Almost everyone is on social media these days. Of course, you want to go where your customers are. So when they go on social media – you should be there too!
On this blog, we discuss the basics of social media marketing, why you need it, the 80/20 content rule plus our Top 10 list of the best social media sites that you can utilize for your business.
While movements and interactions are restricted, many people spend more time online. In fact, much of our day-to-day activities have gone digital. To stay agile, you have to level up your online presence, get involved and stay connected with your customers by all means.
Grow your audience today. Get ahead of the competition. Level up your social media marketing now.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Put simply, social media marketing (SMM) is utilizing various social media platforms to connect with your audience. It involves a combination of posting creative content on your official social media accounts, listening to your audience, engaging with them, analyzing results, and running social media advertisements.
Effective social media marketing will help build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. | Source: Buffer
Get Started with Social Media Marketing
Be present online. Create profiles across various platforms and test them. Start a topic. Publish creative content. Teach them a skill or a craft. Share cool stuff. Inspire people. Spark positivity. Initiate meaningful campaigns. Create awareness about your brand. Promote your products.
Never be afraid to experiment with your social media marketing efforts. Publish posts and test them. Monitor engagement. Find out what works and whatnot. Along the process, you’ll learn which type of content appeals and which platform works best for your audience.
The 80/20 Social Media Content Rule
If you don’t know exactly what to post or how to structure your content, then it might be helpful to apply the “80/20 social media content rule”.
Digital marketing experts suggest that, in order to be effective, 80% of your posts should be of interest to your audience – something that they will love to see on their newsfeed. It can be something that would keep them informed, educated or entertained; Then only 20% must be allocated to promoting your brand. | Source: hootsuite.com
The 80/20 rule reminds content marketers to never go overboard in promoting self-serving content. After all, social media is about building a meaningful one-to-one relationship with your audience. It is pretty much connected with the inbound marketing approach. If they like what they see, then it’s more likely that they will engage with your brand and trust you.
Content is probably the most important thing at the moment. Brands that champion meaningful content creation are more likely to get ahead of the competition and bring in more customers.
Top 10 Most Used Social Media Sites and Apps
Social media can help you reach the right audience. It is an excellent platform that lets you connect with them and keep up with what’s on their mind.
Here are the 10 Most Popular Social Media Channels you can utilize for your business. With the right content and right channels, social media can help grow your market and expand your reach. Find out which social media platforms work best for your audience.
Most of the inputs found here were based on what I learned from the free online certification course offered by Hubspot Academy on Social Media Marketing.
1) Facebook
To date, Facebook still remains to be the largest social media platform. With over 2.45 billion global users (and still rising), Facebook is without a doubt the most valuable social media platform of all.
Best features:
- Ability to post a variety of content including text, video and photos
- Facebook Page that can accommodate up to 5 million followers. With an FB page, you can create a sort of business profile where you can add company details such as mission statement, contact information, business hours, link to your website, customer review, product catalogue plus ready access to analytics
- Facebook Group which allows you to build a community of common interest groups. This way, you are able to reach more users you wouldn’t normally reach with an organic post
- It is widely used by friends and family that can easily spark digital word of mouth
- Advertising Tools that allows you to promote your business locally, target the ideal buyer, and get more leads
- It can be linked with your Instagram account
2) Youtube
Youtube is considered the world’s 2nd largest social media platform and search engine (next to Google). It has over 2 billion users worldwide. Half of its users perceive Youtube as an educational platform that helps them gain new skills. People age 18-49 years old love to watch tutorial videos to help them learn about a certain topic. It is also the largest source of user-generated content.
Best features:
- Youtube channel which allows you to continue to add value to your brand over time and grow your subscribers
- It allows you to curate and host original content
- It has a high conversion rate for paid advertising. Videos are very effective in swaying viewers to purchase
- It has the highest referral traffic rates than any platforms
3) Instagram
Instagram has over 1 billion users making it the 3rd largest social media platform. It is owned by Facebook although its audience and purpose also work differently. Instagram has a highly visual content but it is also less text-heavy and has no link capabilities. Statistics show that the majority or 75% of IG users are males and are generally aged 18-24 y/o.
Best features:
- Instagram has highly visual content with excellent image filters which can work best in creating your brand’s identity
- Instagram Stories and Live Video with fun filters
- IG engagement is said to be 23x higher than FB. IG users tend to have deeper engagement, not only on personal post but brand posts.
- Instagram Business Profile which allows you to add a phone number, address, bio, shop button
- It can be linked with your Facebook account
4) Twitter
Described as a “microblogging network” – Twitter is the ultimate “by-the-minute” news network providing real-time updates. Because of this nature, Twitter requires more frequent posts than any other platform. Users can share up to 280 characters for every “tweet” which can be in a form of texts, photos, videos or gifs.
Best features:
- Organic networking with the audience
- Engaging in direct and real-time conversation with your audience. Twitter is a platform where people express full pleasure or dissatisfaction about products and services. When you are able to efficiently respond to their concerns, it can help build trust and brand loyalty
- Twitter allows access to trending topics, ads, news, promoted profiles
5) LinkedIn
LinkedIn used to be a B2B platform and was formerly used mainly for recruiting. Today, its functionality has changed. People now use Linkedin not only for employment or B2B connection but also to post something, advertise and share content similar with Facebook.
Best features:
- Helps you find partners, prospects and employees
- Build thought leadership and professional online presence
6) Pinterest
Pinterest has the 4th most traffic on the web with over 400 million users. It allows you to upload photos on thematic boards, write a brief description about it and provide a direct link to your website. Pinterest works well for both B2B and B2C.
Statistics show that 79.5% of users are female and 20.5% male. With Pinterest, 98% of the audience tries to make or build what they on pins.
Best features:
- Pinterest is highly visual
- It allows you the ability to create boards and save pins belonging to the same theme
- The average life of a pin 3 months which is the longest out of all social media platforms
- It creates referral traffic that can turn into leads and sales
7) Snapchat
Snapchat has over 210 million users which are generally between the age of 15-25 y/o. The audience base is generally younger which can appeal if your product is targeted for highschool or college students. There has been a noticeable decline on the Snapchat users when IG copied the story feature of Snapchat.
Best features:
- Augmented reality with exciting applications
- 24 hours story feature which can be utilized if you are promoting a timely event
8) Tiktok
Tiktok exploded in popularity in 2020 especially during the lockdown due to COVID-19. To date, its number is continuously growing with over 800M users worldwide. It is a fast-paced and highly entertaining app that allows users to create a 15-60 seconds video that can easily go viral on the web.
Best features:
- It allows you to share catchy videos for a variety of purposes
- It has a follow, like and comment features directly on the video post
- Tiktok for Business that allows you to grow your brand
9) ClubHouse Podcast
Clubhouse is perhaps one of the newest and fast-growing social media sites. It is like a modern online radio which allows users to join discussions called “rooms”. Speakers talk about a certain topic, send invitations to other users and welcome questions or additional inputs from the audience. It is an audio-only social media platform available for ios-users only.
Best features:
- Highly interactive. You get to talk directly to each other
- Enables specific interest groups to convene or learn together
- Excellent in building deeper customer relations and superfans
10) Reddit
Reddit has over 430 million users. It is a social media platform that allows users to connect with other sharing the same interest. Users can ask questions, share content, link on certain topic groups.
Best features:
- In-depth understanding of what similar audiences are talking about
- Link building
Hootsuite: Manage your Social Media Platforms
Managing a lot of social media platforms can be a lot of work. Added to that is the time and effort involved in creating varied content. Thanks to online software like Hootsuite, now you can have access multiple social media channels all in one place.
Short tutorial video on How to Use Hootsuite
Create social media posts, schedule when to publish them, respond to social mentions and more when you use a digital tool like Hootsuite.
Traditional Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing
In today’s new digital age, traditional marketing has changed dramatically. We cannot anymore use the same marketing strategy that has been very effective in the past. Today’s businesses will have to unlearn many things and continuously think of new ways to fit the changing market. In this case, social media marketing comes in handy.
Certainly, initiating a sound social media marketing strategy is crucial at a time when most people are going digital.
Digital Marketing Agency: The Social Media Specialist
Achieve guaranteed results when you contact a digital marketing agency to do the trick for you.
A digital marketing agency and a social media specialist like Kapwa Marketing can help boost your social media presence. We know exactly what to do and we have a dedicated team of experts to help you. We create original, tailor-made, creative and quality content that is guaranteed to increase your social media engagement. With our professional services, we can amplify your digital marketing efforts.
Aside from social media marketing, we also specialize in SEO, SEA, SEM, page speed optimization and more. Visit our website to learn more about us and our services.
Feel free to get in touch with our experts today and together, let’s roll out the best social media marketing strategy for you!