Social media marketing is the process of creating content for social media platforms to promote your products and/or services, build community with your target audience, and drive traffic to your business. With new features and platforms emerging every day, social media marketing is constantly evolving.

 Social media marketing is all about meeting your target audience and customers where they are and as they socially interact with each other and your brand. As you will see in the next section, while social media marketing is incredibly valuable and beneficial for your business growth, your strategy will differ depending on which social networks your audience is spending their time on.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

 Let’s take a look at user experience to illustrate the benefits of social media advertising. To be exact, that’s my perspective.

 What’s so important about social media marketing, though? And how are you going to build a social media marketing strategy that’s going to work for your business?

Social media marketing should be used by your company in a variety of ways. We have drawn up a list of the most important reasons for considering this.

Let’s go for it.

1. Increase your brand awareness.

 If you don’t have a presence, because of the sheer number of people on social media, you’re missing out on the potential to reach thousands and even millions.

In fact, social media has proven to boost brand awareness by driving up engagement, including things like comments, likes, shares, reposts, and saves.

Directing traffic to your site will also help you increase the visibility of your brand. This can be done by adding links to your website and other offers on your profile, social media pages.

1. Generate leads and boost conversions.

 A simple way to increase lead generation, increase conversion, and increase sales is to promote and share your products on social media, because you are advertising to people who have chosen to engage with you by following your account.

Some examples of how social media can be used to increase leads are given below.

• Create contests for your visitors and followers to participate in on your social media profiles.
• Include links to your website and offers in the bio sections of your profiles.
• Host live videos to announce new products and provide updates or details about exciting news at your company.
• Implement a social media marketing campaign on one of your channels.
• Use your social profiles to sell your products. For example, on your profile, you can enable Facebook’s shopping section or Instagram’s shopping feature. These features will allow your visitors and followers to click on the products you have shared in posts, so that they can see price, material or size data. In this way, visitors can easily make a purchase from you on the platform and proceed to pay for it directly. Here is how to create a Facebook page for your site, if you do not already have one.
• Foster relationships with your customers.

 You can build lasting relationships with your followers on social media and with your business by connecting and interacting with them. You’ll be able to do this by interacting with them on your posts, answering any questions or comments they may have and providing whatever help you can.

In addition, to strengthen your trust and demonstrate how much you appreciate the input and support of your followers, you can ask their questions about your products or pain points as well as create giveaways.

1. Learn from your competitors.

 Social media is a great way of keeping an eye on your competitors, as long as it’s the tactics they use to promote their products or campaigns and how closely they interact with followers.

Social media allows you to look at what’s working and what’s not working for your competitors and, therefore, helps you decide what’s right and what’s wrong with your company’s approach.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

• Set clear goals.
• Research your buyer personas and audience.
• Determine which social platforms you’ll market on.
• Establish your most important metrics and KPIs.
• Get to know your competition.
• Create unique and engaging content.
• Organize a schedule for your posts.
• Review and adjust your strategy.

Social Media Marketing Platforms

• Facebook
• Users: 2.8 billion daily active users worldwide
• Audience: Cusp of Gen Z and Millennials (most users aged 24-35)
• Industry impact: B2C
• Best for: Brand awareness, advertising, community building

 The biggest and most established social networking site is Facebook. It has been a useful tool for B2C companies since it was launched in 2004, offering advanced advertising tools, as well as innovative marketing opportunities.

• TikTok
• Users: 1 billion active monthly global users
• Audience: Primarily Gen Z followed by Millennials
• Industry impact: B2C, then B2B
• Best for: Short-form, creative video content, user-generated content, building brand awareness

 You probably think of TikTok when you’re thinking about short films. In 2020, the platform has grown in popularity, and there is no sign of slowing down. It is one of the best places to build communities, and it’s ranked third by advertisers behind YouTube.

• Instagram
• Users: 1 billion monthly active users
• Audience: Nearly even distribution of Gen Z and Millennials
• Industry impact: B2C
• Best for: High-quality images and videos; user-generated content; advertising

Instagram was launched in 13 years, and it’s changed the world for ever. Instagram is where brands go when it comes to sharing eye catching content. The platform’s enhanced eCommerce tools are another factor distinguishing it from other platforms.

 Today, users can discover brands, browse their products and services, and complete a purchase without leaving the app, which makes Instagram a difficult platform to beat. In fact, consumers say Instagram offers the best in-app shopping experience, and Instagram Shops is the most popular social selling feature among social media marketers.

• X (formerly Twitter)
• Users: 550 million daily active users worldwide
• Audience: Primarily Millennials
• Industry impact: B2B and B2C
• Best for: Public relations, customer service, community building

 While Instagram focuses on visuals, X (formerly Twitter) focuses on words. Since the early days of 140-character Tweets (the limit is now 280), the platform has now expanded to include an audio tool called X Spaces, a community-building tool for creators called Twitter Subscriptions, and Twitter Blue for those interested in an elevated Twitter experience.

• LinkedIn
• Users: 770 million active users worldwide
• Audience: Older Gen Z (24+), Millennials (largest user base), and Gen X
• Industry impact: B2B
• Best for: B2B relationships, business development, and social selling

  LinkedIn’s the professional cousin of Facebook. It may be the only platform where a clear definition of its audience is given: working professionals looking for networking and new business opportunities. It is therefore a perfect platform for B2B companies seeking the identification of key decision makers and setting up an Industry Specific Community.

• YouTube
• Users: Over 2.4 billion users worldwide
• Audience: Primarily Millennials but has a strong audience across gender and age demographics
• Industry impact: B2C and B2B
• Best for: Brand awareness, long-form entertainment, how-to and explainer videos, SEO, advertising

 The second most popular website in the world is YouTube. Moreover, it’s considered by marketing to be the other best platform for building a community. Besides being one of the most popular platforms, its users are also more likely to stay longer because they have mostly longform content that makes it an ideal platform for sharing educational material.

• Snapchat
• Users: 406 million daily active users worldwide
• Audience: Primarily Generation Z
• Industry impact: B2C
• Best for: Brand awareness, advertising, location-based marketing

 In 2011, when Snapchat first came on the scene, it was at the forefront of ephemerality. It’s giving you content to share with your friends, which will run out after 24 hours. Many thought the brand would disappear once Instagram introduced Stories, the same feature with a different name, but it continues to be popular among young adults.

• Pinterest
• Users: 482 million monthly active users worldwide
• Audience: Primarily Millennials with a solid audience in Gen Z
• Industry impact: B2C
• Best for: Visual advertising; inspiration

 Think of Pinterest as a visual storyboard where users can get inspiration for everything from fashion to home decor.85% of Pinners say they’re going to start their next project onPinterest. Furthermore, 80% of the weekly Pinners say they’ve discovered a new brand or product on this platform. It’s not just a great discovery tool, but also an opportunity for businesses to tell their story by means of visual stories.

How to Analyze Your Social Media Marketing Impact and Results

 Ensuring that your efforts are successful in helping you meet your objectives is one of the most important aspects of social media marketing. You’ll need to keep a record of your posts on all the channels in order to determine this. Reviewing and managing your social media metrics can help you do this.

Social Media Metrics

 The metrics of social media are data related to the success of your posts and their impact on your audience and customers on different platforms. Data on the level of engagement, likes, follows, shares and all other interactions in a given platform may be included in those metrics.

These are the ten most important metrics I recommend tracking:

• Engagement: This including clicks, comments, likes and responses to your posts on the internet. Platform specific types of engagement, such as “Saved” posts on Instagram and “Pinned” posts on Pinterest, are also available.
• Reach: The number of people who have seen any content associated with your page or profile is your reach.
• Followers: This is the number of people who have clicked on the “Follow” button and have seen your content in their feeds on a regular basis.
• Impressions: regardless of the interaction, this is the number of times a post has been seen. The impression comes from somebody who’s been watching their feed for a while.
• Video views: This is the number of views each gets on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or any other social network with video capabilities.
• Profile visits: The number of people visiting your profile is the number of profiles.
• Mentions and tags: It’s when someone mentions your brand, business, or profile in their own post. Someone might add your profile’s hand to a piece of their content with a direct tag, usually using the “@” symbol. ‘I’m loving these new shoes from Nike, for example.’
• Reposts: This is when a part of your content has been posted to their profile by an audience member.
• Share: This is the number of times that content from your profile has been shared with your own or your network.

 Using similar tactics to generate leads and increase conversions, you can have an impact on all of these metrics as well as build a more socially connected profile which will enhance your overall engagement.

The metrics you focus on will depend on your business’ level of maturity:

• If you are new, focus on creating awareness and attracting audiences. The main metrics are: reach, impressions, audience increases.
• Focus on building trust if you’re going to grow. The main metrics are likes, saves, comments, and direct messages.
• When you are established, focus on maintaining and nurturing. The main metrics are likes, saves, comments, and direct messages.
• If you’re going to start something, just concentrate on selling. Key metrics: DMs and click through rates

How to Measure Social Media Metrics

There are multiple ways to monitor your social media metrics. Some platforms even have built-in analytics tools for you to use:

• X Analytics
• Facebook Analytics
• Instagram Insights

 Analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics could also be used. If you’re interested in tracking the metrics of Social Media and Web sites, this is a great option for you.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a complete overview of all your campaigns, Zeeroxmarketing Analytics Software is an ideal choice. In doing so, you will be able to determine how each channel contributes to your overall marketing objectives.

 You can find the number of visitors who come to your site from a particular Social Advertising campaign and click on its details in order to see how many are converted as Qualified leads or bought.

Remember, monitoring and analytics tools have also been built into a number of Social Media Calendaring solutions that we reviewed earlier.

 You’ll gain a better understanding of what your followers and audiences are responding well to, as well as the changes that you may wish to make in order to increase their engagement by using any metrics tracking tools.

We’re going to take a look at other resources that may be of use for you now that we have reviewed the benefits of social media marketing, and how to build your strategy.

Emerging Social Media Platforms

 According to recent Zeerox Marketing Research, the search for new and emerging platforms is constantly on the minds of advertisers.

Although it may take some time for platforms to reach their destination, you will need a plan of attack once they have arrived.

 For example, Chipotle was one of the earliest brands to experiment sharing shortform video content on TikTok and has since become a significant part of its platform. The rest of the brands were not so fortunate, and are struggling to fit in. (TikTokers don’t shy away from telling brands when they don’t like something and won’t mince their words).

 Emerging platforms may provide a new way of reaching your target audience that is more efficient than what you’re doing at the moment. Some of the most popular emerging platforms in 2024 are Threads and Lemon8, and Bereal is also working to establish itself.

Start Marketing on Social Media

 In view of the fact that there are billions of people on social media, it’s clear why so many businesses and advertisers have turned to this channel for promoting their products and interacting with consumers.

Although it may seem difficult to determine your company’s social media strategy, understanding how social media works and using the resources at your disposal, such as this article, can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed!

 Today, you can start working on your business’s Social Media Marketing Strategy to build followers, increases engagement and gains conversions.

Work with an agency that has an Social Media marketing list a mile long

If you’re ready to work with an Social Media marketing agency that offers all the Social Media marketing strategies mentioned on this page (and then some), Zeeroxmarketing is here for you.

We’re a full-service digital marketing agency that will work with you to create a custom Social Media marketing campaign that can transform your business with some of the best Social Media marketing services out there.