Social Media Marketing Tips For 2022 – These days, we don’t get advertisements from television or get our news from newspapers, and we don’t even have to call friends to know how they’re doing or what they’re up to. We all know why that is, right? They’re all available on just one network, which we call social media.
We can talk all day about whether or not social media has a positive impact on our social lives or that it is just a plot by the government to have some mind control over us. We honestly don’t know, but what we do know is that it is an absolute haven for both marketers and advertisers to build their brand/business.
But…why social media? Why not just build a shop across the street from your apartment?
There are currently about 3.78 billion social media users around the world. That’s 48% of the population. Chances are, you are going to be noticed.
With the endless browsing that social media has to offer, it’s no surprise that 54% of social browsers use social media to find products and learn about them. Essentially, social media has become the mall you can enter regardless of whether you’re on the train, at home, or on the toilet. It is simply that accessible and easy.
You can hop on the social media marketing craze right now, but not without the following tips and advice for you to launch your business into the digital stratosphere:
Table of Contents
#1 Map out a Plan.
First things first, collect yourself and your team and discuss what you expect from this project. As with any business venture, it all starts with a business plan.
Creating a business plan can allow you to figure out ways to attain your goals better and in what timeframe you will be able to do it.
If you are already an established business looking for a global reach, you may need to first break cultural barriers, be up-to-date with global friends, or even familiarize yourself with the influencers from the region you plan to expand to. This all takes time.
And you can do these things to set realistic goals that can help put in a functional business strategy.
Some examples of business goals to start with are:
Gain 100 followers within the first week of launch.
- Post at least one time every day for the next 2 months.
- Have at least 10 shares from public accounts.
Simple goals to help set your momentum will help get you on your feet as you eventually strive for greater for your business.
#2 Find out what Platform Fits Best for you.
When you create a business plan, you must not forget to identify which social platform you will use for your business.
There are more than 1.5 billion websites on the internet today. That’s a lot of options if you ask me. However, all those different sites have different users, purposes, and layouts.
Take Twitter, for example, where you have a 31% better chance of having readers and users remember what you say about your product. That’s the place to go if you want to be heard and to market to online consumers.
Over at Facebook, the largest social network globally with over 2.89 billion monthly users, you will be seen by a larger audience and increase brand awareness almost instantly, with 11% of users using the app for shopping. There are already 90 million businesses that operate on Facebook as their social platform of choice.
Yet, if you want to connect with a younger audience, Instagram is a no-brainer. With 1 billion monthly users, 64% of which are under 34, this is a direct way to identify an audience whose specific consumer behavior will help you set business strategies that can capture their millennial and Gen-Z tastes.
Nonetheless, you can’t be going around clueless and doing things that are ‘uncool’ for Twitter and could be quite the catch over at Instagram.
#3 Identify an audience.
If you’re set on the platform, you must learn how to handle and interact with your audience ON that platform. The same age group on Twitter can act differently on Facebook.
This all has to do with the demographic; age groups, genders, preferences, trends. All things that can help you find ways to create content and method that can get you clicks and reads.
Do your research, know who spends time where, and what offerings do their choice of social media says about them.
#4 Make your social presence timely.
Now that you have identified your target audience, it’s only right to pour all your brain juices and ideas into how you can not only satisfy them but give them a positive experience that will lead them to fuss over it in group chats.
The question of how then comes into play, and you must play your cards right so you may only be on an upward slope of brand recognition.
Whether it’s uniqueness, understanding, or upgraded features your customers can find in your business, the endless possibilities are all in your hands to decide. Create content that is in line with the current trends that people follow, worldwide events that can stir hearts, or even listening to feedback that friends or online customers give you and immediately enacting change.
As a rule of thumb, do your best to make your brand feel as human as possible, to the point that your users can consider you a reliable friend.
#5 Puzzle out how to work with the youth.
The youth dominate social media. In the U.S. alone, 84% of people aged 18-29 are active on social media daily. The number only goes down from there.
Essentially, knowing how to master how the youth thinks and behaves will get your business to spread faster merely because of how much time they spend on platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Knowing how to read the trends amongst the youth can also communicate that you and your business are listening and you know what you want. You are already improving brand recognition just by interacting with that majority.
#6 Influence the Influencers.
If nobody has heard about your business, you can have channels that people have heard about advertising your business.
By channels I mean social media influencers.
It’s pretty self-explanatory. Influencers, by the name, influence people. They have a large following who are invested in their daily lives, the things they do, and even believe the things that they say. Their engagement is so firm that 14% of millennials have purchased something their favorite influencers have advertised.
That’s very tempting, and marketers are already in on it, with 93% of marketers aiming for Instagram to find their influencer campaigns for the next year.
#7 Consistency is Key.
If you lack consistency in social marketing, you might as well be some passerby people who cross by the street on the way to the grocery store as they browse their phones. They would not even notice you.
There’s a reason why celebrities are as recognizable as they are. They are so present in our lives that we can’t avoid them. That’s how you should be with social media marketing, be consistent enough that your audience recognizes who you are.
Now I don’t just mean consistent in posting, you must have an established tone in your messages and captions, a running theme on your graphics and visuals, and upholding the same values through and through.
This exudes professionalism, and it tells audiences that you know what you’re talking about and that whoever is behind the computer knows that they can provide quality content or service.
#8 Improve how you Look.
You have to think of your business as an extension of yourself. You need to dress it for the occasion, know what impresses people, and what font goes with what backdrop.
What I mean is that you need to invest in graphic design, and know what designs best encapsulate your business’ goals and ideals.
Don’t believe me? Well, 94% of all first impressions are design-related. That’s pretty much of all of it. So if you are careless about how your website, logos, or page looks like, you might not even reach a hundred or even fifty followers after a few months.
There are many reasons for small businesses to adapt graphic design at an early stage, almost enveloping a big-business mindset by doing so because 73% of companies set apart a budget for graphic design. After all, they believe it helps them set themselves apart from other brands/competition. It also helps with creativity and the image of being a creatively-lenient company, as well as contributing to brand identity by implementing consistent design across all channels.
So, start drawing in some concepts and logos so you can already decide how much you’ll spend on creating the best graphics.
#9 Help yourself with Automation Tools.
We get it, it’s a lot to take in.
Trends, demographics, campaigns – a lot of things and a startup can only do so much.
To keep up with, almost impossible if you want to get all of them right and precise.
So why make things so hard for yourself when you have the option to automate?
Yes, automation might be an alien term for you, But what is it exactly?
Automation is the use of technology and AI to manage and regulate marketing functions. It can work through different channels, be it design, data-gathering, or human speech and response, and it makes the lives of marketers and advertisers that much easier as you can focus on more important things.
It is so helpful to marketers and advertisers, 63% of companies that had automation had better performance than those that did not. 78% also said that automation leads to an increase in revenue because they could focus on actually earning money than spending time on minute and routine activities.
You can automate some aspects of your social media marketing process to save time and resources. For example, using a banner graphic tool to make your social media ad visuals will make it easier for you to create professional-looking designs. You can also make the same banner graphic tools to improve your regular posts, account banners, and profile pictures.
#10 Get in on the Trends.
No doubt, catching up with trends in an environment as unstable as social media is almost like endlessly trying to catch your tail–the fun not excluded, of course.
You can see this as a sort of adventure, trying to achieve a momentary vibe everyone’s trying to get into while a new one is simultaneously brewing just miles away. 50 million people around the world consider themselves as “creators”; that’s how imminent a new trend can be and all the more reason why you should join the hustle.
Especially now with the rise of the new normal, the further reliance on social media has increased to a significant level where businesses can significantly take advantage of. Facebook, with 2.8 billion monthly active users, has uplifted the time-sensitive feature of posting stories as a content format for even small businesses. The interactiveness of Instagram has also placed it at a close level, wherein its potential advertising reach is 1.39 billion. Instagram itself has engaging tools such as polls, asking questions, stickers, and music which you can use to advertise your business subtly.
Other prominent trends include:
- Live Streams
- Reels
- Virtual Reality
- augmented reality
- messaging apps which all of its uses depend on the angle you want your business to take.
#11 Keep your Enemies Close.
Social media marketing is kind of a double-edged sword. Yes, you can start a business for free, do everything on your own, and you can be self-sufficient and self-employed. But so can everybody else.
As with everything else in life, social media marketing is a war. You have enemies and competitors, and there is absolutely no way you can win that war without observing them and coming up with ways you can outsmart and outperform them.
When it comes to social media marketing, always acknowledge that the customer is always right. They have the freedom to scroll past your post or page and go unto the next business that offers the same product as you and that’s one customer probably gone forever. You must find a way to keep attention on you.
Some Ways you can Outdo your Competition Is:
- Make their product less valuable by adding more benefits to yours.
- Know your unique selling point and focus on it.
- Engagement with costumers.
- Build a better relationship with your audience.
- Experiment until you find something that your audience wants.
#12 Analyze and Refine.
Now that you’re all set to launch your business, all you have to do is kick back, relax, and enjoy impending riches and fame.
Just kidding, it does not Stop There.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember with business is that it is transformative and ever-changing. All the tips I have listed above tell you to be vigilant. Vigilant of your market, your competition, your customers, and yourself.
Gather the necessary data showing how your business is doing, find your blindspots, and figure out how to fix them. Business is all about adaptation and constant evolution, reevaluating yourself every time there is a shift in demand and feedback. This is the only way to keep yourself in the game and run your business.
Don’t Just Follow the Trend, become the Trend!
If there’s anything that social media has proven, it’s that it gets everything it takes to get your business to the next level. Anything can get viral, anything can arrive at their full potential, maybe even exceed them. All it asks of you is to be alert, be aware, and be flexible enough with what’s being talked about now, and not long after you’ll find yourself being the one on everyone’s agenda.
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