Information for this blog post was obtained from Shopify, Mail Chimp, Sprout Social, and Business West.

The world of social media is forever changing. There are always new trends to follow and keep up with on Instagram and TikTok. So the question is, how can businesses use this to their advantage?

Instagram and TikTok are just a couple of social media platforms that businesses use. Many also use Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter to reach different demographics. For businesses looking to use social media for their marketing, here are 5 ways to effectively market on social media:

1. Plan of Action

Starting with a plan of action allows for everyone in the business, from marketing to the communications team, to be on the same page. It also ensures that everyone is working to achieve the same end goal and everyone is using their resources efficiently.

Start by setting some common business goals:

• Increase brand awareness

• Increase website traffic

• Drive more sales or generate more revenue

• Generate leads

• Improve customer service

Next, businesses need to figure out what their target audience's favorite social media platform is. Once businesses know what platforms their target audience is using it is easier to create content that is tailored to each platform. For example, if a business knows its target audience is on Instagram, a compelling posting strategy is critical to its success on social media.

2. Businesses Need to Understand Their Target Audiences

It is easier for a business to make content if they know who their target audience is. The more that a business understands who their target audience is and what type of content they like, the easier it is for them to make content. If a business owner can win an audience over with their content, the more likely they are to convert them into customers or clients.

For a business to find who their audience is on social media, they can take a look at who their current buyers are and understand who they are. There are a couple of ways a business owner can learn about their social media audience:

• Get feedback. The best way to get feedback from customers is to post surveys, polls, or questions for them to interact with on social media posts.

• Look at the demographics. Data retrieved from looking at the demographics can give a business information about the age, gender, location, and interests of their audience.

3. Choose the Right Social Media Platforms

Instagram is perfect for businesses to promote their products. Instagram has an online shop that businesses can take advantage of and promote their products. Businesses can make posts to promote their products, post stories, find influencers that will promote products, and even run contests for followers.

Number of users per year: 2.5 Billion

Facebook is great for businesses to create a page for their followers to interact with updates, photos, messages, and also interreacting with groups. Businesses can also create a Facebook page where they can share images and video content with fans.

Number of users per year: 3.03 Billion

TikTok is great for businesses that post creative, engaging content. There are many trends that businesses can take advantage of to bring customers to their business if their take on the trend blows up. TikTok is a form of social media that businesses need to stay active on. They also need to frequently post and engage with their audience on a regular basis. Many consumers make a purchase after seeing a review by someone on TikTok. So, if a business can find influencers that want to promote their product, that would be a great way to increase their sales.

Number of users per year: 1.67 Billion

Snapchat is a great way for businesses to show customers behind the scenes how their products are made. Businesses can also use influencers on Snapchat to promote their products.

Number of users per year: 750 Million

For more information on social media platforms and their demographics, go read my colleague Kevin's post here.

4. Add Website Link in Bio

Social media bios are a great place for businesses to promote their website. On most social media platforms, they allow for one URL to be added to a bio. So, this is the perfect place for businesses to put their link to their website. With the link the their bio, that gives consumers easy access to their website.

While many businesses have their URL linked directly to their homepage, businesses can choose to direct consumers to a dedicated landing page for social traffic or any campaigns or promotions that companies are running.

5. Cross Promote on Social Media

Social media is a great place to cross-promote content. Cross-promotion is a great marketing technique that businesses can use to promote their products across multiple platforms. Taking advantage of multiple platforms can help businesses to gain more exposure. This also means that businesses need to stay organized and post frequently across all social media platforms.

6. Prioritizing Quality Content Over Quantity

Instead of businesses posting multiple times a day, they should create better, high-quality content. Businesses should create a content schedule, that way they can take the time to create quality content instead of spamming their followers. If a business spams its followers with content, it could end up being flagged and marked as a spam account. In the end, it could end up hurting a business's strategy instead of helping, and can lead to a loss in followers.

Social media calendars are a great way to avoid this issue. Having a social media calendar can help businesses plan posts while also ensuring that they stay organized. They can also use this as a way to track engagement with different posts, and what works and what does not work.

7. Building a Strong Community

It is important that businesses build a strong community for their brand. Businesses need to focus on finding customers who are interested, loyal, and engaged in what their business has to offer, instead of trying to get as many followers as possible. These followers are more likely to share content, like posts, and recommend businesses to their friends.

When a business builds a community around its brand, the community will engage with each other and promote the business's content. Businesses can even reach out to influencers to see if they would be interested in promoting their product.

8. Using Contests & Giveaways to Drive Brand Awareness

Setting up a giveaway or contest is one of the easiest ways businesses can get consumers to interact with their social media. A good contest to do is to have fans like, comment, and share a certain post. Then the owner can randomly select a winner from one of the fans who completed the simple tasks. This is a quick and easy way to boost engagement on social media, while businesses can also get their name out there.

9. Get Employees Involved in Promoting Your Business

It is important that businesses have a loyal staff that they can trust. One of the easiest ways that businesses can promote their stuff is to have their employees share messages and posts directly to their social channels. If a business is running a certain campaign for a target audience matching their employees, they need to use easily sharable content.

Conclusions

Social media is a great way to promote business and boost online visibility. There are many benefits of social media marketing which include:

• Cost-effective. Advertising on social media is cost-effective compared to other forms of marketing. Since a business can post on social media for no cost at all, it is better than the average billboard. But, if a business gets no exposure, then its social media will not be effective.

• Having quick customer support. With the help of social media, businesses are able to quickly handle customer service requests. If a customer sends a message on social media, the business owner can answer it directly instead of having to go through customer service.

• Increased credibility. If the owner of a business is taking part in the content and posting engaging and educational content, then the customers will think that the owner is someone they can trust. This will also help customers to be influenced to purchase from the business.

Resources

Chen, J. (2023, August 4). 12 Clever social media promotion ideas you’re not using. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-promotion/.

How to Market on Social Media Effectively. (n.d.). How to Market on Social Media Effectively. Mailchimp. https://mailchimp.com/resources/how-to-market-on-social-media/

Keenan, M. (2023, May 19). How To Market Your Business on Social Media: 15 Effective Ways. Shopify. https://www.shopify.com/blog/69319365-20-highly-effective-ways-to-promote-a-product.

Lu, L. (2023, June 6). 8 Effective Ways to Promote Your Business on Social Media. Business West. https://www.businesswest.co.uk/blog/8-effective-ways-promote-your-business-social-media.

Shewale, R. (2023, September 12). Social Media Users - Global Demographics (2023). DemandSage. https://www.demandsage.com/social-media-users/.