Social media marketing is not the same as traditional marketing. Depending on one’s industry and business goals, it may require traditional marketing as well as social media marketing to grow their business. There are elements of social media marketing that are inspired by traditional marketing, but one would be foolish not to have a solid understanding of social media marketing specifically to maximize the possible gains from it.   

Whether you, yourself, are your brand or you are trying to run a business from social media you will still need to use social media marketing. Basically, you will not succeed on social media, irrespective of your endeavor, without a good social media marketing strategy.

If you have already started your business, it could be helpful for you to conduct an audit of the kinds of posts you have been doing and the success of these posts. Doing so will also help you learn the skills that we are discussing throughout this course. The sooner you learn to apply the skills, the better; so if you can do an audit of any content currently, it would be an advantage. 

The content 

One element of social media marketing is the content that you will be producing. While we will discuss this in more detail later in the course, it is something that you must keep in mind. Content can be your every day or more casual posting style as well as specific campaigns that you run.

While marketing is how you do it, ultimately the content is what you are selling. You will be using analytics to understand the success of your content.

You can have the best marketing strategy in the world but if your content is not good, then your account will not be as successful as it could be.         

The conversation

You can monitor the conversation about what people are already saying about you and steer the conversation in new ways. Listening to the buzz about you and the feedback you are receiving is an important part of marketing and growing your business. For example, check in the comment sections, checking reviews, and checking message boards. It is not just enough to look on your own channels, you need to see how you are appearing in other places as well that you personally have less control over. 

Checking your own notifications for mentions is one thing, but you also want to know what people are saying about you and not tagging you in. Sometimes when people air their grievances, they do not actually want to tag the brand itself, for fear of backlash or an uncomfortable conversation. This is why you just need to monitor things that include your name as well— just in case.

The “social” of social media

It is right there in the name, there is no use just posting blindly into the void or shouting into an echo chamber: engagement is everything. It should be one of the primary goals of your marketing strategy. And do not forget, engagement goes both ways. Not only do you want your audience to engage with you, but you need to engage back. An element of this is your brand persona, but it also involves putting the time into replying and commenting and also creating a conversation and space for your audience where they feel valued, appreciated and, also have fun!