Did you know that about 39% of the global population uses social media actively? This is clearly a huge place for your brand and voice in the online community.
Are you thinking of trying to get involved with social media marketing for your business? It’s a great next step to take, especially if you haven’t done it before and are working toward building a more solid marketing strategy overall.
You don’t want to make the mistake of spending money on something that doesn’t work, however, and this can easily happen if you don’t know where to start. Social media is a vast field of information, so how can you get your content to shine above the rest?
Keep reading below to find out more about social media, how to market your content effectively, and more.
What Are the Main Types of Social Media?
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of websites that would technically qualify as a type of social media website. How can you figure out which type specifically? It’s hard to narrow down because many social media applications are actually more than one type put together.
If you think about it, this is a smart way to develop an application or website that people will continue to use as the internet keeps evolving. They need to have multiple reasons for users to want to use their website over another social media option.
Part of the reason that Facebook has been so successful is that it is doing this on an expert level. It incorporates many types of social media into a one-stop shop for users. At the same time, they make it easy to post, review, and talk about almost anything.
If you’re planning to break into the world of content marketing, you have to know what types of social media will best benefit from your specific content. This is the best way to create an automated sales funnel and to drive leads to your website.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking websites are everywhere and actually come in many different forms. Some of them are organized by a topic or a technique while others are more general lists or news services.
Essentially, social bookmarking service is a type of social media where people can look at what other people like. Some common examples would include StumbleUpon, ThisNext, Pinterest, and Flipboard.
Social Content-Sharing
This is usually the type of social media that people think of when someone mentions social media. It includes all of the websites that allow users to post photos, text, videos, audio, and more.
Common examples here include Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or Snapchat. Generally, these are the main sites that companies think of when they want to get into social media marketing or the marketing industry as a whole.
These websites are great for lead generation and content marketing, but only if you really know what you’re doing. Later, we will touch more specifically on the applications you should focus on and what you can do to create killer content.
Social Networking
These are social media websites that have a lot of functions overall. However, the main idea is that the user will have a network of individuals to connect with to discuss a specific topic. Most social networking websites have a focus, such as employment for LinkedIn, but they can also be more general like Facebook.
There are a lot of these out there there that are quite small and niche to a specific topic. If you are trying to market towards something that only a targeted group would likely be interested in, it may be a good way to get recognized.
Social Discussion and Community
Some websites exist with the sole purpose of trying to connect the users to each other. The goal is to create an online community of like-minded people willing to have discussions. Websites that are more prone to forums or threads related to different topics will fall into this category.
If you think of it broadly, many social media websites have some type of community aspect that they try to drive home to their users. Clearly, some of them, such as Reddit or Quora, are more successful than others.
Put Your Money in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
With all of those different options available, the big three are still where you should invest your marketing money: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are some of the most popular social media websites for people that want to grow their business and gain more views.
Facebook is a great option for e-commerce lead generation. On Facebook, you may often see sitewide discounts, giveaways, Facebook-only offers, or even regular coupons. People that use Facebook love to see those types of campaigns and respond to them well.
Instagram’s algorithm works well if you’re advertising toward a younger Millennial or older Gen-Z consumer.
The aim of the algorithms that are added to basically any user service is to make the experience better, more personalized, and easier to engage with. You can learn more about the Instagram algorithm before you make any decisions, but given how popular that platform has become, it’s a pretty safe bet.
Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, you can set up an ad on their application in a very similar way to how it’s done for Facebook.
On Twitter, you’re dealing with a different type of audience. Twitter users are generally younger, and about 53% of people that use Twitter are among the first people to buy a new product. To succeed here, you’ll need to be very targeted with your products or lead magnets, and be sure to choose the campaign type (promoted account, tweets, or trends) that works best for your business.
Is It Effective to Advertise on Multiple Social Media Websites at Once?
It certainly can be effective to choose multiple social media websites to advertise on, but be sure that you’re choosing channels that include your target audience. Look at the data to see which channels will work best for you.
The three we’ve already mentioned are generally safe bets for almost any business, but it does depend on what type of user you want to target, what your intended result is, and what type of content you plan to post.
Content marketing and social media marketing are very specific in that they require a certain type of information to engage consumers rather than interrupt their user experience. You don’t want to be the advertisement that pops up annoyingly while they were actually trying to do something else!
To advertise on multiple channels at once, you’ll need to research which marketing techniques work best on that site for other companies in your vertical or niche as well. This will inform your decision on what practices you should put into place for your own marketing strategy.
Determining Which Type of Social Media Marketing Works Best for You
The whole idea behind social media marketing (SMM) is to create content that will engage the users or create a profitable action. Most of the time, you’ll have to post content like text, images, videos, or other content to get those views.
Not all pieces of content you create will work on each type of social media website. Therefore, you have to figure out which websites and applications you want to use first before you design your SMM strategy.
Always begin with a general plan of what you want to get out of the marketing campaign. Do you want more leads, or are you looking for more brand awareness? Are you trying to increase traffic to your website, or do you want to improve the communication you have with your consumers?
Social media marketing is able to do a lot of things for your business, but only if you know what goals you have from the beginning. Otherwise, the results that you get may not look like what you had expected, and it could end up being a waste of time and resources.
Choose Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies
As you start exploring more of the social media channels for your business to advertise on, you will see that social media marketing is here to stay.
Businesses around the globe are benefitting from putting at least some of their marketing budget into social media. Whatever your business’s needs are, you’re sure to find it somewhere on one of these websites.
Did you find this information useful? If so, we have a lot of other content on our website for you to check out. Take a look at more of our business articles today.
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