How To Effectively and Efficiently Use Social Media For Your Business

I’m sure you’ve heard that your business needs to be on social media. But what exactly does that mean? And how — when you are already strapped for time — do you find more time to dedicate to social media? Don’t worry, I have answers for you!

Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Hi there! 👋 I’m Drew Tumlinson, Webfor’s senior advertising specialist. 

I manage both the paid and social departments here. I handle all of our client’s social strategies, content, posting, engagement, and more. This also means that I spend (arguably too much) time on social media in my personal life. (Feel free to find me @DrewskiParker on all platforms, but mostly Instagram.)

Let’s Dive In: What Is Social Media Marketing?

In simplest terms, social media marketing is the use of social media to promote your business. 

Yes, it is truly that simple. 

It’s All About Relationships

I believe that at its core Social Media Marketing is about building relationships. It’s about connecting with your customers, employees, and whoever else your audience consists of in a real and authentic way on social platforms. Building up these relationships as a business will result in an increase in trust, authority, and, ultimately, conversions.

Important note: Social media marketing is a long-term game, not a short-term quick win. Think about it this way: You don’t start a relationship with someone, romantically or otherwise, as if you’ve known each other for years. You start off just meeting and learning about each other first. Your business relationships are no different.

Types of Social Media Marketing

There are multiple types of social media marketing that can be executed. Read on to learn more about social media management vs. social media advertising and how the two can work together to create successful social campaigns.

Social Media Management

Social media management is the process of creating, publishing, promoting, and managing content across social media channels. This is often referred to as organic social. This content can be boosted for more visibility via social media advertising, too. It’s imperative to have a solid social media management foundation in place for long-term growth, success, and relationship-building.

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising shows your ads to a defined audience in an effort to drive traffic to an external location, such as your website. This is often referred to as paid social.

The main benefit of advertising is the ability to reach virtually anyone with your ads. It’s also helpful in achieving goals faster. You can do something as simple as boosting a well-performing post or as complex as an audience-building campaign followed up with remarketing ads.

And of course everything in between.

The Dynamic Duo

Organic and paid social can both perform well without the other. However, the most successful social media campaigns utilize both organic and paid strategies in tandem. By working to build an organic presence that keeps people engaged and wanting to follow you, you start building your audience and making authentic connections with them. Add in an advertising campaign and expedite your success by showing your content to even more valuable users who are more likely to follow and engage with you because of your superb organic strategy. 

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Important?

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times more: Social media marketing is critical for your business.

Why? Well, there are a few reasons.

Your Audience Is On Social Media

No matter what business or industry you’re in, your audience is on social media. I can almost guarantee it. Did you know that, according to Pew Research Center:

• 69% of US adults are on Facebook?
• 40% of US adults are on Instagram?
• 28% of US adults are on LinkedIn?
• 21% of US adults are on TikTok?

That’s just in the United States.

Those four platforms provide such a diverse pool of unique users for your business to get in front of.

Not only are there tons of users on social media, users spend an average of 147 minutes, or about 10%, of their day on social media reports Broadband Search! That means you have 2.5 hours per day to reach your ideal audience.

Social Media Marketing Is Cost-Effective

Social media marketing tends to be far less expensive than traditional marketing. Let’s take an Instagram ad campaign for example. You could take $10 and reach 1,000 (or more) unique individuals interested in your product or service. If you spent $10 on traditional advertising, you might not get so much as a handshake and “nice to meet you” from someone who may or may not be interested in your product or service. The numbers really speak for themselves.

Social Media Marketing Is Targeted

Did you notice in the previous paragraph that I said “unique individuals interested in your product or service” and not just unique individuals? That’s because social media allows you to target audience members based on a myriad of factors, including their likes, dislikes, marital status, location, businesses recently visited, and so much more. This allows you to narrow down your target user and show them the solution they’re looking for — even when they’re not searching for it.

How To Get Started On Social Media

Getting started on social media can be intimidating. From gathering content to writing engaging captions — and sometimes even getting on camera …

It can be a lot! So how can you get started on social media for your business?

There are three main steps to getting started:

1. Determine your goal
2. Find your audience
3. Test, measure, and repeat

If you’re interested in getting started on social media for your business, I highly suggest checking out the recording for my Digital Marketing Quarterly event where I dove deep into each of these three steps!