It is hard to compete for audience attention on social media as the level of competition is really high.
Are you struggling to get the desired results from your social media marketing initiatives? Don’t worry, we have got you covered with our expert social media marketing tips.
Before we get into that, let’s first understand why social media marketing is so 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, 47% of users use social media for brand discovery and 45% for brand research. That is a testament to the importance of social media as a sales and marketing channel.
Image via GWI
You can use it to build brand awareness and attract new customers if you do it right.
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.
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 like:
- 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 organic traffic and leads without investing anything other than time and effort.
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 without really investing much.
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. According to Tailwind, Instagram account holders who organize regular contests grow 70% faster than their counterparts who don’t.
Along with increasing brand awareness, 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 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 Twitter 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.
For instance, the Berlin-based meal-kit company, HelloFresh, used the poll feature on Instagram during Halloween. They conducted a poll to find out which of their creations would resonate better with their target audience.
Image via Instagram
This is one of the social media marketing tips that you can start using right away.
Excited to learn more useful 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 become 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 is mostly comprised of 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 Moto:
Image via Twitter
Finding 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?
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.
According to the previously-quoted GWI report, 24% of social media users use it to watch live video streams. This clearly emphasizes the importance of live videos for brands.
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.
Starbucks, an American coffee chain, has been utilizing this social media strategy to be known as one of the well-established brands that care for the society.
The brand has created a separate Instagram account titled, “Starbucks Stories” to share the stories of its employees.
Here’s a recent post from their Instagram profile:
Image via Starbucks
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, 85% of people would like to watch more videos from brands.
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. In fact, 84% of people reported that watching a video on social media influenced one or more of their purchases.
Tutorials are also 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.
FAQs
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 ten 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 in your social media marketing strategy.
- Reveal behind-the-scenes actions.
- Try social media takeovers.
- Leverage the power of videos.
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 Twitter 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.
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. The most important advantage of social media is that it is a cost-effective way to reach more people and introduce them to your brand. The only disadvantage is that it is tough to compete for audience attention on crowded social media platforms.
Use the tips mentioned above to capitalize on the advantages of social media and counter any challenges that you may face.
Q10. How do I get my business noticed on Facebook?
A. Post relevant and engaging content tailored to meet the interests of your audience to get their attention. Use the social media marketing tips mentioned above to boost your performance.
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. Only then will you be able to fully utilize all their features to extract the maximum benefits.
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.