Complete guide to social media marketing 2022

Since 2004, social media has been booming! It’s growing rapidly. And, there are no signs that it will slow down anytime soon. 

Both individuals and businesses all around the world are using it daily. So, those who have not taken full advantage of online social platforms are missing out.

Communicate beyond social and local boundaries.

Social media platforms are a huge source of news and information. But, more importantly, the platforms provide an invaluable way for businesses to interact with their potential and current customers. Using photos, blogs, videos and other user-generated content, you can:

• Start conversations
• Promote products
• Find out more about your audience
• Show your business to your ideal customers

To really market effectively, you need to understand how social media works and how to use it to grow your business. Before we dig into the juicy bits of our social media guide blog post. Let’s take you through all the basics.

1. What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the process of using social platforms to increase sales, gain traffic and build a brand. It involves:

• Creating and publishing relevant content on your social platforms
• Listening to and engaging with your audience
• Running social media advertisements
• Analysing your campaigns to improve your results

At first, social media marketing just involved publishing content. A business would generate and share content on social media in hopes to get traffic to their website – and perhaps sales. It has matured over the last few years. Now businesses can use social media in multiple ways to grow their business.

Example: Nike Support

Are you worried about your online reputation? Well, you can monitor social media conversations and respond to your audience properly. 

A great example of this is Nike’s separate Twitter account known as @NikeSupport. This account is dedicated to handling customer queries. This has helped them keep customer comments and queries in place and respond to customers quickly.

If you want to improve sales, you can analyse how your business is performing on social media using an analytics tool. Set and scale goals according to your data and change your campaigns to improve reach, engagement and sales on social media. If you want to market more aggressively, you can run targeted social media ads to reach your relevant audience.

2. Which social media platforms are available to use?

There are so many social media platforms available nowadays. Here are the major ones that are great for marketing campaigns:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube

3. How many people use social media?

The number of social media users keeps on rising…

About 3.2 billion people are using social media. And, this number is on the rise. The number of social media users has nearly tripled from 2010 to 2019

42% of the entire world uses social media. The year-on-year growth rate for social media is estimated at more or less 4.4%. Even though the growth is expected to plateau, there will still be millions – actually billions – of social media users around the world.

People use social media because it is easy to access. 

Did you know? A whopping 91% of all social media users access channels with their mobile devices. Social media apps and smartphones are developing side by side. This is one of the reasons why digital marketing companies urge all businesses to make their websites mobile-friendly/ responsive. 

Because of the billions of users, being present and active on social media platforms has become a necessity. Your competitors and potential customers are there. It is one of the most effective ways to market to and extend your audience and customer base.

Daily usage of social media by generation

eMarketer broke down the results of social media users by generation:

• Millennials: 90.4%
• Generation X: 77.5%
• Baby Boomers: 48.2%

4. How much time do people spend on social media?

How often do you check social media? Do you find yourself scrolling down your Facebook newsfeed while waiting in a queue at your grocery store or bank? 

Perhaps you sneak a quick peek at what’s trending on Twitter while you’re at work. By the end of the day, you’ve spent a lot of time on social media. We’re all becoming addicts. According to a GWI report, internet users are spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media.

5. Why is social media marketing so important for businesses?

Simple: your customers are using social media!

Social media is growing. Its reach and impact are becoming so powerful that it’s crazy not to be advertising on social platforms. Did you know? 54% of social browsers use social media platforms to research products. 

Social media has formed an integral part of the buyer’s journey. People use social media to look for reviews, recommendations and any other information they can get to help them make a purchase decision. This is why most businesses must have a fantastic social media presence on appropriate social media channels.

Social media’s role across the customer journey

There are 5 stages of a typical customer journey. This involves the different stages a customer will go through during their journey of purchasing your product or service. The 5 stages are:

1. Awareness: learning about your brand.
2. Consideration: considers purchasing from you or a competitor, but is not ready to buy.
3. Purchase!
4. Loyalty: do they favour your brand? – will they use you again?
5. Advocacy: when they refer you to others for good services.

Awareness

Social media is an invaluable tool to increase brand awareness. It gives you the power to reach your ideal target audience, whether you use influencers, unique content or referrals.

Each of your social media platforms has the potential to grow your brand awareness. You just need to have a fantastic social media marketing strategy to increase your brand’s reach and success. Here are a few tips to help improve your social media brand awareness campaigns:

1. Specify your target audience and send them a clear and concise message.
2. Provide visual content, such as images and videos.
3. Only provide relevant, quality content to your audience.
4. Make use of influencers to promote your business/products to their loyal followers. We’ll discuss this in a bit more detail.
5. Test, analyse and optimise your content and campaigns to increase effectiveness.

Consideration

During this phase of the buyer’s journey, they’re gathering information to help them make a purchase decision. You can use social media to provide them with information to:

• Answer questions
• Help them understand your product better
• Convince them that they need your product

You need to ensure your customers post great feedback on social platforms. 92% of online customers trust content written by other users above all other forms of marketing. So, it’s important to include user-generated content in your social strategy.

Purchase

Sometimes potential customers are on the fence about whether to buy your product. 

Social media can nudge them just enough to make a purchase. How can you do this? There’re so many ways. Offer prizes and discounts and announce promotions.

Make sure you have user-generated content on your website and social media pages. Social proof can go a long way in building trust and convincing prospects to buy your product. According to Pixlee, showing user-generated content on your website can increase your average order value by 6%.

Loyalty

The biggest mistake many brands make is not paying enough attention to the last two stages of the customer journey. These stages bring the highest valued customers. After all good customer service is crucial for brand loyalty! Focusing on keeping customers engaged with your brand is just as important as the first three phases of the journey.

Social media makes it easier for you to keep in touch with your customers. You can do this by responding to messages, mentions and comments. According to LYFE Marketing, 71% of customers who have a positive experience with a brand on social media are more likely to refer them to their friends and family. 

Interacting with your customers online shows that you care. You can reach out to them to ask if they’re satisfied with your product or service.

Advocacy

Advocacy is also a crucial stage in the funnel. Your fans can help you generate more business by raving about your brand and growing your online community. Social media allows you to maintain closeness with your customers. Your customers can also share your content with their followers and leave online reviews for others to see.

6. Do I need online tools for social media marketing?

If you want your marketing to be effective, you need to invest in the right tools for the job. Some tools can optimise your posts and campaigns, other tools can help you with scheduling and content creation. You even get tools that can enable you to measure your success effectively.

Here’s a list of some helpful tools you can check out.

Tools for content creation:

• BuzzSumo
• Canva
• Pixlr
• Feedly

Tools for measurement:

• Twitter Analytics
• Facebook Analytics
• Instagram Insights
• Google Analytics

Tools for scheduling posts:

• Buffer
• Hootsuite
• Everypost
• SocialFlow
• Loomly

These are just a few of the many tools available to help you with social media marketing. Check out Bulk.ly’s definitive guide on social media tools.

7. How do I get people to love my brand?

The most important thing for you to remember is that:

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!

It’s all about your customers and what is important to them. Your goal should be to provide content that your audience love and can engage with. The best campaigns are those where the brand involves its audience in its dialogue and asks them for their opinions.

Example: Manchester City FC

It’s all about the fans.

A great example of this is Manchester City FC gathering fan feedback to launch new branding. The loved-by-many football club wanted to make improvements on the look and feel of their mobile and web experience. Using focus groups, surveys, prototype designs and tests, they allowed their supporters to co-create their new website.

8. Do I need to use social media influencers?

Influencer marketing has grown in the last few years. More and more businesses are collaborating with influential people to promote their products on social platforms. Influencer marketing can be highly successful for some businesses, especially with the right strategy.

There are 5 types of influencers:

1. Celebrities: these influencers are very popular and have a large following, but that can be extremely expensive.
2. Social stars: social stars are a new kind of celebrity. They also have millions of followers across different social platforms. Like celebrities, they are often expensive and their audience is very broad.
3. Macro-Influencers: these influencers have a following of about 500 000 or so people. They’re usually experts in a specific industry.
4. Micro-Influencers: We love micro-influencers. These influences have a fan base of over 20 000 followers. They often cater to specific industries and are highly engaged with their followers.
5. Nano-Influencers: nano-influencers are also great to use in your influencer marketing strategy. While being relatively inexpensive to get on board, they’re very in touch with and trusted by their audience.

You may use one type of influencer or multiple types of influencers to help more people see and love your brand.

9. How can IEDM Digital Marketing help you with social media marketing?

There’s no doubt about it. You need to be active on social media. You cannot just set up social media accounts and not post or respond to your audience on them. 

Come tell us about your business and we’ll help you create a social media strategy that gets results. Here’s what we’ll discuss with you:

• Your business goals and how social media can help your goals.
• Which social media platforms will bring you the best results.
• What type of content will attract your target audience best.
• What other digital marketing efforts will complement your social media strategy.

Conclusion

People spend a lot of money trying to grow their businesses through social platforms. However, some campaigns get little return on investment. It can be tough to reach your goals without experience and a foolproof plan. 

This is why IEDM offers full house social media marketing. IEDM offers social media posts, content calendars, reputation management, ad creation, influencer marketing and more.

Do you need help with your social media marketing?