty and trust in your brand
  • Driving traffic to your website
  • Growing your brand awareness
  • Seeing what people are saying about your business
  • Interacting directly with your customers in real-time

What is earned media in social media marketing?

Earned media is exposure a business gains from methods other than paid media or owned media (marketing that is done in-house on the businesses owned channels). 

In social media marketing terms, earned media is mentions, shares, reposts, and reviews that customers post on their own channels, thereby telling their audiences about your products or services.

Which social media platforms should you use?

There are many different social media platforms available. It’s possible that your business won’t have the time to create effective strategies for all of them, so below we have included a breakdown of the most popular platforms for you to decide which ones are best for your needs and where you’re most likely to find your target audience.

Facebook:

  • The most popular social media network, reaching 54.6% of social media users worldwide in 2023
  • 3.065 billion monthly active users
  • Largest age group on the platform is the 25-34 year olds
  • In-depth analytics dashboard to review results
  • Supports written content, static images, and video content

X (formerly Twitter):

  • 5th most visited website globally
  • 541 million monthly active users
  • Largest age group on the platform is the 25-34 year olds
  • Verification for Organizations is priced at $1000 per month, and businesses can only run paid campaigns with verification
  • Supports written content, static images, video content, and interactive polling

Instagram:

  • 2 billion monthly active users
  • Largest age group on the platform is the 18-24 year olds
  • Supports static images and video content, plus more interactive features on the Instagram Stories function

TikTok:

LinkedIn:

  • 1 billion members
  • Largest age group on the platform is the 25-34 year olds
  • Most prominently used for B2B marketing
  • Supports written content, static images, and video content

YouTube:

The best social media marketing strategies

Here are some effective social media advertising strategies which you can implement for your business.

Choose the right platforms for your business

Pick the best social platforms for your business and spend time and effort on those. Some factors in deciding where to focus your attention could include what types of content they support and whether you have capacity to create those, where your audience are most likely to be, and where your competitors are.

Create a consistent content calendar

Like most things, consistency is key when it comes to social media marketing. Create a calendar for content creation with a schedule of high-quality posts to ensure you have a plan for what will be published when. This visual format also enables you to ensure your social media content is a good balance between promotional content and educational content which is vital for engaging your audience.

Prioritise engagement

The best way to build your own following is by following and interacting with potential customers. As well as having a calendar pushing out posts on your platform, it’s important to set aside some time to interact with your followers and find the people who may have an interest in what you’re selling.

Use influencer marketing

Give influencers free samples of your products or services in exchange for them posting about you to their audiences. In some cases, this may cost you a fee. Ensure the influencers you’re collaborating with are willing to tag your accounts when you work with them, so their audiences can then follow you.

Boost posts for a higher reach

If you have the budget for it, you can use paid ads on all social media platforms to boost your posts further, bypassing the algorithms which determine how successful your organic posts are. In most cases, you’re able to put in certain demographics to ensure your paid ads are reaching the right people, building your brand identity and giving you more opportunity to hit your business goals.

Build a community

Use social media to build a community amongst your followers by sharing giveaways, special offers, discount codes, or referral links. By pushing these out onto your platforms, you build brand loyalty amongst your user base who are more likely to interact with you more often.

Analyse and optimise

All social media platforms have a dashboard where you can gather value insights through data and metrics on how your posts have performed and which posts are more likely to lead to conversions. Build social media analytics into your digital marketing strategy to review this data often and optimise your content to give your audience what they want to read or watch, increasing their engagement.

Learn how to build effective social media management into your marketing campaigns

Whether you’re launching a new product or working on existing offerings, social media can bring significant return on investment. When used effectively, making full use of each of their analytics tools, a business can raise the website traffic and sales.

Hone your marketing skills by studying Wrexham University’s 100% online MBA Marketing. Taught part-time, you’ll be able to apply what you learn to your current role while you learn, putting you in a good position for progression upon graduation.