Last Updated on October 22, 2022 by Arif Chowdhury
Do you know our world has dramatically changed in the last 20 years? Social media is one of them that drives this change. It changed everything from an individual lifestyle to how an organization operates its business.
Social media first started just for social communication purposes. However, since its popularity began to rise, it has become one of the gold mines for online marketing.
It is a virtual gathering place for all humans in the world. Thus, it helps a business build awareness about its brand, service, and products through various platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
The marketing cost is cheap compared to other sources, so these platforms are popular among online marketers. The good news is – both beginners and experts can easily handle these platforms to start their social media marketing campaigns.
I write this guide especially for beginners. Who needs help figuring out where to begin and how to start social media marketing as a beginner? Anyway, why waste time? Let’s get started.
Social media platforms are designed for casual people; thus, it is comparatively easy to operate. However, marketing methods always remain complex and critical for a novice.
Don’t worry. Keep reading. Here I outlined six simple yet innovative steps to start your first social media marketing campaign.
Before you begin, remember this – several types of social media exist. They have their strength and weakness. Not every social platform will work the same.
For example, suppose you plan to sell a mobile phone on LinkedIn. In that case, it will not work as this platform is specially designed for corporate business, mostly B2B (Business to Business).
This platform is best if you find a business partner or recruit employees for your company.
Let me tell you how you can justify a perfectly matched social platform for your business.
Finding influencers and evaluating their success will help you determine which platform is best for your niche.
Look up the leaders of your niche on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networking platforms to see how many Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media followers they have.
It’s a good sign that Facebook is a better match for your business than Instagram if they have huge Facebook fans but just a handful of Instagram followers.
It indicates that your business will perform well on Facebook than on Instagram, implying that you can use your time and engage with more people on Facebook than on Instagram.
Could you give it a name?
When a person surfs the social media newsfeed, the first thing to grab their eye is your brand name. As you can see, a business brand is vital to bring an impression. Old and new customers can quickly recognize you and interact with your product and service.
Try to find an eye-catchy and memorable brand name for your business. If you don’t, it will affect your overall marketing performance. In addition, people will only try communicating with you if they can remember your company.
Update with a brand image and cover.
You must present yourself face-to-face in front of your audience, even if your business uses a brand logo and cover image. It is because consumers now tend to engage with humanized brands and appreciate personalized experiences. However, this would only be possible if you had the right profile image.
Don’t use a random attractive image in the profile picture. It won’t work. Instead, upload an image representing your company’s brand, and it will be easy for new and existing customers to recognize.
Write a professional bio with detailed information.
New visitors look at your profile to learn more about your business. They are looking for what you are offering, who your target market is, and do you have the quality they want. However, with a well-designed bio, this is easier to determine.
Your social media bio should explain your company and what it offers in a few sentences. It’s essential to have specific keywords so that your target audience will find you easily.
Step 3: Link your website or blog.
Connect social media channels to your website or blog. The audience needs a simple and easy way to interact with your content and share it through various social media channels.
Social networking buttons allow your audience to easily connect with your site, i.e., Facebook shares. This feature will enable readers to share your content on their social profiles. Furthermore, social media logins help the audience to register on your site with one click, and this list continues.
Here are a few tips on using social media sharing buttons in your blog.
Some bloggers go crazy with their social media buttons. They tend to use almost all social media platforms. The best practice is – to check which platform you have a large follower base (except for Facebook and Twitter) to decide which one you should use.
Overcrowding social media buttons can turn off your readers, lowering the number of social activities. Adding needless widgets can also slow down the loading speed of your website.
Using a few valuable platforms is good rather than getting bogged down with everything.
Social media icons can be conveniently embedded as photos on your site and link back to your profile. How to find these links, though? There are several reputable websites where you can get the symbols for free in different formats as image files.
For example, I suggest the website icon finder.
Type the name of the requested icon (for example, “Facebook”) and present you with a list of high-quality image files free to download.
You may see that these icons come in a variety of formats. Different file forms have various features, which means they have additional benefits and drawbacks, as used in websites.
We separate them into raster-based (JPG, GIF, PNG) and vector-based (SVG) formats. Raster-based formats have a specific height and width in pixels and a set resolution.
You must choose the required resolution for these formats based on the standard screen size.
While zooming, it may look blurred or pixelated if the resolution is too small.
Step 5: Identify your target audience.
You need to connect and engage with your audience to make money nowadays.
However, to do so, you must first comprehend your target demographic inside and out.
To have a successful social media marketing campaign, you must pinpoint their expectations, wishes, and desires.
How to identify your target audience?
- To better understand the audience’s problems, conduct a survey.
- Analyze their demographics.
- Participate in discussions on sites where the target audience is present.
- Respond to feedback on your forum and sites with similar target audiences.
- On your social media sites, respond to all feedback and concerns.
- Obtain reviews (by using feedback tools)
You’ll be more prepared to assist your target audience until you understand who they are.
Step 6: Create compelling, informative, and unique content.
Anybody can create content.
However, without a goal in mind, it makes everything ineffective. It would be best if you thought about the objectives of the content marketing approach. Consider what your purpose is when they’ve finished reading your content.
Whatever the response is, the content must be entertaining, engaging, valuable, informative, and unique if you want to achieve specific objectives.
Recommended Reading: How to Use Content in Your Facebook Marketing? (Practical Guide)
Original content.
Nowadays, it can be challenging to create unique content.
Someone else is almost certainly concerned about the same subject, taking a similar snapshot or doing a similar analysis. That’s fine.
The aim is to create exclusive content. As competition is high, it’s no wonder that the most challenging task for advertisers is creating original content.
High-quality content.
It is the most vital part, yet most of the time, it is overlooked. The truth is, there is no shortcut. The demand for high-quality content is always existing.
You can only expect your fans to become involved and committed if you concentrate on a generic topic and devote enough time to research and study. And this is the reason that long-form content is performing better than it has in the past.
Visual content (Infographic).
Infographics are visually appealing and easy to comprehend. It is also helpful for most Internet users who love to share visual content on their profiles.
You don’t need graphic design skills to produce a professional infographic. Instead, use a web application like Piktochart. Then, use your industry knowledge and data to build valuable visual content for your target audience. So it will encourage them to share it and make it viral.
Utilize audience emotions.
Since they caused intense emotional responses in consumers, some of the most popular ad campaigns went viral. Market research has shown that feelings such as pleasure, frustration, and sorrow can engage users and encourage them to share content.
Can you recall the #ItCanWait movement? Examine how AT&T boosted this public safety effort with storytelling, art, and user participation. Co-opting incidental triggers to the company should be avoided since insincerity will backfire. So when you finally get a chance to participate, get the most out of it.
Before you seek the answer to this question, I want you to size up your marketing options. Ask yourself, if there are no social media, how are you supposed to market your business?
- Search engine ads (Google, Yahoo, etc.)
- PPC ads (various third parties)
- Text and banner ads (from multiple websites)
These are the major options you have without a social media platform. Now, ask again if any word of mouth exists within these advertising platforms.
No, you will spend thousands of dollars on an advertisement; in return, visitors will see your ad. That’s it. There is no leverage of marketing, no extra benefit.
While on social media, if you spend $1,000 in one month, you will get a burst of visitors that month. However, the effect will continue. An engaging social system will bring thousands of visitors to your ad. If your ad becomes viral, you probably will not have to spend a single dollar for the next couple of months.
This viral post will continue to spread among vast audiences like wildfire. This unique social media system makes it more effective in online marketing than any other source.
Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. It would be best if you learned this to understand which platform is your best option.
- Facebook: it is best to build brand awareness & directly sell products. (best for B2C)
- Instagram: heavily image-based marketing shine here (best for B2C)
- Twitter: best for brand awareness and building a formal corporate relationship (best for both)
- LinkedIn: B2B business will shine here as well as employee recruitment (best for B2B)
- Pinterest: it is for visual content-based marketing method (best for B2C)
However, from all social media platforms, you will get the following benefits:
- Increase the number of visitors to your website.
- Increase your conversion rate.
- Build mass awareness of your brand name.
- Create a strong brand relationship with your audience.
- Improve customer communication and participation.
The larger and more involved your social media community is, the better it will be to meet your other campaign objectives.
Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing: 7 Advanced Ad Targeting Strategies for Business
Smart in communication.
Communication is a must-have skill for social media marketing. You must have excellent communication skills to serve a company and interact with its clients.
Have to be creative in writing.
Creativity is one of the most significant characteristics of social media marketing abilities. If the content posted by a business is repetitive or tedious, social media users are likely to unfollow it.
Social networking advertisers must constantly develop fresh and engaging ideas, innovative projects, and strategies to keep fans interested and addicted.
Ability to identify engaging content.
Curating content has always been an essential aspect of social media marketing, particularly for companies that need more resources to produce consistent content independently.
In addition to being familiar with information channels and user tastes, it is a valuable social media marketing capability since they need to have a vast knowledge of both formal and casual conversation.
Expert in marketing.
And if you’re using social networking as a medium, you’re already selling your products or service. Marketing skill is vital in this field, and you’ll need a firm grasp of simple marketing concepts.
You don’t need a marketing degree to understand how consumer marketing works and how to deal with it.
Expert in strategy.
Strategic thought is next on the list of best social media marketing capabilities. Although social media may seem fun, effective marketing involves brainstorming, analyzing, and planning.
You should study social media management for your preparation, so having a mind that operates that way and innovative strategic thinking is also beneficial.
Conclusion.
Social media marketing is a broad topic. Thus a single article is not enough to answer a general question like this – how do beginners start social media marketing?
Though, I have outlined essential parts of this question in this guide. But, if you want to learn more in detail, I suggest you read my other guide, “Ultimate Guide: Social Media Marketing Strategy for Small Business.”
Before I wrap up this guide, I want you to know this. Social media marketing is easy to begin. However, it is hard to master. But, if you can learn and become a master of it, you can reduce your advertising cost by many folds, and your profit will climb to the top.