Social media is one of the hottest digital properties right now. With over 3.6 billion people on social media as of 2020, it only makes sense to figure out what are the best ways to use social media for marketing.

From Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and LinkedIn, there’s a social media channel for both B2B and B2C businesses.

While each platform has its own nuances and technicalities, the goals remain the same – build your brand, expand your reach, and get conversions along the way.

In this blog, we’ll dig deeper into how you can make the best of social media for your marketing.

The Best Way To Use Social Media for Marketing – Build Your Brand!

Building a brand on social media requires patience and an eye for storytelling. While a positive brand sentiment can be great for business and expanding your audience, a negative blip in brand sentiment can quickly undo a lot of the good work.

That’s why brand building on social media is so important! Let’s start with the basics –

• Craft, curate, and share engaging content on a regular basis. These can be simple social media posts announcing a company update (don’t be afraid to talk about your achievements!) or a great blog that you published recently.
• Have a consistent brand voice and image. You want your target audience to perceive you as a brand that is consistent and has reliable values. Follow your brand guidelines and engage in a friendly way.
• We can’t stress enough how important updating all your social media accounts and keeping them in sync is. Delete any accounts you’re not using and make sure you have complete and accurate information in your bios.

The most recognizable brands today like Apple and Mercedes took time to build. While some patience is required, your social media presence can accelerate your brand building exponentially, if done right!

Get More ‘Engaged’ Followers!

To build a loyal audience on social media, you need loyal followers. Start with promoting your social media accounts on your own digital properties. These can be your blog or your website.

Social media platforms make it easy for you to make the most of your owned channels. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram embed codes allow you to embed content directly into your blog your website so that readers can follow or re-share your content on social media.

Another best practice is to use hashtags in your social media posts. Hashtags play a great role in discovery and reaching out to untapped audiences. Hashtags also direct more engaged audiences to your social media posts since they’re already interested in the topic.

Another great way to get engaged followers is to use the Stories feature on your social media platform of choice. This can be LinkedIn Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, or even Twitter Fleets!

Stories provide an immersive and snackable piece of content on social media, making it the perfect format for quick and fun viewing by social media users.

Stories also allow you to be more informal! Feel free to give a behind the scenes look into your company culture or announce a surprise giveaway.

Using hashtags, geo-location tags and @-mentions can further expand your reach when you use Stories.

Increase Your Traffic With Social Media

One of the best ways to use social media for marketing is to direct customers and prospects to your website.

Social media is a great way to do this because it is mostly free! While you can run a paid campaign to fine-tune your targeting and get added features, there’s a lot you can do without spending money as well.

Getting the quality and timing of the posts is important. Too many posts and you risk putting off your audience, too less and you can quickly become irrelevant. Finding the right balance means knowing when your buyer personas are most active on social media.

A well-timed and engaging social media post can do wonders for your website traffic. Don’t shy away from creating content around local or national events. Topical content has the potential to go viral and boost your website traffic.

Social media can impact your SEO as well. Search engines can now read social signals and surface the best content from social media on the search engine results page.

This means that social media posts can now also work as link building opportunities!

Social media has the potential to be one of the most versatile tools in your marketing toolbox. There’s a lot of competition out there but working on a holistic social media marketing strategy is well worth the effort!