Social Media Marketing 101

Nothing is constant. In today’s fast-evolving world, keeping up with the trends and changes has become a vital skill—especially if you own a business. Of course, the best way to start honing this skill is by familiarizing ourselves with the ins and outs of social media. In this guide, we’ll figure out how you can grow your brand and make it stand out with social media marketing.

What’s social media marketing?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re pretty familiar with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

Social media marketing uses these platforms to promote products and services through different types of content such as live and recorded videos, photos, memes, and anything you could think of.

Why promote on social media?

According to Statista’s 2020 reports, 420 billion people are active on social media as of the year’s first quarter. Each of these people is estimated to spend at least 2 hours and 25 minutes using the platforms (GlobalWebIndex). Furthermore, 54% of the said population browse social media for products (GlobalWebIndex). Thus, if you’re looking for a virtual place to advertise your business, social media’s the best one you can go to.

Before we get started…

Those figures are just too hard to resist. However, before we dive into the tips for marketing your brand on social media, here are some things you might like to consider first.

Your objectives

Do you want to establish your brand’s reputation? Attract more audience? Boost your sales?

No matter how apparent these goals maybe, you have to be specific, so it’ll be easier to plan your actions and evaluate your progress.

Your target audience

Identifying your target demographics makes it easier for you to figure out which social media platforms to use. For a quick guide in making this decision, here’s a list of the largest age group and gender ratios for the most popular social media sites in 2021 as summarized by Sprout Social:

• Facebook: Largest age group: 24-34 y/o
  Gender ratio: 44% female, 56% male
• Youtube: Largest age group: 15-25 y/o
  Gender ratio: 72% of all male internet users, 72% of all female internet users
• Instagram: Largest age group: 24-34 y/o
  Gender ratio: 43% male, 57% female
• Twitter: Largest age group: 30-49 y/o
  Gender ratio: 68% male, 32% female
• TikTok: Largest age group: 18-24 y/o
  Gender ratio: 41% male, 59% female

Apart from relying on these stats, it’s also crucial for you to visit the sites yourself and assess the engagements of your target audience in each one of them.

Your KPIs

Nowadays, every move you make can be quick and automated—including the tracking of your progress. With the help of social media management tools such as AgoraPulse, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite, you can easily keep tabs on your KPIs without going over your pages and engagements manually.

Like in any other kind of business, KPIs or key performance indicators will help you determine if your current strategies are working. There are three categories of KPIs in social media marketing that you must always keep an eye on.

Reach

Reach KPIs give you a glimpse of how many social media users come across your posts and pages. Some of the most used reach KPIs are the following:

• Impressions. This pertains to the number of times your content or post appears on a user’s timeline or feed.
• Social share of voice. This measures the noise your brand is making in your industry. It is identified by counting the number of times your brand is mentioned across different social media sites and comparing it to your competitors. Here’s the exact formula for calculating your SSoV percentage:
  SSoV Percentage = Your Brand’s Mentions / Total Mentions X 100
  *Total Mentions = Your Mentions + Competitors’ Mentions
• Follower count. This is simply the number of users who follow your social media account. You must track this from time to time and measure how much you’re gaining by using the audience growth rate percentage.Audience Growth Rate Percentage = New Followers / Total Followers x 100

Engagement

So people have seen your content, and now what? Were your posts interesting enough to make them click, leave a like, or mention someone?

Engagement KPIs gauge these interactions from the users who have seen your content. These are usually determined by the number of likes, comments, and applause rate that’s measured using this formula:

Applause Rate Percentage = Total Approval Actions / Total Followers x 100
*Total Approval Actions refer to the number of saves, retweets, likes, and other positive reactions

You can also quickly get your average engagement rate by adding all the numbers of your likes, shares, and comments and dividing them by the number of followers.

Average Engagement Rate Percentage = (Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Followers x 100

Conversion

Conversion KPIs are the surefire way to determine if your marketing strategy is effective. Did they visit your store? Purchase a product? Subscribe to your newsletter? These KPIs help you guarantee if your audience understands your call-to-action and if your content moves them.

One way to get your conversion rate is by counting the number of users who did your CTA and comparing it to the number of clicks.

Conversion Rate Percentage = Conversions / Total Clicks x 100

You can also use the CTR or click-through rate that measures the percentage of users who have seen your content and clicked on its CTA.

CTR Percentage = Total Clicks / Total Impressions x 100

Ready to market on social media?

Now that you’ve identified your goals, target audience, and KPIs, it’s time to advertise your brand on social media! To give you an early boost, here are a few things you can do to stand out on these platforms and further grow your brand.

Post content regularly

Give your followers something to look forward to! You don’t need to release new content every day; just be consistent with the days you schedule your posts so your audience will make a habit of checking your page at least once every week.

It will also help to use the insights you gain from your KPIs to find the perfect timing for uploading your content. Keep tabs on the days, and hours your audience and followers are usually active so you’ll know when to strike!

Be interesting and relatable

Make the most of each like or follow by turning them into engagements! Post content that they’ll find interesting enough to be worthy of their likes, comments, and reactions. You may throw in giveaways, where the number of comments or shares counts as entries. You may also post short games like IG story bingos or those with the “This or That” template. If your audience is active on Facebook, you can create memes or silly prompts that make your followers react once they choose from your given options.

Most importantly, make your approach personal. Studies say that most Americans encounter at least 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. Thus, you must communicate with your audience with sincerity to not think of your posts as just another ad.  

Keep up with the trends and pop culture

A particular video, picture, or meme can go viral in a snap. You have to be vigilant about these things and all the other trends that might come up, especially those related to your niche. You must also keep yourself updated on the news, movies, books, music, and styles that your audience may find interest in.

Knowing what captures your audience’s interest at every moment will prevent you from running out of content ideas and help you stay ahead of your game.

Be interactive

Engage with your audience! Some people think that robots are just robots behind these social media pages sending out automated replies and comment responses.

Show your followers, aka potential customers, that they’re interacting with a real human being and that you’re willing to address their inquiries. This will help you establish a connection with your audience and enhance the reputation of your brand.

And you’re almost there!

Once you get the hang of it, social media marketing’s nothing but a piece of cake. Like all other marketing techniques, you just have to know the right people and find the perfect timing. And perhaps, apart from all the tips mentioned above, what’s most important is for you to truly understand your audience to constantly come up with campaigns that will surely capture their hearts and attention.