A few years back, social media was a new concept. But in today’s world, social media has become an integral part of any marketing campaign. In fact, mastering the art of social media is the easiest and most cost-effective way to marketing a business.

Social media can be quite intimidating at first. All your competitors have already created their corner in the social space and getting followers and staying trendy is a hard goal to achieve. However, if you are smart about it, promoting businesses through social media is not impossible.

The following 10 tips will help you with building brand awareness, getting new customers, and acing your marketing campaigns like a pro.

1. Be where your customers are

There are so many social networking sites available for you to choose from. However, maintaining a presence in each and every social media platform is not possible and should not be attempted. Being present in few, commonly used platforms will make it easy for you to handle campaigns. It’ll also make it possible to interact with as many clients as you can.

When you are choosing your preferred platform, be mindful of your customers as well as your business. For example, if your demographic is 30+ of age, there is no use in having a presence in platforms like TikTok which are most famous among youth. It would make more sense for you to have a presence on platforms like Facebook or Twitter where 30+ people will most likely gather.

2. Plan your content before posting

Posting content without having a proper plan or aim can flop your entire marketing campaign. To nurture an audience that is well balanced and ready to convert, try planning your content beforehand. Include a mix of both marketing content as well as general content that would be useful for your audience. The best way to plan content is to have a content calendar for all your social media platforms.

3. Focus on offering quality rather than quantity

There are so many websites advising online marketers to post content about 3 or 4 times a week on social media platforms. While posting frequently is important, the number of times you post should not matter as long as you post quality content. So, rather than trying to post 4 times a week, focus on getting out quality content that can keep your audience interested and engaged.

4. Keep it interesting

When posting content, think about the best way to present your business. Usually, visual content gets more engagement on social media. So, if it makes sense for your business, go for it. For example, if you sell cookbooks and recipes, short videos on relevant platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok will be more interesting to your audience than a Twitter post with written instructions.

5. Avoid overpromotion

Overpromotion is a common mistake done by many businesses that are just starting their social game. When the content is all about you, customers will lose interest. People naturally don’t like being sold to. So, although mentioning your products once in a while is fine, pay more attention to providing useful content to your audience.

Play by the one-in-seven rule where you post one promotional post after doing six non-promotional posts. These non-promotional posts can be used to solidify your expertise in your business niche. When you’ve built an expert image, people will listen to you more when you finally ask them to buy your product.

6. Engage with the audience

Social media allows you to have two-way conversations with your customers. So, you should always encourage engagement with social media content such as short Q&A sessions, polls, and contests. And, don’t forget to make it a habit to comment, like, and repost related customer posts. This will help you create relationships with your audience. A good relationship with customers will help you identify customer preferences. And you can use this information to offer better customer service in the future. Monitor each interaction and address negative feedback through DMs as soon as possible. Your high engagement will result in higher customer satisfaction.

7. Analyze your audience

To get the best out of social media, keep analyzing your audience. Some of the data that you can collect are, trends and hashtags, related businesses, and influencers followed by your audience. This data can be invaluable in your marketing campaigns. You can use the same hashtags used by your audience and even collaborate with related businesses. Collaborating will expose you to a like-minded audience who will most likely be interested in becoming a part of your customer base. You can also collect information on the age group, gender, and even the time of day when your audience is most active on social media.

8. Learn from your competitors

If you are just starting on social media marketing, there is a good chance that you would have competitors. Social media is fierce when it comes to competition. However, having competitors also means that you can learn from them. During competitor research, focus on information such as how often they engage with the audience, what hashtags they use, types of content used, and how often they post. Do your competitors get more engagement when posting a specific type of content? Then you can mimic their strategy and personalize it in your way. Just remember to learn from their mistakes and to always do it better than your competition.

9. Provide links to your social media

Starting on social media is not simply about setting up the accounts and planning the content. You need to get the word out there as much as possible. So, make sure to include links to your social media platforms in your websites, email newsletters, and other promotional content. Your customers should be able to know where you are whenever they need to.

10. Build a community around your social media

This is the last, but most important step you can take to successfully promote your business on social media. From the first post, try to keep a consistent tone and message throughout a social media platform. And, most importantly, find customers who believe in your business rather than trying to increase your follower count. When you are surrounded by engaged customers, you have successfully built a community using social media.

Conclusion

Social media is one of the most effective methods you can use to promote your business. However, building a community around your brand will take some time. If you need more momentum, you can also build a following by promoting your social media using paid methods. However, taking the slow road will be more effective if you are trying to build a community. All you need is patience and creativity to give your customers something useful and valuable.