What is social media marketing?
If you’re a marketer, then it’s likely you’ve been told you should be using social media to boost your business. However, you may not really know exactly what social media marketing is or how it works.
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok and others to connect with your audience to build your brand to drive more traffic to your website and increase sales. This involves publishing great content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging your followers, analyzing your results, and (sometimes) running ads on different platforms.
Social media marketing statistics
Every day more than 3 billion photos are shared on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp according to HubSpot.
As a marketer, you have to keep in mind that Facebook has over 2.6 billion active users monthly, Twitter has over 330 million, LinkedIn has over 610 million, Pinterest has over 322 million, Instagram has over 1 billion and YouTube has over 2 billion! Those numbers are simply too big to ignore.
Social media marketing is more than just posting on social networks to promote your business, though. You have to develop a strategy to help you discover new audiences, humanize your brand, and stay top-of-mind with existing customers.
Social media marketing is a massive opportunity right now. Not just for brands, but for entrepreneurs too. Are you missing out?
Marketing on Facebook
You should take advantage of Facebook groups feature and join as many groups as possible. Just joining isn't enough, though; you need to be active. You can post in the groups, comment on other members’ posts and share in the group.
Please note that if you want to do effective marketing through Facebook groups, you need to be active. If you are not active, you will not get any results from your marketing efforts.
As an internet marketer, always keep in mind that people can get tired of constant promotion in Facebook groups. However, you should know there are many groups available for posting and commenting. In fact, there are more than 500 million people who actively use Facebook groups every month, which means there is enough room for everyone who wants to use this powerful tool for marketing their products and services online.
Facebook groups are a great way to build your brand and drive sales. They allow you to target specific groups of people in a way that feels organic. By organic, I mean the opposite of advertising. When you’re in a Facebook group, you’re not being sold to directly by a company. Instead, you’re joining an ongoing conversation with other like-minded people.
Facebook groups also tend to be very active and personalized. People are more willing to engage when they know they’re talking to real humans rather than an automated system or chatbot.
Truthfully, most companies fail to use Facebook groups effectively. Either they get too pushy and try to sell too hard or their presence is so subtle no one even notices them.
You have to work at it to strike the right balance...
YouTube Marketing
YouTube is not just a place to watch cat videos or the latest music video from your favorite band. It's also a way for local businesses to reach new customers.
Here are 4 ways local businesses can use YouTube:
1) Run a contest or sweepstakes: People love winning stuff. One of the best ways to get more people to engage with your channel is by running a contest or sweepstakes using free vacation incentives.
2) Partner with other channels: By partnering with another channel, you can tap into their audience and they will tap into yours.
3) Add links in your video descriptions: A great way to drive people back to your website is by adding relevant links in the description section of every video you post.
4) Run YouTube ads: If you have a little money to spend, consider running ads on YouTube.
YouTube Marketing Tips for Local Businesses
As a local business, attracting customers can be difficult.
Growing a customer base and getting the word out about your business takes time, effort and resources. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can get your business in front of new customers with YouTube marketing.
Make it easy for people to find your business on YouTube...
When people search for a video, they’re not just looking for something to watch. They have a need or question they want answered or they're looking to be entertained.
By creating videos that answer frequently asked questions or give them useful information related to their search terms, you can help people find your business more easily on YouTube. Your videos should also include your business name, website URL and some information about what you offer in the description section so potential customers know what your business is all about.
Instagram Marketing
Instagram is a great place to market your local business.
In fact, over 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business account and four in five users have taken action, such as visiting a website or buying something, after seeing an Instagram post from a brand.
Here are some key ways you can use the platform to market your local business:
* Share images and videos of your products and services
* Engage with customers by responding to comments
* Show off photos submitted by your customers
* Run contests and offer promotions
Use the tips below to help you get the most out of Instagram for your local business.
With Instagram being the fastest growing social network, small business owners need to know how to tackle the platform and use it as an effective marketing tool.
We’ve put together this handy guide for local business owners. It’s full of tips on how to make the most of your Instagram account and see a return on your investment.
If you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way to making sure that you get the most out of the platform.
Do you own a local business? Are you wondering how to use Instagram as a marketing tool?
The Secret to Social Media Marketing in 2022
The tips and tricks in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when marketing on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. And then you have to spread out to LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and others if you want to be "everywhere".
In order to make the best use of your time, energy and limited marketing dollars, though, you have to prioritize social media platforms. It's best to be highly-engaged on the one or two platforms your primary audience finds most useful.
What you do on the other, less-relevant, platforms is up to you. Many companies simply ignore them, while others choose to maintain a presence on them but don't spend much time building them up. What works for many is to create original, engaging content on the highly-relevant platforms and then use the less relevant ones to syndicate your content around the web.
Regardless, though, each platform has it's own best practices and they are all ever-changing. That means you have to be a continual student of what's working for you and your message and you have always be testing new material and ways of spreading your message.
Keep at it...and track your metrics!