More than three-quarters of the world’s population aged 13+ uses social media. A whopping 4.74 billion people are active social media users.

Social media marketing provides a unique opportunity to connect with this massive audience on the platforms where they already spend their time.

But what exactly does social media marketing entail? Is it right for your business? How do you “do” social media marketing, and how do you get started?

In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about marketing your brand on social media.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the practice of using social media platforms and tools to promote a business and connect with existing and potential customers.

The intended outcomes can range from the somewhat abstract (like brand building) to the very specific (like selling products through social commerce).

At its core, social media marketing is about building relationships with your audience in the places they already spend their time online.

Unlike traditional advertising, social media marketing allows for two-way communication between individuals and brands. There’s also potential for building a sense of community, which creates brand loyalty.

Social marketers do a lot more than scroll through TikTok all day.

All in a day’s work

Shout out to all the social media managers juggling so many hats while keeping their social channels afloat. You’re all the true MVPs pic.twitter.com/7jtsbgkbhK

— Hootsuite (@hootsuite) December 8, 2022

Social media marketing activities can include:

Content planning and creation. This is the most visible component of social media marketing. It’s the art of creating appropriate types of content for each platform to connect with the audience there.
Content scheduling and publishing. This is the task of actually getting your content onto the appropriate platforms at the appropriate time.
Social media analytics. Using analytics tools to track how content performs, report on progress towards social media goals, and plan ways to improve overall response.
Social listening. Using social tools to keep a virtual ear to the ground, learning what’s being said about your brand and your industry. This is also a powerful tool for competitor research.
Community management. Connecting with followers to build a community online, then working to keep that community active and healthy by responding to messages and creating ongoing opportunities for engagement.
Social media advertising. Using paid tools on the social networks to get your content in front of a larger audience. This may include working with influencers or external content creators.

The benefits of social media marketing

Social networks are the second-most-popular type of website or app, topped only by chat and messaging.

Source: Hootsuite’s Global State of Digital 2022 Report (October Update)

They offer incredible reach and opportunities to engage with an audience in ways that are simply impossible in any other marketing format.

Here’s what that looks like in terms of real benefits for any brand that gets social media marketing right.

Build brand identity and awareness

From the smallest business to multinational corporations, every brand needs to stand for something if they want to connect with consumers. Social media gives you a chance to consistently show the personality behind your brand.

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? On social, you can participate in conversations, encourage engagement, and even interact with your audience in real time.

Create community and brand loyalty

People naturally organize themselves into communities on social media. That might mean a Facebook Group or a hashtag like #DIYTok. When brands support and engage in these communities, they gain credibility with people who are naturally inclined to be interested in their products and services.

Providing helpful resources, information, or even entertaining content on social media helps people identify with your brand. They become loyal brand advocates who make repeat purchases and spread the word about your brand through their own social media channels.

Test ideas in near real time

Social media networks are an ideal platform for testing, as the feedback gathered through social media analytics tools shows you almost immediately what works and what doesn’t in your marketing.

This allows you to refine your marketing strategy very quickly, and reveals lessons you can apply to areas of marketing beyond social, too.

Support business goals

Social media marketing doesn’t always get credit for its contribution to the bottom line. Social media can drive customers to your website and generate sales leads. Social marketing efforts can even support social commerce sales, in which customers purchase from your brand without ever leaving the social platform.

Your social media marketing team also supports (or sometimes provides) social customer service.

Source: Hootsuite 2023 Social Trends Report

Customers expect to be able to connect with your brand on social media for service and support. Having an easily accessible and responsive social care team can win back annoyed customers or provide the extra boost of confidence needed for first-time customers to complete a purchase.

Top networks for social media marketing

There’s a social network out there to connect with every audience. These are our top picks, sorted by number of users.

Source: Hootsuite’s Global State of Digital 2022 Report (October Update)

Facebook

Facebook is still the world’s most-used social platform, with 2.934 billion global active users. It’s also the “favorite” platform of the largest number of social media users. And it accounts for the vast majority (71.64%) of web traffic referrals to third-party websites.

Check out our guide to marketing on Facebook.

Instagram

Instagram is the next-most-popular social network with 1.386 billion active users. It’s known to sometimes be a source of frustration for social media marketers because of its frequent feature updates and algorithm changes.

But the frustration is worth it, because nearly half (44%) of Instagram users shop weekly on the platform.

Learn more about how to market your brand on Instagram.

TikTok

TikTok has skyrocketed seemingly out of nowhere to become an incredibly important social network for marketing in the last few years. It has 1 billion active users, a year-over-year increase of 14.6%.

And here’s an interesting fact – if we’d sorted this list by average time spent on the app, TikTok would have come out on top. Users spend an average of 22.9 hours per month on the platform, more than any other social network. That addictive quality makes it an important network for brands to understand.

We’ve got all the details you need to know in our post on how to create a TikTok marketing strategy.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is unique on this list in that it’s a social network specifically focused on business life. That means its 875 million members are primed for business discussions and purchasing research. It’s a critical platform for anyone working in B2B, or for any companies that hire anyone, ever.

Business to consumer brands can find success on LinkedIn too. We explain all the details in our post on LInkedIn marketing for both B2B and B2C brands.

Snapchat

Snapchat may get less press than TikTok, but it’s still an important platform with 576 million active users. It’s far from fading into obscurity – in fact, the platform is still growing, adding 38 million users from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022.

Snapchat is particularly useful for brands targeting an audience ages 18 to 24. We explain all the details in our post on how to use Snapchat for business.

Twitter

Twitter has been in a bit of turmoil since its purchase by Elon Musk in October 2022. But social marketers still have the network’s 544 million active users on their radar, and its value as a marketing platform remains strong heading into 2023.

Twitter is especially useful for brands looking to participate in real-time trends and conversations, as we explain in our Twitter marketing guide.

Pinterest

Pinterest has the lowest number of active users on this list at 433 million. But it’s an important platform for social media marketing because of the way people spend time there.

The top reason people say they use Pinterest is to follow or research brands and products. The very top reason! That’s a key distinction from most of the other platforms, where people tend to focus on connections with people over brands.

Learn how to use this shopping-oriented usage pattern to your advantage in our post on using Pinterest for business.

Most important social media statistics

Here are the most important social media statistics marketers need to understand in 2023.

People spend nearly 2.5 hours per day on social media

Specifically, 2 hours and 28 minutes. That provides plenty of opportunities to connect with your audience on social platforms.

Nearly half of internet users seek out brands on social

To be exact, 49.2% of internet users worldwide use social media to learn about brands and see their content. And it’s not just kids – even in the 55-to-64-year-old age group, 41.3% of women are seeking out brands on social media.
Social media is also an important vehicle for brand discovery: 27% of Internet users aged 16 to 64 discover new brands through social ads, and 43.3% use social networks as a primary source of information for brand research.
For younger users, social networks are the preferred source of information for brand research (50%), outanking even search engines (46%).

Source: Hootsuite 2023 Social Trends Report

Social media users play the field

The average person uses 7.2 social media platforms every month. That gives you the opportunity to reach them through multiple touchpoints. But it’s a better idea to use one or two platforms really well than to spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere at once.

Short-form vertical video is critical

TikTok’s ad reach grew 14.6% from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022, now reaching 945 million adults over age 18. Note that ad reach is an important statistic even if you only plan to use TikTok organically, as it can be used as a general indicator of how many people are using the platform.
The global audience for ads in Facebook Reels grew by almost 40% from Q3 2022 to Q4.

5 essential social media marketing tips

1. Research your audience

In order for your social media marketing to be successful, you need to understand who you’re trying to reach. This will involve some audience research.

You can start your research by understanding the different demographics of each social platform. We’ve done a lot of the work here for you, comparing the key demographic details you need to know:

Facebook demographics
Twitter demographics
Instagram demographics
Pinterest demographics
Snapchat demographics
LinkedIn demographics
TikTok demographics

But this is just the starting point. You need to understand your specific audience, so you can get a clear picture of how to tailor your social media content, which platforms to use, and how to develop your brand voice.

As you come to understand who you want to reach, it can be helpful to develop audience personas.

2. Understand social media goals and KPIs

Everything you do on social media should be underpinned by a solid strategy based on realistic social media goals. Each of those goals will be tied to measurable data in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs).

For inspiration on what kinds of goals to set for your social media marketing efforts, look to the advantages of social media outlined at the top of this post. For example, you could aim to:

Increase brand awareness
Improve community engagement
Drive online sales

We’ve got a whole blog post filled with examples of social media marketing goals, if you need some help getting started.

One critical element of goal setting is determining how you will track and measure your success. That’s where KPIs come in.

Fortunately, social media analytics make it quite straightforward to track and report on your social media performance. For details, consult our post on everything you need to know about social media analytics.

3. Plan and schedule your content in advance

Creating effective social content takes planning. Rather than creating your content on the fly, take the time to map out your posts in advance. This allows you to be strategic and consistent in your messaging across platforms.

Creating and scheduling content in batches allows you to make much more effective use of your time. Instead of interrupting your work multiple times per day (or night) to post on social, you can create content in dedicated blocks of your workday, then schedule your posts to go live on the right networks at the right time. A social media marketing dashboard like Hootsuite will help you schedule all of your posts in one place and keep a bird’s eye view of your content strategy at all times.

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This advance planning also allows you to bring multiple people into the content creation process, so you can access more skill sets or just have a fresh set of eyes look at your captions before you post.

4. Involve your community

Social media marketing is unlike marketing on any other platform. It’s a two-way street, with communication flowing from the brand to consumers and consumers back to the brand.

So, it’s important to get your community involved in your brand. You could try a social media contest, or use a branded hashtag to collect user-generated content to share on your feed.

Above all, make sure to respond when your followers engage with your content. Answer comments, thank particularly active users, and be sure to stay on top of your DMs.

5. Monitor your competition

Social media is an incredibly effective platform for competitor research. You can see what your competitors are doing in real time, and even listen in on the conversation happening about competitive brands.

Social listening is a great jumping-off point for your competitor research. Using automated tools, you can track mentions of your competitors, even when they’re not tagged. You can see what’s working for them, and what strategies might backfire.

This is extremely valuable information as you develop your own social marketing strategy. You don’t want to copy your competitors, but you can certainly learn from their successes and mistakes. You can also learn about new promotions, products, or company shakeups in real time.

Helpful social media marketing courses and resources

Hootsuite Academy

Hootsuite Academy offers social media training and certification through online courses taught by professionals in the marketing and social media industries. More than half a million people have taken courses through Hootsuite Academy, and more than 1,000 universities are enrolled in the programs.

Once you pass the exam for a Hootsuite Academy program, you receive a digital certification you can display on your LInkedIn profile to highlight your expertise.

Native training and certifications from the social platforms

The social platforms want brands to find success with their tools. To that end, many of them have created their own social media marketing courses along with training and certification resources to help businesses and social media marketers learn how to use all of their features.

Meta Blueprint
Twitter Flight School
TikTok Business Learning Center
Pinterest Webinars

Udacity Nanodegree in digital marketing

This three-month online program takes you from the fundamentals through to immersive projects that help you understand how digital marketing really works. You get access to a mentor and career support.

Insider Intelligence

Insider Intelligence is known for its forecasts and analysis. Full access requires a subscription, but you can gain plenty of insight from the freely accessible articles and podcasts.

In particular, their daily Behind The Numbers podcast is packed with digital marketing insights, and is available wherever you get your podcasts.

The #AskGaryVee Podcast

Gary Veynerchuk accepts questions on Twitter using the #AskGaryVee branded hashtag, then answers some of the most pressing in every episode.

If you’re an audio learner, there are plenty of podcasts to help you develop your social marketing skills. We’ve compiled a list of some of our faves.

#TwitterSmarter

Whether you join in the weekly #TwitterSmarter Twitter chat or listen to the podcast, you’ll gain important and up-to-the-minute insights on how best to incorporate Twitter into your social media marketing strategy. Host Madalyn Sklar is a top expert in the Twitter space, and regularly participating in #TwitterSmarter will help you, well, do Twitter smarter.

Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement

This textbook by social media strategist Dave Evans, founder of Digital Voodoo, offers practical tips on how to establish a social media strategy and increase engagement with your social followers.

This book also gets into the details of how to connect social media throughout your organization. Rather than focusing only on the social media team, it explains how to use social media for customer service, employee engagement, and even product development.

Google Scholar

If you want to dive into the latest academic research on social media marketing, Google Scholar is the place to start your search.

Some interesting reads include:

Friedland, The Next Step in Social Media Marketing?
Saravanakumar & SuganthaLakshmi, Social Media Marketing
Mason, Narcum & Mason, Social media marketing gains importance after Covid-19

Should you do social media marketing?

So, is social media marketing right for your brand? Let’s look at a few of the arguments for and against.

Pros of social media marketing

Connect with your audience where they already spend time online
Low barriers to entry – it’s free to create a business account on all major social platforms
Create brand loyalty
Expand your audience
Get audience feedback that can apply to all areas of your business
Learn about your audience through social analytics
Refine your strategy with real-time testing

Cons of social media marketing

Requires some time to do it right
Initial follower growth can be a challenge
Potential security risks if not managed correctly

For most businesses, the advantages of social media marketing far outweigh the risks. If your audience is already on social media, they expect to find you there. Without an active social media presence, you’re missing out on an important way to grow your brand.

Fortunately, it’s easy to get started. You don’t need to do everything all at once. The first step is building your social media marketing strategy.

Social media marketing FAQ

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the practice of using social media platforms to promote a brand and connect with customers.

The intended outcomes can range from building brand awareness to increasing sales.

How do beginners start social media marketing?

If you’re a complete beginner, start with research. Identify a few competitors, find their social accounts, and take note of what seems to be working for them. Then, create accounts on the social platforms that best fit your audience demographic and start creating your own content. Post consistently and closely watch your performance stats to get an understanding of which strategies are the most effective — and do more of what works.

What skills should I learn for social media marketing?

Important social media marketing skills include copywriting, graphic design, community management, marketing strategy planning, and performance analysis.

Manage all of your social media marketing from one place with Hootsuite. Create and schedule social posts, interact with your audience, track your results, and keep an eye on competitors from one easy-to-use dashboard. Try it free today.

Get Started

The post What Is Social Media Marketing? [Complete 2023 Guide] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on January 4, 2023 @ 9:40 am

Instagram is the top media platform for building relationships with brands, according to a Meta-commissioned Ipsos study. And half of Instagram users say the platform helps them discover new brands. Even better for brands, 44% of users shop weekly on the platform.

If you’re not using Instagram for business purposes, those potential new customers might never find their way to your products or services.

Here’s how to use Instagram for business growth in 2023.

How to set up Instagram for business in 4 steps

1. Switch to a Business account

You need to create an Instagram account first, then convert it to a business account. If you have an existing personal or creator account you want to convert, that works too. It’s free and anyone can do it.

You can have up to five Instagram accounts, so go ahead and keep your personal Instagram account personal if that’s what you prefer.

From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
Tap Settings. Some accounts may see Switch to professional account on this menu. If you do, tap it. Otherwise, tap Account, then tap Switch to professional account.
Tap Continue (you may need to tap it multiple times as Instagram previews the available features of a professional account).
Select a Category and use the slider to choose whether to show it on your profile, then tap Done.
Choose Business (unless it makes sense for you to choose Creator), and tap Next.
Use the slider to opt in or out of promotional emails from Instagram for professional accounts, then tap Next.
Add or edit relevant contact details, then use the slider to choose whether to show your contact information on your profile, then tap Next (or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step).
If you plan to connect your Instagram business account with a Facebook business page, follow the prompts to connect your account to your Facebook Page. This is technically optional, but it’s necessary in order to use Instagram shopping features or run ads on Instagram.
Tap the X in the top left corner to close this window and return to your profile.

Learn more about the difference between Instagram business and creator accounts.

2. Add business information to your bio

In 150 characters or less, your Instagram bio should describe your brand and showcase your brand voice. We’ve got a full guide to creating an effective Instagram bio for business (complete with templates), but here’s a quick video to walk you through the basics:

Also be sure to make the most of the other components of your Instagram business profile:

Profile pic: Most brands use their logo. Your profile photo displays as 110 x 110 pixels (cropped to a circle), but it’s stored at 320 x 320, so that’s the size you should upload.
Link in bio: Link to your website, your latest blog post, a current campaign or a Link Tree.
Contact information: If you didn’t add contact info during your account creation, you can do so at any time by tapping Edit profile. Instagram will then add a Contact button to your profile.
Action buttons: If relevant, you can add a button that allows customers to book or reserve appointments or to order food. To use this feature, you need an account with one of Instagram’s partners. Tap Edit Profile, then scroll down to Action Buttons.
Story highlights and covers: Instagram Story highlights are another way to maximize your profile real estate by providing more information about your brand or your products. Organize Stories into saved collections, then add some polish with Highlight covers.

3. Connect your product catalog

To tag products in Instagram content, or to run certain kinds of Instagram ads, you need to create a product catalog. You can do this in Meta’s Commerce Manager.

Head to Commerce Manager and click Get Started, then select Create a catalog and click Get started again.
Select Ecommerce, then click Next.
If you have a shop on an ecommerce platform like Shopify or Big Commerce, click Connect a partner platform and follow the prompts to create your catalog. Otherwise, click Upload product info, name your catalog and click Next.
Click View catalog to open your catalog, then Add items to start adding products.

We’ve got a whole post on using Commerce Manager if you’d like more details on how this tool works.

4. Turn on Instagram shopping

Once your catalog is full of products, it’s time to turn on Instagram’s shopping features.

From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
Tap Settings, then Business, then Set up a Shop.
Tap Get started and follow the prompts to submit your shop for review.
Wait for approval. You can check the status of your shop at any time by going to Settings > Business >Shopping.
Once your shop is approved, go to Settings > Business >Shopping, select your product catalog and tap Done.

We’ve got a full blog post explaining everything you need to know about Instagram Shopping if you want to focus on this particular aspect of using Instagram for business.

Using Instagram for business: 6 tips

1. Research your audience

A good social media strategy starts with a sound understanding of your audience.

Instagram’s audience demographics give you an overall picture of who uses the platform. For example, 18-34-year-olds represent the largest ad audience on the site.

Source: Hootsuite Global State of Digital 2022 (October Update)

However, that doesn’t mean your specific audience on Instagram will be made up of 18-to-34-year-olds. For example, looking at the audience insights for my own Instagram account, I can see that my audience skews older than the Instagram average:

Source: Meta Business Suite

You can find demographic information on your existing audience using Instagram Insights, Meta Business Suite, or Hootsuite Analytics. But if you’re just getting started using Instagram for business, you might not have a large enough following to gain meaningful insights here yet.

In that case, take a look at the demographics of your audience on other social channels and of your existing customer base. While this won’t translate exactly to Instagram, it should give you a sense of who’s interested in your business and what you have to say.

Understanding your audience puts you in a better position to create targeted content and business captions for Instagram that resonate. Since audience research is an important foundation for your content strategy, we’ve got a whole post dedicated to helping you find your target market.

2. Figure out your content mix

Now that you know who your audience is, you need to determine what to share with them. Rather than posting random content whenever the mood strikes, you need to develop a content strategy that speaks to your audience and keeps them engaged, all while contributing to real business goals.

While you should certainly post some promotional content to get people excited about your products and drive sales, you also need to provide content that builds community and sparks engagement.

That might mean including user-generated content or other curated resources, sharing insider expertise about your industry, or joining in on a trending meme. (But tread carefully here – only join in on trends that are appropriate for your brand voice.)

 

Look for opportunities to develop themes or regular installments that you can build into a series. “Content buckets” allow you to check certain boxes without having to overthink creation. The more planning you do upfront, the better you’ll be able to produce regular content and respond to last-minute or unplanned events.

3. Schedule your content in advance

From Reels to Stories to posts, there are many options when it comes to Instagram content.

The best way to create a unified strategy is to schedule your content across all Instagram surfaces (and other social platforms) using a content calendar. Or, take it up a level and schedule all your content to publish automatically at the right time using a tool like the Hootsuite Publisher. Yes, you can even schedule Stories and Reels in advance.

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The added advantage here is that you can create your content in dedicated blocks of time and schedule it to post at the best time for your audience. Even if that time is outside business hours, on the weekend, or in the middle of the night.

4. Tag products

When you share content about your products on Instagram, tagging makes it much easier for people to learn more or buy. You can tag up to 20 products in a photo feed post.

To tag products, create your Instagram post or Reel as usual. Then, on the final screen before posting, tap Tag products. You can tag products from your own shop or someone else’s, which creates great opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion.

Source: @reitmans

In Stories, you can tag products using the Product link sticker.

Source: @allbirds

5. Track your results (and learn from wins and losses)

With an Instagram business profile, you have access to the platform’s built-in analytics tools to help you understand how well different types of content perform.

There are several other analytics tools available, including Hootsuite’s, that can track longer time frames, automate reporting and make it easier to compare Instagram metrics across other social media platforms.

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No matter which tools you use, the important thing is to check in regularly to learn what kind of content resonates best with your target audience. You’ll start to see patterns about what generates the most engagement, as well as what kinds of social media content increase views beyond your existing follower base. (Hint: Try Instagram Reels.)

Use these lessons to hone your content strategy over time.

6. Treat Instagram as a customer service channel

Success on Instagram requires you to engage with your followers rather than just blast content out and hope someone likes it. One important component of this two-way communication is monitoring your DMs for questions, comments, and customer service requests.

Instagram business accounts have access to a couple of DM features that make managing customer service easier on the platform. First, your inbox is divided into Primary and General tabs to make it easier to keep track of your messages. And second, you can create saved replies to commonly asked questions that you can access via keyboard shortcuts.

Hootsuite Inbox makes it even easier to manage your DMs by allowing you to assign messages to the appropriate team members. If you really want to take customer service on Instagram seriously, a tool like Sparkcentral allows you to integrate Instagram with your CRM.

FAQs about using Instagram for business

Is Instagram free for business?

It’s free to set up an Instagram business account, promote your business, and even set up an Instagram shop.

The only fees for Instagram business accounts are ad costs if you choose to run Instagram ads, and selling fees if you use Commerce Manager to allow your customers to check out and complete their purchase within the Meta platform.

So, there is no fee to use Instagram Shopping to tag products and direct users to your website to buy them. However, if you use Meta’s native checkout through Commerce Manager, you will pay the following selling fees:

$0.40 for shipments up to $8.00
5% for shipments of $8.01 or more

Instagram is waiving these fees until 11:59 PST June 30, 2023.

How does Instagram work for business?

As you’ve seen in the Instagram for business tips throughout this post, Instagram offers many useful features for businesses. Some of the most important features only available for professional accounts are:

Instagram Insights for audience demographics and details about how your content performs
Instagram Shopping to tag products in your content
Instagram Direct features to better manage DM communications

But on the whole, Instagram for businesses works just like it works for creators or personal accounts. Create great content that inspires, informs, or entertains your audience to grow your following and build community around your account.

What are the disadvantages of using Instagram for business?

For most businesses, the benefits of using Instagram for business far outweigh the disadvantages. That said, there is one important disadvantage that’s especially important when using Instagram for small business development.

For micro businesses, it can be tempting to use Instagram as your entire business presence. But this puts you at risk if you ever have an issue with your account, like being hacked, locked out, or blocked. It’s a good idea to also have a website you control where you can continue to make sales and grow your audience if there’s ever a problem with your Instagram business account.

Save time managing Instagram for business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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The post How to Use Instagram for Business in 2023: 6 Pro Tips appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on January 5, 2023 @ 9:40 am

Your mind is ready. Your body is ready. It’s time to take your first steps into social media marketing. And we’re here to say that we couldn’t be more proud of you.

More than 4.95 billion people are social media users. Worldwide, social users spend almost two and a half hours on social platforms each day. No matter your industry—accounting, consulting, dog-food manufacturing, wig-weaving—this is a captive, active audience that your brand can’t afford to ignore. (Find more eye-popping stats about social media here!)

But whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned pro stepping into the digital landscape for the first time, we know that starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch can feel intimidating. The good news? We’re here to help. Think of us as your digital marketing doulas, here to demystify the world of social media marketing and help kickstart your journey.

So read on for everything you need to get started with your brand-new social media game plan, and a list of our favorite resources to help you grow from social rookie to all-star.

Social media marketing for beginners: 10 tips

Understand your audience

Whatever kind of business you operate, you need to know your target audience inside and out to succeed. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, how can you ever say the right thing? So before you even sign up for that Instagram account, you’ve got to do some homework. Identify your target demographic in as much detail as you can, including their interests, behaviors, and preferences. You might even want to make an audience persona: a prototype of a typical follower.

Once you know that your marketing is intended for little old ladies in Michigan or tech bros in New Dehli, you’ll understand just what type of tone and topics will resonate best… setting you off on the right path to earning engagement and brand loyalty.

Learn how to identify your unique audience and niche here.

Define your social media goals

Not everyone is on social media for the same reason. Some brands use social to offer customer service; others are there to build brand awareness. Figuring out your own brand’s objectives will help guide your game plan.

Are you interested in driving traffic to your ecommerce site, building engagement, or fostering community? Knowing the why behind your social media presence will help keep your actions focused, and allow you to clearly measure success or struggles.

For instance, while we don’t know for sure what Lululemon is thinking behind the scenes, content like this 10K training tweet indicates that one of its goals is to be a source of fitness education and support for its audience.

Level up your training—and your fun. Get access to our 10-week plan when you register for the 10K Tour in Scottsdale or Virtual on Strava. Sign up now. https://t.co/67STZYWVW9 pic.twitter.com/wEBkj1l5VS

— lululemon (@lululemon) September 7, 2023

Need a little guidance? Check out our guide to setting and exceeding social media goals here.

Choose the right platforms

Here’s a little-known fact about social media marketing: your brand doesn’t have to be on every platform. Each social media platform has its own unique personality, and not all are necessarily going to be a fit for your brand. (And if you’re considering just signing up for everything and cross-posting across all the platforms, we’ll just tell you right now: please don’t.)

A magazine targeting senior citizens, on the other hand, would be wasting its time posting on youth-oriented TikTok… while cool-girl makeup brand Glossier is right at home on the platform.

@glossier

Less is more except when more is more #glossier #insandouts #2024insandouts

? What Love Is – Zimmer90

Where does your target audience hang out online? What feels appropriate for your editorial voice? Be selective about the platforms you want to have a presence on and then give your all—it’s about quality, not quantity.

Create quality content

Okay, we know that’s easier said than done. But the truth is that content has to be interesting or visually compelling, or there’s no point. The whole goal of social media marketing is to capture your audience’s attention, so take the time to craft content that actually offers value.

But! “Quality” doesn’t mean that it needs to be shot with a professional camera, or cost thousands of dollars. In fact, in some cases, a more improvised feel can actually add it the appeal of a post. It’s about being thoughtful and authentic… like this playful Bailey Nelson video that riffs on the glasses-shopping experience. Low-budget, and lots of fun.

@baileynelsoneyewear

POV: the Rich Aussie mum takes you glasses shopping at #BaileyNelson @finns.vlogs

? original sound – bailey nelson

Basically, no one wants to be constantly sold to. But sharing a how-to tutorial on using your best-selling products? Helpful! Giving followers a glimpse behind the scenes at your office? Humanizing. Think about what you would want to see, and let that guide your content strategy.

Aim to educate, entertain, or inspire, and keep the promotional posts to a minimum. Here’s a cheat sheet with 17 creative content ideas to get you started.

Plan ahead

There’s no easy answer for how often to post on social media—every platform has its own best practices. But one throughline, from X to Pinterest, is that consistency is key. Posting regularly ensures you’re appearing in followers’ timelines regularly. It gives your fans something to count on. It appeases the algorithms. It makes your brand seem fresh and timely. Win win win win.

It can seem daunting to keep up with that sort of pace, but if you plan ahead, it’s more than manageable. Pick a few “content pillars” and spend a day (every week, every month, whatever!) when you’re feeling creative doing a big brainstorm of posts that could fit into those key categories. Then plug those posts into your social media scheduling tool to make sure you’re getting them out into the world at a good pace.

Bookmark the best resources

Tragically, not every brand has the budget for a whole team of social media content creators, and content creation is often the work of one brave marketer or solopreneur. But with the right tools in your toolbelt, it doesn’t have to be a slog.

We’ve compiled resources for the best graphic design tools, the best free stock photo sites, the best stock video sites, the best video editing tools, and even the best new AI tools. Bookmark these lists and supercharge your content craftwork.

Study up on hashtags and SEO

If you’re making amazing content, but no one’s seeing it, it’s going to be hard to hit your social media goals (whatever they may be). To really achieve organic reach with your content, mastering the fine art of hashtagging is key. Research relevant hashtags, understand best practices (stick with 3-5 per caption!) and mix broad tags with niche ones for maximum reach. Here’s our post on how to use hashtags for every network if you want to learn more.

Similarly, it’s important to consider what keywords you’re including in your captions, titles, and alt tags. Social search is becoming more powerful every day. Read this post on social SEO to learn just how to level up your discoverability.

Practice social listening

Social listening may sound like an advanced practice, but social media marketers at any level can do it. At its core, social listening is the practice of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand or relevant keywords—a practice that offers valuable insights into how customers feel about your products or services, what their pain points are, and what they’d like to see from you in the future. There are plenty of social listening tools out there, but we (obviously) recommend Hootsuite. The listening streams are really easy to set up. Read about social listening here, or watch this video (dealer’s choice!).

Put yourself out there

Successful social media marketing involves more than just broadcasting messages: participation and interaction are key to building connection and community. So don’t just schedule time for posting into your day; schedule time for actively engaging with your audience in the comment section or elsewhere on the site. Encourage conversations, ask questions, and participate in the community. Run polls, answer DMs, host Q&As, and do whatever else you can to give as much as you take.

Hair accessory brand Supercrush created this post to ask its audience to vote on product colors and everyone wanted to chime in.

Dig into the analytics

Just as businesses analyze their performance metrics, social media marketers should be reviewing their data regularly, too. After all, how can you refine your strategies if you don’t know how things are actually going?

Remember the social media goals you set out way back at the beginning of your social media journey? Your social media analytics will reveal if your actions have paid off. Regularly check in on the metrics that are meaningful to you (reach, engagement, click-through rates, and so on)—looking back is what will help you move forward with confidence.

As you probably guessed, this is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with social media. We haven’t even touched on understanding the social media algorithm, creating social media guidelines, or advertising on social media. (Ooh, or employee advocacy!) (Or influencer collaborations!) (Or how to go live on social media!) (Someone please take our keyboard away.)

But here’s the thing: there’s always something more to learn about social. It’s a digital landscape that’s constantly evolving, so you’re never going to “finish” learning everything you need to know… which means you kind of just need to jump into the deep end and figure it out as you go.

Top resources to learn social media marketing

Embrace the idea of learning on the job and experimenting. There are lots of resources for advanced learning out there (see below), but real social media education starts with getting hands-on (mouse on?).

Hootsuite Blog

Not to toot our own horn, but the Hootsuite Blog is a valuable source for articles, guides, and insights related to social media marketing. We cover a wide range of topics, including social media trends, best practices, platform updates, and case studies… and even do fun experiments. (Hot tip: do not buy TikTok followers.) Stay tuned to deepen your understanding of effective strategy and gain practical skills to help you improve your social media game.

Hootsuite Academy

Want to take your social media learning even further? Hootsuite Academy is here to help you really nerd out. This is a self-guided, structured online learning program that features courses and certifications on various aspects of social media marketing. We cover topics like social media strategy, content marketing, social advertising, and platform-specific skills. Whether you’re a beginner or more experienced marketer, there’s something for everyone.

Hootsuite Labs

Go ahead and subscribe to Hootsuite Labs on YouTube right now (we’ll wait). It’s a channel brought to you by our own social media team. Each week, we’ll deliver a new video featuring experiments, hacks, strategies, or explainers to help you understand just how social media works… and, more importantly, how to be successful.

Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

Though it’s not focused solely on social media, Google’s Digital Garage offers a free course called “Fundamentals of Digital Marketing” that has lots of interesting info about online marketing and social. There are lots of practical exercises and real-world examples, so it’s a nice foundational resource.

Social Media Today

Social Media Today aggregates content from various contributors in the social media industry into one platform, so you’ll have all the hot news from the frontlines of social media marketing in one place. Think: articles, insights, trends related to social media marketing, platform updates and strategic advice.

Link in Bio Newsletter

Former social media manager for Bon Appetit, Rachel Karten, writes a weekly newsletter that is one of Hootsuite’s social media team’s top resources when it comes to news, trends, and brands to pay attention to. By her own description, Karten’s newsletter is “about working in social media, creating clever content, and making sure your boss never asks you to “go viral”. And we highly recommend it!

ICYMI

Here’s another newsletter we love. Lia Haberman has been referred to as the world’s foremost creator economy expert, but her weekly newsletter is about digital marketing more generally (with a strong focus on social media marketing). We read it to stay up-to-date with industry trends (and also for her pithy and wise insights). 

Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. Publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversations, engage your audience, measure results, and more — all from one simple dashboard. Try it free today.

The post Social Media Marketing for Beginners: 10 Tips appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Want to know how to get more views on Instagram Reels? Stick with us, kid. We’re giving out free social media advice that doesn’t involve black-hat techniques (we look better in white, tbh), get-rich-quick schemes (tried, failed), or snake oil (not good for the snakes).

We’re breaking down the best practices social media managers, creators, and Instagram pros use to get those reel view gains! Do what the experts do, and you’ll pump up your watch numbers au naturale.

This inclusive guide tells you exactly how to get more views on Instagram Reels using twenty tried-and-true methods.

What counts as a view on Instagram Reels?

Before we dive into how to get more views on reels, you first need to know what counts as a view. Instagram has a couple of rules, which we’ve outlined below.

There are also a few black-hat baddies out there that will promote paid hacks on how to get your reels seen, but buyer, beware. It may not be worth it in the end.

The three-second rule

Despite many sources claiming Instagram reel view counts happen instantaneously (like TikTok), Instagram only counts views after three seconds. Your viewer can’t click away before the three-second mark, or else it didn’t happen. The takeaway from this is to make your first four seconds engaging. Give your viewer a reason to stick around.

Replays: What are they worth?

Instagram only counts the first few views per user. So, you can’t use your friend’s account to watch your reel a hundred times over to bump up your views.

Watching your own reels

You might be thinking of ways to hack the system, like racking up your own views by replaying your reels. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t make it that easy. Viewing your own reels won’t register as a view.

Is buying views worth it?

Paying your way to social media stardom doesn’t often net the results you want. Believe us, we’ve tested it by buying Instagram followers.

So, while buying views may seem worth it, there’s usually a catch. Often, these views are provided by bots that can’t engage with your content otherwise. These black hat techniques can put your account at risk of being banned. They also skew your data, so you can’t use it for any actual insights into your content.

If you’re trying to build an audience or monetize your content, buying them isn’t the answer to how to get views on reels.

20 ways to get more views on Instagram Reels

1. Make your first few seconds count

As we mentioned above, you need a minimum of three seconds of attention for the view to count.

There are a few tricks you can take to make sure people stick around for that magical four-second mark. Start in media res by jumping right into the meat of the video; people don’t want a long lead-up to the good stuff.

You can also promise your viewers a surprise or a treat of some kind at the end of the video to keep them interested. On a totally unrelated note: if you read to the end of this blog, you’ll get a recommendation for a hashtag AI tool that can predict the tags your audience will respond to!

2. Don’t hide your content in your Reels tab

Once you share your video, it will automatically be stored in a separate Reels tab on your profile.

If you want it to appear on your main profile grid (and trust us, you do), you also have to share it to your Feed. This is one of the easier answers to how to get more views on reels—just toggle a button.

Doing this increases the visibility on your reel. You can choose a custom thumbnail for your video so it doesn’t mess up your grid aesthetic. The reel will show up like a normal post, with a reel icon in the top right corner.

3. Do keyword research

Keyword research isn’t just for websites and blogs anymore. Your social media algorithms use a similar set of rules to Google’s search algorithms, as every digital platform has the same goal: To keep the user using the platform.

It stands to reason that you can use SEO to better your reach on social, and that starts with keyword research on your social platform. Keyword research can also help to inform your content. If you’re stuck on what kind of reel to make, take a look at what your audience is searching for and the search terms Instagram suggests.

Take a look at the experiment we did on how traditional SEO tactics impact social media success. You can straight-up copy the TikTok methodology we used, which is step 2 in the how-to guide, and use it on Instagram.

4. Be specific with your captions

Pay attention to keyword placement by top-loading your sentence with your target keywords. Also, don’t stuff your captions with keywords. Social caption writing should follow the same rules as long-form SEO and be written for a human audience, not a machine’s algorithm.

You can find a few other easy ways to tackle social SEO here.

5. Use keywords in your script

By the way, social media algorithms aren’t just crawling written text. It’s likely Instagram takes into account your audio, too, when pulling keywords. YouTube certainly does.

Make sure you’re frontloading your script with your target keywords, then peppering them throughout your reel for maximum results.

Of course, all of this SEO-algorithm-talk helps if you understand the Instagram reels algorithm.

6. Use keywords in your on-screen text, too

Much like crawling your audio for keywords, Instagram’s algorithm is going to look at the text written on your reels, too.

We do need an algorithm disclaimer, too. While we can’t be 100% certain about how the Instagram algorithm works, we know it doesn’t hurt to optimize your reels.

7. If you use text, make sure it’s easily read

It can be tempting to throw up some wildly flashy words on your video to grab attention. But if it isn’t easy to read your text, your viewer is going to click away. You never want to make someone work through a confusing visual or complex narrative.

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to get what you’re doing. So, follow accessibility standards for text on the screen, make it left-aligned or center-aligned, and keep it short.

8. Use subtitles

You can increase your reel’s reach by making it accessible to all users, including those hard of hearing, Deaf, or watching your video with the sound off. Instagram has made it simple to add subtitles to any video with a sticker.

9. Write alt text

Speaking of accessibility, adding alt text to your reel will make it enjoyable for users who are visually impaired. And alt text has the added bonus of giving you another area to integrate your keywords.

10. Use trending audio

Trending audio is a surefire way to get your videos on more people’s screens. Using popular tracks signifies to Instagram’s algorithm that other people who also like that audio will like your video, too. Then, the platform serves your video to those people.

Bonus points if you can make funny, seemingly unrelated audio make sense with your brand. Looking at you, Trish!

11. Create content with your audience in mind

Yes, creating for your audience is one of the universal best practices for increasing social engagement, but it has to be said over, and over, and over again because it’s that important.

Don’t mix narratives on your branded channels. If you create content that exclusively features horses being clowns, don’t switch to content about what you’re making for dinner. Give the people what they want: Ridiculous horse content!

The reason for this is that people like predictability. When they followed you, there was a silent agreement. The audience agrees to follow you so long as you keep creating the content they initially signed up for.

The moment you change tracks, you’ll start losing views. Unless it’s an incredibly compelling or entertaining video. There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

Now, this doesn’t mean you need to create the same video repeatedly. You can also do brand-adjacent content, like horse ASMR (to jump on trends) or content closely related to what your audience is already liking, like other funny farm animals.

12. Engage with like-content

Engage with other brands within your niche by leaving thoughtful or funny comments on their content. You could attract their audience to your channel. And, if Instagram sees your account as active and interactive, it may show you off more in your target audience’s feed.

13. Embed reels on your website or blog

Your website, including your blog, is another potential touch point for reel views. By embedding your content in your site, you’ll present your reels to a potentially new audience.

Plus, embedding your content looks very polished, you social media pro, you. Check it out:

14. Experiment with length

While longer videos give you more room for storytelling, shorter videos may hold your audience’s attention spans. It’s best to experiment with video length to see what your audience enjoys.

Analyze your data with a solid amount of both long and short videos to see what duration is the most popular. Be sure to keep testing over time.

15. Post when your followers are online

Obviously, you want to post reels when your audience is already online so they interact with your post right away. You don’t have to depend solely on Instagram analytics to see when the best time is. Hootsuite’s best-time-to-post feature pulls your data for you and suggests an optimal posting schedule.

Source: Hootsuite

16. Experiment with boosting

Organic posts can truly only take you so far. You’re going to want to boost your popular reels for maximum exposure. And FYI, boosting reels that are already doing well is a better use of your budget than trying to force poor-performing reels onto your audience.

17. Share reels to your Story

You want to have your reel plastered on as many surfaces as possible. When you publish a reel, share it on your Story, too. This way, your reach will be as far and wide as possible.

18. Run a contest or giveaway

Contests or giveaways are a tried-and-tested method of gaining video views. Offering people some sort of prize for a low-barrier entrance fee, like following your account and tagging a buddy, can net you high reel views.

19. Use your data to inform your content

Taking a deep dive into your Instagram Reels analytics can help inform your reel content strategy. And it will give you valuable insight into your overall social media performance.

Take a look at your most-viewed reels. What did you do for those that you can repeat? Do all of your top-viewed videos follow a pattern? Or maybe they’re all on the same trend or subject? Try to emulate the content Instagram Insights says is working.

On the flip side, take a look at the content that flopped. What happened here? What do people definitely not want more of? Failed reels have value, too. And if you’re really embarrassed about the poor performance, here’s how to hide views on reels on Instagram.

20. Don’t forget about hashtags

Hashtags are one common best practice for how to get more views on Instagram Reels. But simply throwing a bunch of #randomwords out there won’t do you any good. Instead, you can use SEO tactics and your keyword research to strategically inform your hashtags. Or, you can Hootsuite’s automatic hashtag generator to do the work for you.

Source: Hootsuite

Start building your Instagram presence using Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles — all from one simple dashboard. Try it free today.

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The post 20 Ways To Get More Views on Instagram Reels (These Work!) appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.