A guide to social media marketing for businesses

Since the sweeping lockdowns that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, social media marketing has boomed into what many industry thought-leaders are calling the make-or-break marketing platform. Business social media pages are now effectively business websites, where brands can put on display all of the information potential customers might need to make a purchase decision.

However, social media marketing is far from just a lead-generation tool. Concentrating on lead generation over social media might have the opposite effect. Here’s a comprehensive guide to rocking business social media marketing:

The value of social media marketing

We don’t have to go into a lot of detail to show the true value of social media marketing. The truth is that social media has a direct impact on sales and the bottom line. 57.5% of people say that they are more likely to buy from a brand if they are following them on social media. 71% of people say they are likely to buy from a brand once they’ve had a positive experience on social media. This information alone should convince anyone reading that social media IS for a business!

How to choose your marketing goals

No project worth undertaking should be without set goals that those involved hope to achieve through their efforts. When it all boils down to the nitty-gritty of social media, there are three over-arching goals that most social media marketers strive for:

• Increase brand awareness

Brand awareness can be measured by finding out how many individuals know a brand in the areas that it is targeting with marketing. Social media is a great way to get new brands – of which few people have ever heard – into the public eye and generating conversations.

• Increase website clicks

Increased brand awareness is a good continuous goal to strive for, but brand awareness alone won’t bring in the sales leads. Websites, on the other hand, are where followers become customers. So, increased website visitation is also a good social media marketing goal to work towards.

• Increase community engagement

The be-all and end-all of social media marketing is not brand awareness. It’s not attracting millions of website visitors either. It’s all about garnering engagement. With high levels of engagement, brands will grow in both brand awareness and website clicks, as shared content taps into other networks for greater reach.

Social media marketing terminology

• Impressions

This refers to the number of instances in which people have seen your content.

• Engagements

This refers to the actions people take when encountering your content (likes, comments, retweets).

• Visits

This statistic refers to the number of occasions that individuals visit your profile page.

• Mentions

This refers to the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media.

• Followers

This statistic refers to the number of people who follow or subscribe to your social media account.

How to succeed in social media marketing

1. Identify your audience

Who are you talking to with your social media marketing? Your target audience is NOT every social media user – you’ll never reach them all. Drill down on the person who is most likely to engage – and craft content for them personally.

2. Build relationships

Social media might be a lead generation tool, but that isn’t its true purpose. It’s nice to get deals from social media, but what you want to do is build relationships with your followers. This will render them life-long customers instead of once-off buyers.

3. Create a content calendar

A calendar isn’t just that app on your smartphone that you never use. Nor is it that wad of paper that some people hang on their walls. Use a calendar to plan out your social media content, deciding on which days and at what times you’ll be posting.

4. Post at optimal times

When’s the best time to post your social media marketing content? Use historical data from your social media campaigns to look at when your past posts received the best engagement. This will help you drill down on the best times to post when your followers are most likely to interact.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Think social media marketing might be the forever-job you didn’t know you wanted? Get qualified and start forging your path in the digital marketing arena with a Social Media Marketing course from DSM!