Types of Social Media Marketing to Help You Engage Customers

Businesses have been taking advantage of social media for marketing communications for some time now. However, these days, with the number of brands vying for a user’s attention, it is important for you to learn how to stand out from the crowd. Breaking through the noise requires a well-defined social media marketing strategy. You will have to use various channels and innovative marketing techniques to achieve your marketing objectives. If you are looking to promote your brand using various types of social media marketing, this article is for you. 

Types of Social Media Marketing

To develop an excellent social media marketing strategy, you will need to know about the various types of social media content that can be leveraged, like blogs, photos, videos, forum threads, etc. Moreover, you also need to be familiar with the various channels where you can share this content, like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. You should know the merits of each of these and how they can add value to your brand. By selecting the ones which best align with your business objectives, you can build an extremely effective social media marketing strategy. 

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The Foundations of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is vital for brands to do business effectively. According to DataReportal, over 75% of customers use social media to research products. To be most effective, irrespective of the types of social media marketing, you will have to understand its foundations: 

1. Analytics

Quality social media marketing campaigns depend on analytics to track and collect data. This information is vital for: 

• Understanding user behavior
• Refining your content strategy
• Choosing the platforms that work for your brand
• Picking the best times to post

With this information, you can be sure of what works for you and what doesn’t. This helps you make your social media marketing more efficient. Analytics also informs your future campaigns and helps determine their success.

2. Strategy

A well-defined social media strategy is vital for an effective social media presence. Without a proper strategy, it will be very difficult to achieve your marketing goals, and you will struggle to get through to your target audience.

A content strategy involves getting the right content to the right people at the right time. It enables you to achieve your business goals by helping you: 

• Create interesting content  
• Drive engagement 
• Boost conversions

A proper social media strategy needs to have well-defined, measurable goals. This will help you determine whether or not your strategy is working. 

3. Listening and Engagement

Audience engagement and listening are necessary to understand how your business is performing on social media and identify the changes you need to make. They help you understand exactly what your customers and potential customers think about you by analyzing their social media conversations. They also help you in: 

• Identifying new trends
• Identifying new income sources
• Gaining industry insights

4. Advertising

Advertising on social media can help you greatly expand your audience. In fact, according to Oberlo, in 2022, there were 4.59 billion daily active social media users globally. Clearly, social media offers businesses a large base of potential customers to reach. 

Some of the ways you can advertise on social media include: 

• Boosted content: By paying the social media channel, you can greatly increase the reach of your content
• Targeted ads: Target users on the platform with ads based on demographics, behaviors, interests, etc
• Retargeting: Target users who have interacted with ads or made purchases in your previous campaigns

5. Planning and Publishing

While social media is exceptionally powerful as a marketing tool, you need to have a plan for your efforts to reap any benefit. 

Here are some things you should do when planning social media content: 

• Understand your audience
• Plan quality content
• Define your brand 

Having a consistent publishing schedule goes a long way in keeping your audience engaged.

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Different Types of Social Media Marketing

It will be hard to plan your content and structure your social media marketing campaigns unless you understand the different types of social media marketing channels. These include: 

• Social networking platforms like Facebook
• Photo-sharing platforms like Instagram
• Video-sharing platforms like YouTube
• Audio-sharing platforms like Clubhouse
• Live streaming platforms like Twitch
• Social messaging platforms like WhatsApp
• Disappearing content apps like Snapchat
• Social shopping networks like Pinterest
• Interactive social media channels like TikTok
• Discussion forums like Reddit or Quora
• Microblogging platforms like Tumblr
• Community blogging sites like Medium

The best marketing strategies use a combination of channels to spend their budget efficiently and meet their goals.

ALSO READ: How to Become an Influencer: A Guide to Mega Growth on Social Media

The Best Social Media Marketing Platforms for Business

1. Facebook

• Great for improving customer relationships
• You can make business announcements and updates
• Helpful in reaching older audiences

2. YouTube

• Great to post informative content like tutorials
• Video ads are highly engaging
• Search engine optimization (SEO) becomes easy in some categories, like “How To”

3. Instagram

• Contains diverse content formats
• Great for social shopping
• Extremely engaging with good organic reach

4. LinkedIn

• Excellent for hiring
• Preferred for business-related content
• Can help you network with others in your industry

5. Twitter

• Great for engaging with customers and offering customer service
• Helps you keep up with trends
• Useful for customer reviews

Social Media Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to

1. Channels are Merging

Channels we were familiar with in the past are constantly changing, and the way marketers use them is also changing. For example, in the past, shopping cart abandonment messages could only be communicated through email. However, today, messaging channels have taken their place. Social media platforms are likely to find a variety of new uses in the future, causing marketing channels to merge further. 

2. Tools are Merging

Like the channels, social media tools are also merging. For example, today, you don’t need separate login credentials to enter various Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms online. Instead, you can use your Google or Facebook to log in. As more tools appear, assuming they will continue to merge is reasonable. 

3. Organic Reach is Down

While it was once easy for social media users to grow their following by posting engaging content, today, things are much more complex. One reason for this is the amount of content generated daily on social media. Another could be that social media companies are limiting their organic reach to boost ad spending. 

4. Social is Becoming “Pay to Play”

As organic reach has become more challenging, social media has become increasingly more “Pay to Play”. While social media is free for its users, it is extremely expensive for advertisers. This is because social platforms generally make most of their money from advertising. This means that they leverage their users’ attention to generate ad revenues.

Social Media Marketing Tips

The following are some tips to ensure that your social media marketing campaigns are effective: 

• Understand your audience
• Select concrete goals 
• Pick the right channels
• Experiment with content formats
• Track current trends
• Start conversations
• Follow your competitors
• Use influencers
• Create contests and attract User-Generated Content (UGC)

While you might have understood the different types of social media marketing, you will need a more holistic understanding of digital marketing to market your brand efficiently. Take up digital marketing courses with Emeritus to help you develop your marketing skills and achieve your brand’s marketing goals.