The contemporary world is permeated by social networks. It is where many people get information, see family photos, interact with friends, discuss the controversies of the day and, of course, follow the news from the brands they admire.
That is why Marketing on social networks is essential. Businesses that want to communicate and engage with their audience will need to be on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and most recently TikTok.
Each social network, with its particularities, audiences, formats and languages, offers different possibilities of action for brands. So, it is necessary to know the platforms and make a Marketing plan on social networks that is aligned with the objectives of your company.
Next, we will better understand how to sell on social networks and how to act on each platform. We will address the following topics:
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What is Social Media Marketing?
It is a technique that involves positioning actions, brand dissemination and even sales processes on social networks.
It is about finding your audience on social networks so that your brand is present in people’s daily lives. In this way, you become more known and relevant to your audience, increase interactivity with them, attract leads and generate more conversions.
While many people think that Social Media Marketing is limited to publishing feed posts, there are many other activities involved:
- planning;
- content production;
- audience interaction;
- investment in advertising;
- metrics monitoring;
- constant optimization of the strategy.
These are the pillars that you have to cover to structure the presence of your brand in social networks and obtain the best results.
Why do Social Media Marketing?
Since its inception, social networks have become part of the Marketing plans of most companies. They brought a proximity to the public that had never existed before and that transformed the relationship between brands and consumers.
As a result, brands were able to see countless benefits from participating in this environment and communicating directly with their audience.
Next we will tell you the main advantages of Marketing in social networks:
Increase the engagement of your audience
The big difference between social networks and other Marketing channels is the power to interact with people.
The consumer is passive in the face of a TV ad or billboard, but on social media, they can comment, share, message and interact in a variety of ways, with just a click.
In addition, consumers remain close to the brand in their daily lives, when they browse the platforms, thus increasing engagement with it and building stronger relationships.
As a result: a community is created around the brand.
Increase the reach of your brand
There are more than 3.8 billion social media users around the world. This represents almost half of the world’s population.
Source: We Are Social
During 2020, social networks had an increase of 15 new users per second, this is 1.3 million per day. Have you already imagined the reach you can have on these channels?
The staggering numbers of social media usage show that one of the main reasons brands are on those platforms is so that more people know about them.
And it is worth remembering that the Internet has no borders, so you can be more widely known by people from all corners of the world.
Humanize the brand
Social networks are opportunities to show behind the scenes of the company, making it clear that your brand is made by people. You can use a friendlier language, chat with users on an equal footing.
In social networks, brands assume a clear position in terms of values, attitudes and principles, which is reflected in their content. In this way they become less mechanical, more human and authentic.
Generate traffic and conversions
Anyone who thinks social media is just for brand building is wrong. So far, we’ve seen that they help increase reach, engagement, and humanization, but they also contribute directly to the more advanced stages of the buying process .
In the networks you can promote links to your websites or ecommerce and promote the contents of your blog. There, they can already become leads or customers.
Some social networks already offer purchase possibilities on the platform itself, which increases the sale possibilities. Therefore, followers are also real business opportunities.
Study your audience
The proximity provided by social networks allows you to get to know your audience better. You can talk to people, understand what they like, what topics motivate their participation.
The platforms provide valuable data about the audience that follows your brand, such as age, gender, location, title, interests, etc. Additionally, following mentions let you know what people are talking about and what they think about your brand.
Target ads accurately
Social media advertising platforms provide valuable audience data. Users may not realize it, but all the time they are offering information to the platforms about what they like best, what happens in their life, the profiles they interact with the most and the websites they visit.
So the platforms offer this data to advertisers, who spend money on targeted ads and gain the power to reach the audience they want. In this way, advertising investments become much more efficient and generate more profitability.
How to do Marketing in social networks?
For a long time, brands were seen as interlopers on social media. After all, these platforms were created to connect people, not companies.
However, brands — in addition to being part of people’s lives, who like to know everything about them — are very well received because, by investing in advertising, they monetize the business model of social networks.
Today, social networks do not exist without the presence of brands. However, only companies that understand this environment and plan their operations can achieve success. They need to define a social media strategy to achieve their Marketing goals.
Next, you will see the main tips so that you can carry out high-performance strategic planning for your social networks.
Define your strategic objectives of Marketing in social networks
The first step in planning an effective social media strategy is to define your goals. Social networks help your company to achieve different objectives. Generally speaking, you can aim for:
- increase brand reach or recognition;
- increase brand engagement;
- drive traffic to the website, blog or e-commerce;
- generate leads and subscriptions;
- increase sales;
- build a community for the brand;
- provide customer service;
- monitor conversations about the brand.
Choose one or more of the objectives we have mentioned to start your social media planning. They are the ones who will guide your decisions.
When you set your goals, you should know what metrics or KPIs you should monitor to see if you’ve followed the right path. If you want sales, for example, you need to track conversions on your site. Therefore, consider that aspect in your planning.
Create a buyer persona
The buyer persona is also one of the pillars of Marketing in social networks. Maybe you already have a defined target audience for your Marketing strategies, right? You know what:
- you need to talk to people of a certain gender;
- in a certain age range;
- who live in a certain place;
- that they have certain habits in common, for example that they enjoy sports.
But you already know:
- How to talk to these people?
- In which channels do they get information and interact with others?
- What formats do you use to consume content (texts, videos, audio, etc.)?
- At what times of the day do you use social networks?
- What are their interests that you can help with?
- What are your needs and questions in life?
- How can your product and experience be useful to them?
These are the questions that this fictitious profile, prepared based on the information of your real clients, will answer you. It is with the buyer persona of your company with whom your content will be communicated.
While the target audience is important in driving your marketing decisions, it is superficial, generic, and does not delve into human behavior.
However, in social networks you interact with individuals and you need to know them more thoroughly to establish real communication. That is precisely what the buyer persona is for.
Define the most appropriate social networks for the brand
There are currently several social networks, but the brand does not have to be in all of them.
Managing multiple profiles at the same time is tiring, requires time, staff, and resources. It’s also often ineffective, because your audience may not even be on certain social networks. So in the end, you may not do well on any network.
You must analyze which social networks are the most appropriate for your business, your audience profile, your Marketing objectives and the capacity of your team. Later we will learn about the characteristics of each social network, among the main ones, so you can see which ones align with your strategy.
Plan organic and paid strategies
Most social networks started with only organic posts. It was enough to create any type of content for the page to reach a large part of its followers.
However, the platforms began to fill up with users, which caused changes in the algorithms of the networks, especially Facebook. From there, they began to prioritize the most relevant posts for each person in their feed.
In this context, brand posts were left behind, with the understanding that posts from friends and family would be much more relevant. So whoever wanted to increase their organic reach should invest in advertising.
That’s the recipe for financial growth for social media platforms. And who does not enter the game has a limited scope.
Therefore, whoever wants to be successful on social networks today will have to reconcile organic and paid strategies.
- The organic publications are those recurring, in the day to day of the profile, that keep the closest users informed and involved.
- Paid posts, on the other hand, are one-off: they target specific audience segments to achieve certain goals .
The combination of these two types of strategies is important because one supports the other. Organic posts add consistency to brand presence and engage followers, while ads deliver quick results and attract new audiences.
Create unique and relevant content for the buyer persona
Creating relevant content is the number one way to avoid organic reach reduction. After all, it is the most interesting posts for each person that the algorithm shows in their feed. For this reason, brands must publish content that attracts the attention of their users.
Well, you already know the profile of the buyer persona, you know what kind of language to use, what topics to address and what goals to achieve. Therefore, content production should always target these strategic elements in order to have more reach and gain audience participation.
The contents of social networks must be original, aligned with the person and adapted to the characteristics of each network. They can educate, inform, entertain and advertise offers.
What is not interesting is talking about products and discounts all the time. As much as there are people interested in this, it can be tedious. That’s not all people want to see on social media.
One piece of advice is to follow the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule: only 20% of the content should talk about what the brand sells, while the other 80% should deal with topics in your area of ​​expertise, answer questions about the buyer persona or simply provide entertainment.
But remember that it all depends on your audience. It’s worth running some tests on your profiles to see how followers react to each type of post.
Create an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar helps organize and track social media activities. It provides a forecast of the publications for the period (weekly, monthly, quarterly), as well as the activities of creation, post-programming, report production, among others.
In this way, brands manage to define and maintain a frequency of publications on social networks. This is essential so that the algorithms realize that the profile is active and continue to show posts to users.
In addition, the editorial calendar also helps to visualize whether the planned content is in line with the Pareto Principle, which we explained above. Over the course of a month, for example, you can predict 16 educational posts and 4 sales posts on Instagram, so you meet the 80/20 rule.
Monitor performance metrics
Finally, you cannot do Marketing on social networks without paying attention to the indicators. It is necessary to make continuous improvements in the strategies to have more and more results. And that requires you to monitor social media metrics.
When defining the objectives, do you remember that we told you to also define the success indicators of the strategy? So, follow these numbers in your social media reports to see if you’ve achieved your goals and how you can improve.
But put the vanity metrics aside, okay? We are talking about those numbers that are impressive and that we like to admire — such as the number of likes or followers on the profile — but that do not represent effective results or help make better decisions. You can follow them, but you have to focus on the KPIs.
The main social networks for Marketing actions
Now, let’s get to know the top social media platforms for Marketing better. We’ll give you an overview of the main features, audience profile, and the types of posts that are most successful on each platform.
Facebook is still the most used social network in the world: there are about 2.7 billion monthly active users. Therefore, it is one of the platforms with the greatest reach potential for brands.
There is a lot of talk, however, that Facebook is being abandoned by the younger generations, who are currently on other social networks, such as Instagram and TikTok.
Although it has all kinds of audiences, Facebook today is more used by adults, that is, by Generation X (born between 1960 and 1980) and Millennials (born between 1980 and 1995).
But Facebook is not just a social network. It is a great business platform, with many features for brands. It is possible to publish posts in different formats, receive messages and user ratings, carry out transmissions in real time and create events, among many other possibilities.
If you produce relevant content, designed for your audience and with a defined frequency, you can increase your organic reach. However, it is undeniable that organic posts are limited.
In 2020, the average organic reach of Facebook pages in relation to the number of followers was 5.17%. In 2019, it was 6%, and that figure was decreasing year after year. The percentage of pages that use payment methods has been growing, as you can see below.
Therefore, to take advantage of the full potential of Facebook, it is also important to invest in ads. Facebook Ads is a powerful advertising platform, with multiple targeting features and campaign goals. It is even possible to advertise on partner sites, not just on the social network.
You can also develop a strategy for Facebook Groups, which bring together people with common interests. Consider creating a group for your brand or exclusively for special clients, or joining groups in your industry.
Look at some success stories of Latino brands carrying out Marketing campaigns on Facebook.
Instagram belongs to the Facebook family and follows its success. It is one of the most popular social networks today, with more than a billion monthly active users.
If Facebook is getting old, most of the young are switching to Instagram. In July 2020, more than two-thirds of Instagram users were 34 or younger.
The largest proportion of users is between 25 and 34 years old, with a slight preponderance of the female audience. It is the generation of Millennials that seeks the lightest, most authentic, visual and dynamic content that Instagram offers.
Instagram was a social network only for posting everyday photos or important events in the lives of its users.
Little by little, it was acquiring new functionalities, the possibility of publishing videos and carousels in the feed, creating stories, making live broadcasts, videos for IGTV and, more recently, reels. And new things come out all the time.
One of the highlights of Instagram is its vocation for sales. Instagram has shopping features like tagging products in posts, and recently launched an exclusive tab called Instagram Shop for product discovery on the social network.
On Instagram, it’s also critical to consider the mix of organic and paid posts. While organic posts, stories, and reels attract audiences, sponsored posts reach a new audience and help achieve specific marketing goals.
Youtube
YouTube is the most used social video network, according to the platform itself, there are more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. There is no doubt that it is the world’s leading video platform.
It is that audiovisual content has a high potential for participation, which is why Video Marketing is becoming more powerful every year.
Therefore, YouTube must enter your Marketing if you want to map out a solid video content strategy. You can post corporate videos, interviews, tutorials, customer testimonials, stream live webinars, create series or branded content.
If you don’t want to create a channel, you can also include YouTube in your strategies by partnering with well-known YouTubers in your niche or creating ads for the platform through Google Ads.
Red Bull has a very consistent YouTube channel. The company itself has a production company to create the content, which implies the broadcast of entertainment events and videos, always related to sports and the brand’s lifestyle.
Twitter may not be the largest social network, but it has a loyal audience of 330 million monthly active users around the world. A curiosity is that the male audience is the majority: 62% of users are men.
Twitter became popular as the 140-character social network. Currently, the limitation has already been raised to 280 characters and today, posts go beyond text and accept other types of media, such as photos, videos and surveys.
Anyone on Twitter wants to know the latest events, comment on the controversies of the day and participate in the hottest topics (trending topics) in real time.
So, anyone who wants to do Marketing on Twitter must enter into this dynamic. You can post brand news, get involved in your niche issues, attract followers to your website, and provide customer service, as many voice their complaints there.
Netflix is ​​one of the best examples of Marketing in social networks, but Twitter, in particular, is where it stands out the most, bringing news from its catalogue, participating in controversial topics, interacting with its followers and commenting on its movies in a fun way.
LinkedIn has more than 660 million monthly active users. It is a very expressive number for a social network that has a specific purpose: it is a platform aimed at professional connections.
For companies that want to do LinkedIn Marketing, it’s important to understand that the social media audience has that focus. Therefore, you can use LinkedIn to generate leads and clients (especially in the B2B market) or attract top talent.
To do this, you can, for example, show business success stories, give professional advice, introduce your employees and show what your organizational culture is like.
LinkedIn also allows direct contact between its users: you can use InMail messages to prospect clients or approach candidates for a job position.
You can even use paid LinkedIn Premium tools like Sales Navigator to manage leads, post jobs, and recruit candidates.
Amazon, for example, uses LinkedIn to show behind the scenes of the company and its distribution warehouses. It is a way to humanize the brand and show the values ​​that guide its culture.
Tik Tok
TikTok is the fastest growing social network in 2020. Fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the app was downloaded 76 million times in March of that year. It is estimated that today it has around 850 million monthly active users, only behind Instagram.
Anyone who enters TikTok can perceive that the social network is dominated by Generation Z, born between approximately 1995 and 2010. Young people love the fun and dynamic content on the social network.
To get on TikTok, brands need to understand the language used there: it’s the social network for short videos, dances, challenges, lip syncs, filters, duets and, above all, creativity.
No video has to be perfect to go viral; they just need to be original and creative to be successful.
New digital influencer names emerged on TikTok this year and grew along with the platform. Many brands have already realized the power of these new influencers. In this list you can see the top 1000 influencers in Mexico.
Pinterest has always been on the sidelines in the social media market. It was never the platform with the most users (it currently has 442 million monthly active users), but it is loved by its audience, mostly female (60%).
That’s because Pinterest really is different. For many people, while it has various interaction features, it’s not really a social network, it’s more of a visual search engine.
Users use the network to create inspirational frameworks for their lives. They look up illustration references, save recipes for a special dinner, plan room decor, or research bridesmaid dresses.
That is why Pinterest is also closely related to consumption, since people make purchase plans there. According to Pinterest, 85% of users say that’s where new projects start and 89% say they use it as inspiration to buy.
Brands can then use Pinterest to post lifestyle-related pins that reinforce their personality and inspire users. But you can also use Pinterest for sales: the pins can lead to the website or e-commerce, generate traffic and lead the user to buy what they dream of.
Westwing is a good example of a successful brand on the web. The brand itself is already inspiring, with lovely products for the home. On Pinterest, then, Westwing finds his audience, posts product pins, and drives them to his ecommerce.
We quickly show you the main Marketing platforms in social networks. Now it is your turn to study your audience and see which social networks work best. Don’t be afraid to test, evaluate and adjust.
The important thing is to align your strategies with the public and with the commercial objectives. So, social media can deliver effective results in terms of reach, engagement, and conversions.
