Social networks, born between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, are increasingly used. The daily time spent on social networks is around 1h30 in the World, and for millions of active users, this is a real opportunity for your company.
Since their creation, some social networks have disappeared, others have become very popular, and still, others have had to change to adapt to the needs of their users. In any case, if you are an online store owner these days, you cannot ignore their potential for the development of your store. They are quick and easy to use, making them great tools for your marketing.
Why Get Into Social Media Marketing? This is what we will explain to you in this article. We will see what social media marketing is, introduce you to the most used networks, explain how to get started and create your strategy and finally give you some tips to help you succeed.
At the end of this article, you will also find a content planning template in .xlsx format for download. Edit it and use it for your own social media marketing schedule. Click here to go directly to the bottom of the article and download the document!
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Table of Contents
Definition
According to the website definitions-marketing.com , “social network marketing includes all the marketing actions that can be taken on social networks. “
This includes several areas of action:
- Content creation (text, image, video, etc.)
- Paid advertising
- Community management
- Influencer marketing
Content posting and paid advertising are the two areas we’re going to focus on to get started.
Content creation and paid advertising
Content Creation on Social Networks
It’s a long process. For it to work, you have to publish regularly and often on multiple platforms.
You can analyze the results of your posts, but it’s not always easy to tell if they’ve resulted in sales on your store.
It’s okay. Content creation isn’t just about attracting customers to your store. You will understand its usefulness by reading the benefits of social media marketing later in this article.
Paid Advertising on Social Networks
Paid advertising, on the contrary, brings instant results if you know a little about it. And to know it, you don’t need to be trained; you just have to experiment.
If you never do paid campaigns, you’ll never know what works for your business.
The success of your campaigns depends on your budget and how you set up your campaigns. In general, the Moment you pay, you get results. But you can totally create effective campaigns on a low budget.
You can more easily stand out from the competition by making paid ads. But the results are more fleeting than those of publishing content.
A good social media strategy should combine both: long-term work and increasing your visibility through paid ads.
The Most Popular Social Networks
Now let’s take a look at some of the more popular social sites that you can use as an e-merchant.
Basically, Facebook is created to connect friends. It allows you to bond with people around the World, join groups and share your interests.
Today its features and marketing benefits for businesses are numerous. It allows, among other things to:
- create a company page or a group around your brand
- join groups around themes related to your products or whose participants might be interested in your brand
- to do paid advertising
Tweets are a great way to communicate with your audience. These are short messages, accompanied by links, photos or videos, that your followers can retweet.
Take advantage of the virality of Twitter to gain visibility. You can also use it as a monitoring tool to obtain information on your sector and your competitors.
Its users are generally under 35 years old, and it is a network where visuals and aesthetics take precedence. Take, for example, the impeccable aesthetics of the brand of photography and other equipment, Moment. Note the quality of the photos and the harmony of the colors.
Here you can share posts that appear on your profile, stories that last 24 hours, or even longer videos thanks to IGTV.
Showcase your products at their best, with photos and videos. Also, share the behind the scenes of your company, your news, and your important information.
To be successful on Instagram, you need to know your target audience and their tastes well.
Also Read: How to get more likes on Instagram
LinkedIn is often described as the Facebook of the professional World. It effectively uses the same principle of the trombinoscope but is used in the professional and not a personal sphere.
If your business has a B2B strategy, this is a great way to connect you with other businesses. It is also very useful for networking.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a great tool for sharing content that you wouldn’t share on other networks. For example, behind the scenes of your business or competitions to win your products.
Its users are young.
You can interact directly with your customers so that they feel closer to you.
TikTok
Yes, TikTok can also be used by businesses. Its users are predominantly young teens, so you could use it to market your brand to them.
Its algorithm is very efficient and can let you reach your target audience easily.
You have to be creative and your content has to be entertaining to grab the attention of internet users.
If you can afford it, run influencer marketing campaigns on TikTok.
As you can see, each of these networks is used for a specific purpose and has its typical users.
It is not necessary to be present on all these platforms, only the ones that suit you.
We will see later in this article how to choose the social networks to use for your marketing.
Benefits of Social Media
Social networks allow you, among other things:
- Reach prospects and expand your audience
- To strengthen your presence on the internet
- Gain credibility, retain your customers and attract new ones
- To communicate with your customers, to be closer to them
- To have information on your audience, to know your customers better in order to reach them better
- To make yourself known and communicate your brand image
- Bring traffic directly to your store
- Promote your products for free
Disadvantages of Social Media
You should know that Internet users express themselves quite freely, so you should expect negative comments. Do not take them to heart, but consider if they are repeated.
Networks certainly offer you the possibility of communicating more freely, but this freedom of expression should be taken with caution. Be careful about how you express yourself, as you could endanger your reputation online.
As you can see, not being on social networks is losing an opportunity. These are essential tools for the development of any online business.
However, having an effective social media strategy takes work, but don’t worry, we’re here to support you!
Get Started in Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing Strategy
In order to establish your social media strategy, you need to start by asking yourself a few questions:
- Do you have a B2B or B2C activity?
- Who is your target audience?
- On which networks are your customers present?
- What are their network usage habits? Are they more connected in the morning or in the evening? What kind of content will they be sensitive to?
- Why do you want to be present on the networks? What results do you want to achieve?
It is not about having all the answers. But these are questions you need to ask yourself and will guide you in your social media choices. These will be based on:
- your profile (freelance, company)
- your persona (who you are going to be online, your brand image, your values, your way of expressing yourself, your style)
- your target audience
- your products
- your goal
Establish a Social Media Strategy in 5 Steps
Define your marketing goals: they should align with your business goals.
Analyze your target audience: who will be your followers? Try to gather as much information as possible about them and their online habits.
Analyze your competitors: Pay attention to their strengths and weaknesses, so you know how to stand out.
Do a network audit: on which are you present and what are your shortcomings? Which networks would be best suited to achieve your marketing goals?
Create or update your accounts and define an action plan for each: some accounts will need to be reworked after thinking about your communication strategy. Configure them and establish your communication plan. You will need to put in place a concrete plan for each platform.
We advise you to test different social networks. Feel free to create personal profiles for yourself to understand how they work and get to know their users better. This will give you a better idea of the possibilities they can offer you.
Experiment on different platforms, it is by forging that you become a blacksmith.
Social Media Marketing Tips
Add all the important information about your profiles
Make sure your profiles contain as much information as possible about you and your business. Remember to add a name, a mini description, the contact information of your store, and especially the link to it.
Be Creative
You won’t be successful by sharing copy-and-paste content or behaving like others. You can of course take inspiration from those who are successful, but try to stand out. Think about what makes your brand unique and show it in your content.
Post Regularly
If you decide to be present on a platform, you should stick to it and post on it regularly. Find out about the optimal publication frequency according to the social network.
Interact with Your Audience
Social networks have that personal side that allows you to get closer to your customers and potential customers. Enjoy it!
It’s not enough to post and respond to comments, you also need to engage with users as much as possible. Like their posts, retweet them, ask them questions in stories.
Share Great Content
Writing and visuals are important. Your publications should look professional but also reflect your brand image. You have to maintain a certain uniformity of style.
Browse image banks and use some free graphic design tools to help you. Remember to be original, avoid using images that everyone else uses, or copy publications.
Create a Community Around Your Passion
If you are part of a niche whose tastes and habits you are familiar with, you could for example animate a group or a Facebook page. Or create an Instagram account around this common passion.
This is called community management , it brings together people who have similar interests, a common passion or common points around your company.
Gain Credibility
Social networks can give you access to user-generated content or UGC. These are photos, videos, texts, audios, etc., posted by your customers. This content has the potential to improve your online reputation, gain the trust of your target audience, and attract new customers.
Make Paid Advertising
Many social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, allow you to serve paid ads. These work on a cost-per-click basis, which means that you only pay when your ad is clicked. It’s a great way to get started with paid advertising and gain instant visibility.
Analyze Your Actions
Take the time to analyze your marketing actions on social networks. Marketing analysis is almost as important as the marketing actions themselves. This is what allows you to know the effectiveness of your campaigns and your publications.
Are you on the right networks? Does your audience seem to be responding to your actions? Is Your Network Marketing Really Paying? Do you have more traffic and are you making more sales through networks?
Start by determining the KPIs or KPIs you want to observe.
Use the analysis tools that the various social networks make available to you free of charge (Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, Twitter Analytics, etc.).
To go further, use marketing analysis tools. We recommend Agorapulse or Buffer if you are a beginner, or Hootsuite Analytics and Google Analytics if you have more experience and want to do more in-depth analysis.
It’s Time to Get Started!
We hope this guide has convinced you of the importance of social media in your marketing. The most important things to remember are: you need to know your audience well, stay active on networks by posting regularly, experiment with campaigns, differentiate yourself from the competition, invest time, and if you can, money in your social media marketing.
And remember: networks are important, but they don’t have to be the center of your marketing strategy, which is your online store.
And you, on which social networks are you present? What works best for your online store? Let us know about your experience in the comments!