30 Dec How to Start Social Media Marketing (4 ESSENTIAL Tips for Beginners)

Social media marketing is an important part of any business strategy. When done right, it can help you connect with your customers and grow your brand. So, where do you start? In this article, I’ll walk you through the 4 essential tips for beginners to get started on social media marketing!

1. Figure out your target audience.

First things first, in order to be successful on social media, you need to understand your target audience. This is the group of people who are most likely going to buy from or use your product or service.

To figure out who these people are, do some research and find out what they like and dislike. Then, look at what other businesses in your industry are doing online (and offline) so that you can see how they’re marketing themselves. It’s important that this information makes sense when applied to growing your own business—you don’t want it all mixed up with someone else’s strategy!

Once you’ve done your research, you can create a social media strategy that aligns with your business goals and target audience. This means putting together a plan of action for how to use each platform (and not just jumping in blindly), as well as determining what content would be most relevant. It’s also helpful to have an idea of what kind of time commitment will be required from you and any other employees who will be managing these accounts.

2. Set up social media profiles for your business.

• Set up social media profiles for your business.
• Use the same brand across all networks, including Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest etc.
• Choose a profile photo that is representative of your brand, and create a username that’s easy to remember. For example, if you’re an online furniture store and want people to find you on Facebook or Instagram, consider using “Furniture Store” as the username and “Online Furniture Store” as the profile photo. That way, anyone searching will see instantly what they’re looking for when they scroll down through their newsfeeds!

3. Start planning your content strategy.

Now that you’ve taken some time to research the best social media platforms, it’s time to start planning your content strategy. Here are some points you need to focus on:

Interact with your audience and provide value

The key to engaging with your audience is to provide value. Don’t just post links to your website, blog or products; engage in conversations with people who are interested in what you have to say.

For example: Take Andrew, a travel blogger. He recently posted an article about making the most of your trip by using five apps for travel inspiration. Instead of just posting that link on his social media channels like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (which are meant for sharing content), he also linked back directly from the article itself!

This way, anyone who follows him can click through without having any trouble finding what they’re looking for – which gives them an opportunity not only to see it but also read through it before deciding whether or not they want anything else from him down the road.

Engaging with your audience creates brand advocates

Engaging with your audience is one of the most important factors in social media marketing. Engagement helps build trust, which in turn leads to more sales or leads. The best way to engage is by sharing content that interests your followers, whether it’s from a blog post or an image on Instagram.

Engagement means more than just likes and comments. It also means using hashtags to drive traffic to your posts, replying to questions and comments in a timely manner, and even sharing content that isn’t yours but will be of interest to your audience.

Use social media to grow your email list

One of the best ways to grow your email list is by using social media. Here are some tips that will help you get started:

• Use social media to collect emails. You can use social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to ask people questions or give them options on how they could interact with you. If someone responds positively, then send them an email with a link that says “Thank you for responding! Here’s what I’m working on next.”
• Engage with your audience in person or online at conferences and events – this is one of the best ways to build trust between businesses and their customers/fans!

4. Choose a social media management tool.

Last but not least, choosing the right social media management tool is essential for your success. The wrong choice will make it difficult to manage your accounts, and the right one can make all of your efforts seem like a breeze.

The best way to begin this process is by asking yourself these questions:

• What do I want my social media presence to look like?
• How many different accounts do I need? How much time am I willing to dedicate? Is there an app that would help me out or make life easier?

Here are 3 social media management tools I recommend:

-Hootsuite: This is one of the most popular social media management apps on the market, and for good reason. It offers a ton of features and functionality, including analytics and reporting tools. You can even schedule posts in advance, or collaborate with team members using Hootsuite’s dashboard.

-Sprout Social: This is another popular social media management tool that offers similar features to Hootsuite. You can connect multiple accounts, share content, schedule posts and view analytics on your campaigns with Sprout Social. It also comes with a handy Chrome extension that allows you to manage your social media from any browser.

-Buffer: This is a simple social media management tool that allows you to schedule posts and track analytics. It’s also easy to use and has a Chrome extension. You can connect multiple accounts and collaborate with team members using the app.

Social media marketing can seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be complicated with the right strategy in place.

The benefits of social media marketing are endless: it can help you build a stronger brand and get more exposure for your business, engage with your audience and grow an engaged community around you.

It can also help you reach out to more people, get more leads and sales, and build a stronger relationship with your customers. It also helps you connect with influencers in your industry and build relationships with them.

The key to success is consistency and quality content

Consistency is key. Social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to be consistent in your content creation and posting strategy so that you don’t lose followers over time.

Quality content will also help you maintain engagement with your audience since they’ll want to see what’s new on the page or blog post each week/month/etc… If there aren’t any new posts, then people might get bored and leave the platform entirely!

Next, it’s important to have a plan before jumping into social media marketing (or any other marketing campaign). You can’t just start posting randomly without knowing what type of things work best for your brand—this could lead straight back into obscurity when all else fails! So make sure that before starting anything new, only find out how effective each method really is through testing first using tools like BuzzSumo, which tracks how many times certain keywords appear across different platforms. This allows insight into what works best, without having to spend hours creating yourown analytics tool from scratch.

Don’t try to do it all, just focus on one or two channels.

Start with Facebook and/or Instagram, then from there you can expand into other networks as you get comfortable.

Don’t spend too much time trying to figure out which social media platform is best for your business. Instead, focus on building your brand reputation and getting more followers until the right channel comes along that fits your needs.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed reading this guide to social media marketing. We know there are a lot of terms and acronyms to keep track of, but with these tips in mind, we think you’ll be able to launch your account and start growing your business. If you’re still feeling unsure about starting up an account or where exactly to begin, feel free to reach out through our contact form! We’re always happy to answer any questions or give advice on how best to use social media for yourself and your brand (or organisation).