How to market on social media

Social media marketing has become a pivotal component of every business' marketing strategy. Social media has transformed into one of the most vital marketing channels for nearly all businesses. With so many users actively engaging on these platforms, the potential to reach a large and diverse audience is unmatched. But with the ever-changing algorithms and trends, it can be challenging to navigate the world of social media marketing. That's why we've compiled the ultimate guide to marketing on social media, with tips and tricks to help businesses increase their online presence and reach their target audience.

Social media is a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience, build their brand and presence, and drive conversions. Luckily, you can create an even stronger tool through the use of IFTTT, an automation platform where users can connect and trigger various actions on over 800+ different web services.

IFTTT provides an easy and efficient way to automate your social media marketing tasks, saving you time and effort. By creating recipes that post your content, repurpose your content, and track performance, you can achieve better engagement and brand recognition.

Interested? Let’s dive right into what social media marketing is, understand the essential steps you need to take to effectively market your business on social media, and how IFTTT is a big game changer to how you market on social media!

Table of Contents

• What is social media marketing?
• Why social media marketing?
• How to market on social media?
  • Define your goals and objectives
  • Know your target audience
  • Create engaging content
  • Consistency
  • Engagement and interactions
  • Leverage influencers
  • Track your performance
• Benefits of social media marketing
  • Increase brand awareness
  • Cost-effective advertising
  • Improved customer engagement
  • Increased website traffic
  • Competitive edge
• The best social media platforms to market on
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • TikTok
  • Facebook
• Integrate your social media with IFTTT

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the use of social media channels to reach and engage with a targeted audience, either to promote a product, service, or brand. Social media platforms have become the new frontier of marketing, and advertising on these platforms is a great way to increase visibility for your business.

Why social media marketing?

Social media marketing is becoming increasingly important as more people spend their time online, averaging around 6 hours a day. Social media platforms have the power to reach out to millions of people worldwide, giving you the opportunity to promote your brand to potential future clients and existing customers. Social media platforms provide an opportunity to gain organic followers, run ads, and target specific audiences without breaking the bank $!

Social media marketing offers several benefits for businesses including increased brand awareness, improved website traffic, better search engine rankings, engagement with customers, and higher conversion rates. By creating content that resonates with your target audience and sharing it on social media platforms, businesses can reach a larger audience and develop a loyal customer base. Social media also provides companies with valuable insights into their audience's interests, allowing them to tailor their marketing campaigns accordingly.

How to market on social media?

Define your goals and objectives Defining your goals and objectives is essential to creating a successful social media marketing strategy. First, sit down and ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish with social media marketing? Do you want to increase your brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads? Whatever your goal is, make sure it's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) as setting these goals will help your business track its progress and determine the success of your social media campaigns. In the end, having clear goals in mind will help you create a more effective social media marketing strategy and measure your success.

Let’s break down what SMART goals are with examples:

Specific - The first component of a SMART goal is to make it specific. This means that your goal should be clear and precise, leaving no room for ambiguity. For example, your business’ specific goal is to ‘increase Instagram followers by 16% in the next 5 months.’

Measurable - Next, it is to make it measurable. This means your goal should be quantifiable so that you can track progress and determine whether you have achieved it.

Achievable - You need to make your goal achievable which means that it should be realistic and attainable, based on your resources and capabilities. For example, if you have a small following and limited resources, it may not be feasible to set a goal to ‘increase Instagram followers by 120,000 in 1 month,’ but rather your goal should be something along the lines of, ‘increase Instagram followers by 600 in 1 month.’

Relevant - The fourth component is to make it relevant where your goal should align with your overall business objectives and target audience. For example, if your target market is individuals who are 18-25 year olds, setting a goal to increase engagement on TikTok is relevant.

Time-Bound - The last component is time-bound which means that your goal should have a specific deadline/timeline so that you can stay focused and measure progress. For example, if your goal is to improve your social media customer service, you could set a goal to ‘respond to all social media inquiries within 2 hours by the end of the month.’

Know your target audience Knowing your target audience is the nub of any successful marketing campaign. With social media, it’s essential to know who you’re talking to before you start crafting your message. Narrowing down your audience will help you tailor content that speaks to their interests, needs, and preferences, resulting in a message that will resonate more with your audience. As a result, there will be an increase in engagement and drive more traffic to your page.

Create engaging content The content you post on social media should be engaging, informative, and visually appealing. Create a social media calendar and plan your content in advance. Make sure your content aligns with your brand and resonates with your target audience. Mix up your content with different types of posts: photos, videos, and stories to keep your followers engaged. Additionally, keeping up with trends is important as it can help you attract new audiences through entertainment and keeps you relevant.

If you ever encounter writer's block where you're unable to bring ideas to life, we have AI Social Creator integrations, that will help you generate unique content to engage with your audience.

__Consistency __ A consistent social media posting schedule will give structure to your social media strategy and help you to create a routine for your business. A schedule will enable you to plan your content in advance, and on the day of posting, you will have enough time to engage with your audience. Consistency in social media marketing increases visibility, inspires brand loyalty, and contributes to meeting your revenue goals.

Leverage influencers Influencer marketing has made a great impact in recent years - it has doubled since 2019! People buy from people, and influencer endorsements can give your business significant exposure and credibility. When choosing influencers, make sure they align with your brand’s values and are followed by your target audience. Work with them to create engaging content that speaks to their following and your brand.

Track your performance Keeping track of your performance metrics such as click-through rates, engagement rates, and conversion rates is an essential step in measuring the success of your social media marketing strategy. Based on your performance, you can adjust your strategy and improve your social media presence.

Measuring the success of your social media campaigns is essential to determine what's working and what needs improvement. Key metrics to track include reach, engagement, website traffic, conversion rates, and ROI.

Benefits of social media marketing

Increase brand awareness Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to increase your brand visibility and reach a broader audience. By creating compelling content and targeting the right audience, you can generate more leads, improve brand recognition, and drive more traffic to your website.

Cost-effective advertising Social media advertising is significantly cheaper than traditional advertising methods. You can create targeted ads that appeal to your specific audience and generate more leads. Social media platforms also provide various advertising options, such as sponsored posts, paid search ads, and display ads making it easy to tailor your marketing strategy to your budget and specific goals. For example, TikTok is a great platform to advertise your product or service due to how accessible and affordable it is no matter your business size. They have an easy to use and navigate tool and guide called TikTok Ads Manager.

Improved customer engagement Social media marketing allows you to engage with your customers in a more personal manner. You can interact with them through messages, comments, and direct chats. This personal interaction builds trust with your customers, which can translate into increased sales and customer retention. For example, you can use the features of Instagram Stories to give the opportunity for users to ask questions, answer polls, and provide feedback.

Increased website traffic Social media platforms can be used to drive more traffic to your website and increase your leads and sales. By sharing links to your website, you can encourage your audience to visit your site and check out your products or services.

Competitive edge Social media marketing can give you a competitive edge by allowing you to keep up with industry trends and stay ahead of your competitors. By monitoring your competitors' social media pages, you can learn what works for them and what doesn't. You can use this information to improve your own social media strategy and stay ahead of the curve.

The best social media platforms to market on

With so many social media platforms available, it’s essential to determine which platform suits your business needs the best. As you will see below, each platform has its advantages and it’s up to businesses to choose the one that aligns with their objectives, audience, and content.

Instagram Instagram is a photo-sharing app that is well-known for its visual appeal and the ideal choice for businesses that have visually-appealing products like fashion, beauty, and food. Here, businesses can use video and images to create engaging content and Instagram’s recently launched shopping feature allows businesses to sell their products directly from the app. Additionally, Instagram has a feature called Reels, which allows users to post short-form videos, which can be a great way to deliver fast, entertaining, and informative content.

Checkout some of our most popular Instagram integrations:

Twitter Twitter is a platform with over 330 million active users, known for its short and concise messages. It’s an excellent platform for businesses that can communicate their message effectively in 280 characters or less. Twitter offers various advertising options like promoted tweets and accounts. Twitter is an excellent choice for businesses that want to engage with their audience in real-time and increase brand awareness.

We have some popular Twitter integrations to help you manage your tweets:

TikTok TikTok has emerged as the fastest-growing social media platform, with an audience primarily consisting of Gen Z and millennial demographics. It offers companies the opportunity for engagement through creative and entertaining short-form videos that are built on popular trends and user-generated content, such as providing users with fun and unique filters, a wide range of soundtracks, and easy editing tools. Additionally, TikTok is known to be the easiest platform for businesses or content creators to quickly gain popularity (“blow-up”) from a single video.

Facebook Facebook is one of the leading social media platforms with over 2.8 billion monthly active users. It’s an amazing platform for businesses to connect with potential customers, build brand loyalty, and create a community around their brand. The platform offers various advertising options like sponsored posts, video ads, carousel ads, boosted posts, and more. Facebook also provides detailed targeting options, allowing businesses to target their ideal audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. Keep in mind that 25 to 34 year olds make up the most percentage of Facebook users while 13 to 17 year olds make up the minority of it.

We recommend trying out these Facebook integrations to level up how you market on social media:

Integrate your social media with IFTTT

Businesses need to make the most of their social media channels to promote their brand and engage with customers. By integrating social media with IFTTT, you can streamline your social media strategy, save time and resources, and ensure that your brand presence is consistent across all platforms. With automated triggers, it’s possible to increase engagement and achieve excellent results with little effort.

For example, when you post on Instagram, it will automatically also post on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. As a result, the time-consuming process of managing multiple social media accounts by having to post the same content on various platforms is eliminated. This also creates consistency throughout your social media accounts which can help build brand identity. Need a little assistance in learning how you can automate your posts? We have a guide to help you with that!

So why not give it a try and see how it can help your business? It’s free to join, so it won’t cost you anything. Join IFTTT for free today!