It is hard to compete for audience attention on social media as the level of competition is high. Without the right social media marketing strategies, your efforts might not yield the results you're hoping for.
But before we get into that, let’s first understand why social media marketing is important today.
Social media has emerged as an important retail channel, and many people use it to find new brands and products.
According to the latest research, 30% of social media users discover brands through ads. This research also showed that once consumers discover a brand, 46% of them use social media platforms to research products and services offered by these brands.
Image via GWI
Social media platforms are coming in second after search engines, which shows how crucial they are. You can use them to build brand awareness and showcase your products and services to attract new customers.
What can you do to win at social media marketing?
That’s where our social media marketing tips come into the picture. Our list of tips will help you stand out in the crowd and win audience attention.
Through this post, you will learn:
- Why social media marketing is important
- How to optimize your social media strategy for better results
- Actionable social media marketing tips you can start implementing right away
- Real-life examples of brands that are already acing the world of social media
Are you ready?
Table of Contents
Why Should You Use Social Media Marketing?
Social media is the new frontier for all retailers and marketers to win their target audiences and stats for social media prove that.
Social media advertising spending is projected to exceed $276 billion in 2025.
Here are some of the reasons why you should use social media marketing for your business:
It Can Help You Achieve Multiple Marketing Goals
Social media marketing is one of the most versatile marketing techniques that can help you achieve multiple goals, such as:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Engaging new and existing customers
- Driving social media traffic to your website
- Generating and nurturing leads
- Driving sales conversions
Using our social media marketing tips, you can achieve several goals simultaneously. That is the beauty of social media marketing!
Social Media is a New Customer Service Channel
Social media is not just a marketing channel but is also an important customer service channel. Many consumers prefer sharing their experiences with a brand on social media instead of sharing feedback on the brand’s website.
That is why brands need to stay active on social media and respond to audience comments promptly. In this day and age, you simply can’t choose to ignore what your customers are saying about you on social media.
Also, use our social media marketing tips to engage your audience on social media and build strong customer relationships.
Social Media Marketing is Cost-Effective
Social media marketing is a great way to generate leads and organic traffic.
Though there are paid social media marketing tactics as well, you can still do a lot just by being active and consistent. Use our social media marketing tips to get the most out of social media marketing.
Ready to learn some cool social media marketing tips?
Find these tips in the next section.
Proven Social Media Marketing Tips to Optimize Your Strategy
Here are some innovative and effective social media marketing tips to help your brand stand out. Use one or more of these social media marketing tips to grow your social media presence and achieve your marketing goals.
1. Offer Giveaways and Run Contests
Hosting giveaways is one of the easiest social media marketing tips on this list. But that doesn’t mean they are not effective.
On the contrary, giveaways and contests are great tools to engage your followers and start a conversation about your brand.
Along with increasing brand identity, hosting contests can help you generate leads for your business in the long run. They can even give you access to a treasure trove of user-generated content (UGC).
Simply put, you offer freebies to your followers in exchange for a favor from them. All they have to do is to like your posts, share them in their networks, and tag their friends. It is also recommended that you encourage your audience to use a unique, brand-specific hashtag.
Contests are similar to giveaways, except that they require your followers to compete for the freebies. You can ask them to participate in a poll or create social media content with your branded hashtag.
Wondering why we are emphasizing the use of a branded hashtag?
The hashtag will make it easy for you to track entries across different social media channels. It also simplifies the entry process while encouraging more people to participate in the contest.
And the best part?
It also helps you build brand awareness.
There are a few points that should be kept in mind while hosting contests or offering giveaways, which include:
- Outline a clear set of terms and conditions.
- Mention a point of contact.
- Set a deadline to develop a sense of urgency among your audience.
- Maintain transparency by announcing the winner publicly once the deadline is over.
Another thing that can help you garner attention is the reward. Offer a prize that is related to your brand. It could be in the form of free products, loyalty points, membership, and others.
This increases the likelihood of converting the winners into loyal brand advocates. Typically, fancy and unrelated rewards might attract freeloaders who are not even relevant to your niche.
Here’s an example of an Instagram giveaway:
Image via Instagram
While running a contest or offering giveaways, you can also partner with an influencer who specializes in your niche. This will help you widen the reach of your campaign, ultimately leading to increased awareness about your products or services.
2. Ask Your Audience to Tag a Friend
Social media users often tag their friends and acquaintances on posts which they like and find worth discussing. You can take advantage of this by explicitly encouraging them to do so.
Asking your followers to tag other people is one of the most simple yet effective social media marketing tips to widen your reach. It certainly increases exposure to your brand without being overly promotional.
Here’s an example of this social media marketing tip in use. The beauty brand Dove posted a touching Mother’s Day post and asked their audience to tag a mom to show their appreciation.
Image via Instagram
This campaign idea is also one of the best Mother’s Day marketing ideas you can use as part of your social media strategy.
Want more expert social media marketing tips?
Keep reading.
3. Conduct a Poll
The next in our list of social media marketing tips is “conducting a poll.”
Social media is not just useful in terms of its reach but is also a great tool to better understand your audience.
Brands are gradually realizing the importance of social listening to learn the needs and desires of their existing and potential customers. A simple way to do this is by conducting a social media poll.
Almost every social network, including Instagram and X, allows you to run a poll. You can use such polls to identify the pain points of your target audience. By participating in a vote, they end up revealing their preferences.
The results of such polls can be used to improve your products or services. Polls are also an effective tool to increase engagement.
Excited to learn more useful social media marketing tips?
Keep reading.
4. Create Your Own Memes
Memes are not the most obvious branding tool. However, a meme that strikes the right chord with your target audience has the potential to go viral.
So, no article on social media marketing tips can be complete without discussing memes. It is about time you start using them to spread the word about your brand.
Keep track of the latest trending memes. Pick relevant ones and then create your own branded memes.
While doing so, be careful not to forcefully fit your product into an existing meme. Do it only when your brand integrates seamlessly with the core concept of the meme. Plus, you need to be extra cautious to prevent it from becoming offensive and turning into a fiasco.
BarkBox, a monthly subscription service for dog products, uses memes to reap the maximum benefits. Given that their target audience mostly comprises dog lovers, such content helped them get immediate traction.
Image via Instagram
This is another one of the easy-to-implement social media marketing tips.
One word of caution:
Be sensitive to others when creating humorous content as it could backfire just as easily. So, you should be careful while using this strategy.
5. Use the #ThrowbackThursday Hashtag
Like memes, using the #ThrowbackThursday hashtag isn’t one of the standard social media marketing tips. However, #ThrowbackThursday or #TBT trends on social media every week.
It is a fun way for users to share memories from their past. Due to the immense popularity of the hashtag, it can easily increase brand awareness if used in social media posts.
Here’s an example of this hashtag in use by MotoGP:
Image via X
Are these social media tips helpful?
Keep reading to find more useful social media marketing tips to grow your business.
6. Start an AMA (Ask Me Anything)
This is one of the lesser-known social media marketing tips and can, therefore, give you an advantage over competitors.
Although it gained popularity on Reddit, ask me anything (AMA) has gradually become one of the most sought-after low-cost social media marketing tactics. It is basically a virtual Q&A session that gives you a chance to connect with your audience.
It allows you to showcase the human side of your brand. By doing so, you can establish a more personal connection with your existing and potential customers without being pushy.
In these sessions, you can share your success stories or challenges that you overcame. You could also educate your followers by sharing your knowledge and experience.
Gradually, your followers will start perceiving you as an industry expert. The questions that you receive will give you a clear idea of what your audience wants. AMA sessions also give your followers a break from the same old promotional content.
Need an example of this social media marketing tip?
Here you go:
Image via Instagram
7. Include Live Videos in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
One of the most effective social media marketing tips is to leverage live videos for your social media.
Most social media networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, have already incorporated this feature. With just a few taps, you can go live and reach out to all of your followers.
Most social media networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, have already incorporated this feature. With just a few taps, you can go live and reach out to all of your followers.
Live videos create a sense of urgency and an illusion of one-to-one communication. This draws your target audience to your posts and allows you to interact with them.
You can go live ahead of the launch of a new product, thereby generating buzz about it right from the beginning. Many brands also host extended live AMA sessions. This content can also be repurposed later for other social accounts.
Finding these tips useful?
Keep reading to learn some more social media marketing tips that you can use for your business.
8. Reveal Behind-the-Scenes Actions
A list of social media marketing tips is not complete without the mention of behind-the-scenes footage.
A peek into what goes on in your company on a daily basis highlights the personal side of your brand. It helps to boost credibility and authenticity.
You can use the live feature on social media platforms to share snippets of day-to-day activities and special events organized at your office. This will help showcase your company’s work culture and environment, thereby helping you establish yourself as a brand that cares for people.
You can also upload graphic and video content on any recent developments related to your brand. It could be a photograph of your upcoming office space or a “making-of” video of your latest product(s).
Such content piques the curiosity of your followers and compels them to expect new things from you. It also breaks the monotony generated by regular social ads and other promotional content.
For example, Slack posted a behind-the-scenes video of its CEO analyzing a successful Dreamforce event. She shared her views about attending the panels, giving interviews, and more. She portrayed how fun her interactions are, and this boosted Slack’s profile on social media.
Image via Instagram
Adding behind-the-scenes content to your social media marketing plan is one of the tips that can be used by all types of businesses and can be implemented easily.
9. Try Social Media Takeovers
One of the most potent social media marketing tips is to try social media takeovers. This involves granting complete control of your social media account to someone else. Such initiatives yield the best results when you partner with an influencer in your niche.
The biggest advantage of a social media takeover is that it puts new life into your content. An outsider perceives your brand from a different perspective.
So, when they are in charge of your social media content, they can create social media content from a unique point of view (POV). No doubt, collaborating with an influencer will additionally increase your reach while ensuring better engagement.
Here’s an example where a brand allowed an industry expert to take over their Instagram Stories to interact with their audience.
Image via Instagram
This is one of those social media marketing tips that you use once in a while but it can still make a difference.
10. Leverage the Power of Videos
While discussing the most sneaky social media marketing tips, it would be a sin not to talk about the power of videos.
Videos are an extremely effective means of communication. They are generally more engaging compared to text and image-based posts. In fact, 87% of consumers are likely to be convinced to buy a product after watching a video.
From DIYs and tutorials to reviews and testimonials, videos offer immense possibilities. Product review videos are particularly great at enhancing your credibility by highlighting someone else’s opinion about your brand.
You can reap greater benefits by partnering with micro-influencers and other relevant influencers to create videos.
Tutorials are another item on this list of effective social media marketing tips. They’re extremely engaging, which can help you drive greater awareness about your products or services. A clever gambit is to upload the actual video on YouTube and publish fast-paced snippets on other social platforms.
A prime example of this social media marketing strategy comes from Tasty, a brand known for featuring lip-smacking recipe videos.
Want an example?
Here’s one of their latest recipe video posts:
Image via Instagram
Make sure that all your videos are of high quality, without any blur. You can use professional video editing services to ensure that.
11. Write Engaging Social Media Headlines
The first thing people see when they open your social media posts is the headline. One of the greatest social media marketing tips we can give is to write catchy headlines that make your target audience want to know more.
Good headlines bring more clicks. More clicks bring more reach. More reach means more growth. Use these social media marketing tips to write attention-grabbing headlines:
- Use power words: Words like “secret,” “best,” and “must-know” make people curious. Curiosity makes them click. But use them strategically and sparingly.
- Ask questions: The best way to make your audience think is by asking them questions. Simple things like “Struggling with low sales? Try this.” make them stop and check your post.
- Keep headlines short: Long headlines aren’t recommended because they’ll get cut off. So, keep your headlines short to stand out. On average, stick to between 8 and 12 words.
- Create urgency: Words like “now” or “today” push action. “Boost Your Sales Today” feels more urgent than “Boost Your Sales.”
- Make headlines more relatable: Address your audience’s problems directly. People rarely ignore posts that provide them with solutions. Something like “Tired of Posts Getting No Likes? Do This.” feels more personal and likely to spur engagement.
FAQ
Q1. How can I get better at social media marketing?
A. Use the social media marketing tips mentioned above to get better at social media marketing and achieve outstanding results. Here a quick list of the 11 social media marketing tips mentioned in this blog post:
- Offer giveaways and run contests.
- Ask your audience to tag a friend.
- Conduct a poll.
- Create your own memes.
- Use the #ThrowbackThursday hashtag.
- Start an AMA (Ask Me Anything).
- Include live videos for a successful social media marketing strategy.
- Reveal behind-the-scenes actions.
- Try social media takeovers.
- Leverage the power of videos.
- Write engaging social media headlines.
Use these social media marketing tips and you will see the difference first-hand.
Q2. How do beginners use social media marketing?
A. Most beginners start with organic social media marketing strategies instead of paid ones. This includes:
- Crafting a social media calendar to plan your content for all social networks
- Investing in content curation – sharing informative posts by reputable brands
- Creating appropriate content that is useful for your audience – images, Stories, short and long video content, memes, etc.
- Engaging with your audience via comments, polls, Q/A stickers, Live sessions, etc.
- Measuring which strategies work best for you and using them more often
To take your social media game to the next level, follow the effective social media marketing tips mentioned above.
Q3. Which social media platform is the best for businesses?
A. Different social media platforms have different strengths and weaknesses.
Instagram, for example, is the favorite social media platform of B2C marketers, especially retailers. Similarly, LinkedIn is part of every B2B marketer’s social media marketing strategy. That’s because LinkedIn is best suited for B2B sales generation.
Q4. What are the top 5 social media channels for businesses?
A. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X are the top social media channels for businesses and marketers.
Use our social media marketing tips to strengthen your presence on all these platforms.
Q5. What skills are needed for social media marketing?
A. There are no specific set of skills required for social media marketing or to follow any of our tips.
All you have to do is:
- Be consistent.
- Come up with content ideas that have the potential to go viral.
- Create engaging visual content.
- Use different types of content formats that each social media channel offers such as image posts, video posts, Stories, Instagram Reels, LinkedIn articles, etc.
- Engage your audience through interactive and relevant content.
Last but not least, use the social media marketing tips from experts to hack your results.
Q6. How can brands use social media effectively?
A. The key to using social media effectively is to first understand who your target audience is and then post content that resonates with them. Posting content regularly is also important to build and maintain your audience base.
You can use automated scheduling tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule posts on specific dates and times to save effort. Also, use our social media marketing tips for quicker results.
Q7. How does social media affect branding?
A. If you build a strong social media presence, it will strengthen your brand awareness and overall image. Social platforms are a great place to reach new audiences and help them recognize your brand. Simply implement any of the social media marketing tips we’ve highlighted in this post to begin. Craft a recognizable social media brand voice.
Q8. How can social media boost your brand?
A. Social media marketing can help you attain multiple goals like spreading brand awareness, driving traffic to your site, increasing ecommerce sales and conversions, etc. It is a versatile marketing tactic that should be at the core of your marketing strategy.
Use our social media marketing tips to boost your brand’s presence online.
Q9. What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?
A. There are pros and cons to social media marketing. Some advantages include better reach through simple marketing efforts due to high user counts and time spent on these platforms.
Additionally, you can connect with your target audience more because you talk to them directly. The viral potential is also high; sometimes, all it takes is one good post to increase awareness about your brand.
As for the downsides, social media marketing can be time-consuming without any guarantees of success. You may spend your precious time posting and replying to comments without anything converting. But this is true of almost every marketing strategy.
You’ll also need to deal with negative comments, rapidly changing trends, and fake accounts and bots. In short, as much as these social media tips can work, be ready for some challenges.
Q10. How do I get my business noticed on Facebook?
A. Getting your business noticed on Facebook is important, as it is one of the most popular social media platforms. Some quick social media marketing tips you can implement are:
- Post often: People forget brands that rarely post. Stay active with daily or weekly updates.
- Use eye-catching graphics: Posts with bright colors and bold text get more attention. Combine videos, images, and even infographics.
- Write engaging headlines: A strong headline makes people stop scrolling. Use numbers, questions, or power words to grab interest.
- Time your posts: Posting when most people are online boosts reach. Test different times to see what works best, as this can vary depending on your industry.
- Encourage engagement: Ask questions or run polls. More comments help Facebook show your posts to more people.
Conclusion
The advantages of social media are manifold – a fact that makes it an extremely popular marketing tool. When it comes to social media marketing tips for brands, the possibilities are endless.
However, you need to have a good understanding of different social media platforms and their features to optimize your strategy. For example, for successful Instagram marketing, you can leverage the power of Reels.
Experts suggest that brands should not keep bombarding their audiences with promotional content all the time. The idea is to maintain a fine balance between advertising and engaging content to make your audience feel valued.
Interact with them regularly to learn about their concerns and interests.
Your social media marketing efforts should not solely focus on expanding your reach and improving engagement. Remember that establishing a personal connection with your followers is equally important.
Do you have any other innovative social media marketing tips to share? Share those tips in the comments section.
Grant Andrew
02 June 2020 01:02
Nice Job.