Social Media Marketing Tips for Beginners
The use of social media websites to create awareness about specific products, services, websites, businesses or other institutions is known as social media marketing or SMM for short. The main objective most social media marketers seek is to drive traffic to a website or blog for sales, leads, sign-ups or other beneficial action taken by someone.
One important goal in social media marketing is to gain more social followers, customers, and/or increase the visibility of your product(s), service(s) or whatever you want people to know about.
The most common social media websites that are used include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit as well as some others, depending on the needs of the marketer.
The question that often crosses the minds of social media users is how one can build a strong social media presence so that more users, followers or friends are directed towards the particular website that most social media marketers are trying to direct visitors to.
(Disclaimer: We may earn a commission from purchases made from some links.)
Here are a few social media marketing tips to help.
1. Make a decision on which social media platform you want your presence felt
A good place to start is to find the best platform for your particular niche that would have more of a certain type of people that you are targeting. You then identify the potential customers for your niche and try to find out what makes them tick and what would draw their attention. Check out the platform which has the largest number of users that are the type you are seeking the interest of and make a decision to use a particular social media platform for your social media marketing efforts.
2. All your profiles should be optimized
After making a decision on the social media platforms that you wish to use, it is good to optimize your profiles on those platforms. Making sure to have your contact information, “about us” information and anything else that can help people or businesses understand who and what you are and what you are offering. This will afford you the opportunity of getting more followers and boost your online marketing strategies.
3. Connect social media pages with your blog
After setting up your profiles, you need to make sure that your website or blog web address is listed in your profile or user page of the social media platforms that you have chosen. This is important because it helps the social media users have the ability to share your social profile or page across the platform and on other social media platforms for greater exposure. This will help your success because more users will be able to share your website or blog as well as your profile with people and businesses that are using the platform. This actually increases web traffic by inviting more users to share your website or blog with others.
4. Include social media share buttons on your website or blog
Apart from connecting your website or blog on your social media pages, it is also important to add social media share buttons on your website or blog to allow readers to share your pages, posts and other content. There are various ways of doing this, but the most effective option is to make use of plugins or services like ShareThis. You can also do a Google, Bing or other search engine search on “how to add social media buttons on your blog/website” for more information on how to do this.
5. Share interesting and quality content
Just as the famous saying goes, “content is king”, publishing of quality and interesting content form the foundation of a good social marketing campaign. If your content is really good, you are assured of getting more visitors and re-shares which can translate to more traffic, business or customers. Interesting content is content that includes stories, articles, research studies, images, videos, tips, guides, reviews and anything that people will like.
Some final thoughts, tips and advice
In this day and age it is important not to forget about using hashtags in the social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook and some others because they will make your content highly visible in searches. It is, therefore, important to know that SMM depends on two main factors which include the setting up of a social media profile and using it properly to gain the best benefits from it.
Social media marketing gives you an opportunity to connect with people and businesses on these networks that are most suitable for your particular niche. It is also important to be followed by or to follow the right people and share relevant content which is mutually beneficial, this can help grow your authority on the social media networks and bring you even greater success.
Good Luck and may you reach the Apex in your Niche!