small business social media plan

How to Create a Great Social Media Strategy in 2024 (+New Data)

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY WORKBOOK

Updated: 03/13/24

Published: 03/11/24

Creating social media strategies can be overwhelming, especially when you're just launching your brand or just building your online presence for the first time. So many channels, features, tools, and products available – but so little time to fit them all into your marketing strategy.

If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, it’s even harder. But the fact is that your online success depends on having a sensible and straightforward strategy that fits your resources and goals.

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I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

What is a social media strategy?

Why you need a social media strategy, how to create a social media strategy.

A social media strategy is an outline of the content that your business will post, the responsibilities of your social media team, and the social media channels you will use to promote your business. A social media strategy includes social media goals that complement your business' overall digital marketing strategy.

Your social media strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content.

It encompasses your social content guidelines, posting cadence, social media marketing campaigns, target audience, and engagement strategy that promote your business and brand.

To track and analyze your social media marketing performance, HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics and Dashboard Software can help you get insights, including customer lifecycle.

Many companies use social media to connect with customers, provide support, advertise new products and features, and promote special offers.

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

• AI Content Creation
• Community Building
• Social Media Shopping
• Social Vs. Search Engine

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According to our most recent The State of Social Media , social media marketers' top challenges include creating engaging content, generating leads, and reaching target audiences. While these are some of the trickiest challenges, they're also the items you'll want to think about most when making an effective plan.

Ultimately, well-thought-out social media strategies equip you to set goals and guardrails, track performance, and tweak your benchmarks over time.

“One of the biggest challenges I think social media marketers face is saturation and competition. There is so much content on social media that sometimes it makes it challenging to stand out from the crowd. Having a robust strategy that understands the target audience includes strong copy and unique content can help to cut through the noise,” says Ellie Nash , social community executive at Kurago .

Without a starting point, you can‘t measure what’s working and how to shift your activity to hit your goals.

A social media strategy also helps you set expectations for broader team involvement and get everyone aligned on what they should and shouldn't do on your social networks.

• Define your target audience.
• Incorporate ecommerce.
• Optimize your social channels for search.
• Focus on a few key channels.
• Make a plan for customer service.
• Develop a recipe card to guide you.
• Measure your results.
• Adjust your tactics.

1. Define your target audience.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas , start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests.

To meet your audience where they are with marketing that won't annoy them, you first need to learn out what they want and why. 

Social Media Motivations

Are social media users visiting these apps to learn, explore, shop, or just have a good time?

In our most recent State of Consumer Trends Survey this summer, we asked over 500 general consumers to pick the three most common reasons they use social media. 

While 65% actually use it socially to keep up with friends, 53% just want to be entertained while 50% want to learn new things. Unfortunately, 28% say they prefer to go on social media to learn about new products or brands. 

The good news? Later in the survey, when we asked consumers how they prefer to research and learn about brands and products, a whopping 41% said they like to do this on social media channels (a slight increase from a similar survey we ran six months prior).

While Gen X and Boomers skew lower on this average, Gen Z and Millennial generations are using social for brand research more often – which is not surprising due to their hyper-connectedness to the web.

As you might be able to tell from our data above, your target audience plays a role in how successful the right strategy will be. And, better catering to them helps you create focused advertising that addresses your ideal consumer’s specific needs.

For instance, the below-sponsored post by Monday.com , a project management platform, highlights the platform’s flexibility and workflow customization feature.

The post targets business owners and project managers who may feel limited by other project management software.

Image Source

Consider your ideal consumer’s challenges and what problems they're solving daily. Focus on no more than four types of people representing most of your buyers. Don’t get hung up on the exceptions or outliers, or you’ll never get started.

Once you start creating content for your audience, focus on engaging your audience at every level.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts, and be quick to address them, as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase.

Consumers like feeling like they’re part of a community when they’re on your social media pages. More than 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the last year.

Speaking of communities, creating social media groups is a smart move to attract, keep, and engage the audience, with 90% of marketers agreeing.

Here's why:

• Groups help people get involved.
• Followers can learn from each other.
• Your brand becomes a connector — something like a helpful friend.
• Communities feel more friendlier to chat compared to pages. 

In 2020, HubSpot made a small Facebook Group called Marketer to Marketer with 4.9k followers. It's not as big as our Facebook page, but conversions prove its worth it.

Pro tip: To reach the right audience, use social listening tools . These tools check social media for keywords, assess if the talk is positive or negative, and give you reports. This helps in creating a buyer persona for better targeting.

2. Incorporate ecommerce.

As more and more people use social media to discover new products, they’re also finding convenience in shopping for those products directly in the social app they found them in.

While one-fourth of social media marketers are already seeing more effectiveness in social shopping tools than they are with ecommerce site strategies, 80% of social media marketers believe consumers will eventually buy products directly within social apps more often than on brand websites or through third-party resellers. 

What's more, 25% of users between the ages of 18 and 44 had already bought a product on social media by summer of 2023. We wouldn't be shocked if this number increased in 2024.

Lastly, if we look at how this trend is fairing across the globe, several other countries have already made social media shopping a norm.

For example, check out this comparison of data from the UK, China, and the US:

• In the UK, social shopping saw a rise from 2021 to 2023 , with 4.1% of the population engaging in this trend. Anticipated data suggests a further increase in 2024 and a growth of approximately 2% in 2025.
• In 2022, around 84% of Chinese consumers have shopped on social media platforms. Despite some COVID-19 challenges, it reached 850 million users in 2021 , making the market worth more than 2.5 trillion.
• In 2023, the US made $68.91 million from social commerce , which is 5.9% of all online sales. This is a sharp increase from $39.51 million in 2021.

Translation? If you sell products, social media should be a key part of your ecommerce strategy in 2024. It doesn't matter where you are. Social selling is a big deal — so it’s time to take it seriously.

Most platforms offer built-in e-commerce features like shoppable posts, and 47% of social media marketers are already taking advantage of selling products directly within social media apps.

The most popular social selling tools for marketers are:

• Instagram Shops and Instagram Live Shopping — high ROI.
• Facebook Shops — average ROI.

(Psst: Need help building a Facebook page for your business? We have you covered.)

If you need inspiration for incorporating e-commerce into your social strategy, take a cue from Sephora .

Whenever the beauty brand shares an image of a product, it uses a product tag that links to its shoppable page above.

This makes it easy for its followers to instantly buy something they see on the page without ever having to leave the app.

One critical element of successfully selling on social media is establishing brand trust so users feel comfortable purchasing your products directly on the app.

While Sephora has built an established brand reputation over time, you can build trust in other ways, even if you’re building your social media strategy from scratch.

Focus on sharing customer reviews and testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), and product data to build social proof.

Pro tip: Go with image, video, and carousel ads for brand awareness to emphasize store visits, ad impressions, and engagement. For increased sales, select product, collection, or shopping ads to drive direct purchases and product page visits.

3. Optimize your social channels for search.

Social search is on the rise.

As more people turn to social with their queries instead of search engines, 89% of social media marketers agree that social search is important to their overall social media strategies in 2023.

Nearly 24% of consumers aged 18-54 use social media first to search for brands.

Pro tip: You don’t need to film an hour-long video. Even short videos, aka YouTube Shorts, can help you rank higher in SERP. You can use UGC videos and testimonials for that purpose.

4. Focus on a few key social channels.

Most small businesses or social teams don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel.

It's also overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on multiple networks simultaneously.

Focus on the channels that will bring in the highest ROI. For most brands, this will be Instagram.

Instagram has proven to be the best source of ROI, engagement, and quality leads. Additionally, 23% of marketers believe Instagram offers brands the most potential to grow their audiences in 2023.

Adding an Instagram feed to your website is also a smart move to keep your site looking fresh and even to nudge people towards buying, as social media content can increase conversions by up to 29%.

With a tool like Flockler, even if you’re not a tech expert, you can make your site more lively and exciting with your latest Instagram posts. See their easy guide on  how to embed an Instagram feed on a website .

Or as Annie-Mai Hodge says, “You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, full stop — for most businesses, it’s a waste of time and resources to be on platforms where your audience isn’t active.”

When creating your strategy, Hodge says, “You would’ve looked at where your audience is, what your competitors are doing, and what you’re aiming to achieve with social media — all of this will help inform you as to what social media channels you should be focusing on.”

Pro tip: Check where your competitors are most active and what kind of content they post. You’ll see what works or doesn't and how engaged their audience is. Don’t copy them — just use that info to make smart decisions for your strategy.

5. Repurpose your content.

Why stress over creating different content for each platform? 

Keep it simple: repurpose and use the same awesome content in different places – within reason of course.

According to our research, most marketers repurpose content in some way, shape, or form, while 19% consider it one of their key strategies. Meanwhile 40% plan to invest more in content repurposing in 2024.

This makes sense. By repurposing content, you can leanly and easily:

• Get your message to more people on different platforms.
• Save time by using what you already have instead of starting from scratch.
• Stay visible on search engines by updating and reusing content.
• Cater to your audience's preferences with different formats.
• Make your content last longer by updating timeless pieces.
• Improve your strategy by checking how your content performs on different channels.

…to hilarious TikTok video:

@hubspot Always look for a desk with a view (of your manager's eyeline) #hybridwork #9to5 #officehumor #inoffice ♬ original sound - HubSpot

However, one word to the wise is to not lean on it for every single campaign. Although most marketers do it, only 7% told us it yields them substantial ROI compared to content that's more catered to platforms. 

So, if you're low on time or bandwidth, experimenting a new platform that's similar to one you already use, or can make light tweaks to optimize content for different channels – feel free. Just make sure you're giving your audience what they're looking for and not over-spamming them with content they've seen several times already.

Pro tip: Looking for a creative content idea that feels more personal than repurposed? Make catchy quote pictures from customer thoughts, share email insights on X or LinkedIn, and whip up quick videos from podcasts — people love that kind of stuff.

6. Make a plan for customer service.

When putting together your social media strategy, consider how you’ll use your channels for customer service.

Social media is so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that it’s no surprise that people turn to these platforms for everything from brand discovery to customer service.

According to our State of Social Media and Consumer Trends research, 1 in 5 social media users contact a brand through social DMs for customer service each quarter.

43% of marketers use customer service reps, 41% rely on platform managers, and 13% employ automated tools like chatbots.

Whether you create a separate account dedicated to customer service or have an auto-reply set up when people DM you on Instagram, have a plan for how you’ll handle customer support through social media.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of good customer service on social media. According Khoros research :

• 42% felt disappointed, 43% were unhappy, and 41% reported anger with poor customer care.
• 67% shared bad experiences, and 65% switched to a different brand.
• 43% are more likely to buy from a brand after a good customer service experience.
• 83% feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints.
• 73% of brands expect more inbound channels, and 53% anticipate more outbound channels in the next one to two years.
• Pro tip: Apart from clearly stating working hours, let customers know the expected response time and inform them about quicker alternative resources if available.

7. Develop a recipe card to guide you.

Social media isn’t an exact science. It doesn't work the same for every business or industry.

To see results for your business, create a recipe card. A recipe card is a posting and engagement schedule that keeps your team on track and helps you post content consistently.

HubSpot has a list of social media tools and templates that you can use to plan your content and create a posting schedule and content calendar.

One of the best ways to manage an SM content calendar is the method Bazile shared with me.

Here’s how she categorizes it:

• Evergreen engagement content.
• Evergreen promotional content.
• Specific campaign content.
• Recurring communications content.

“Breaking down content into these buckets allows social teams to maintain regular presences online while also separating content data into easily trackable pieces,” she says.

Develop a reasonable recipe card and well-organized calendar. Stick to it and get your team to follow. Set goals for your posting and engagement frequency, and hold yourself accountable for following your recipe.

Pro tip: Choose platforms that allow easy editing and content management within your team. This ensures smooth collaboration and calendar updates.

8. Talk WITH, not AT, your followers.

In our latest Consumer Trends research, 41% of consumers pointed to relatability as the most memorable aspect of posts from brands or companies on social or the web. 

Friendly brands win more followers (and hearts). So, skip the self-promotion overload. Instead, get into conversations and respond to comments authentically.

People love it when you chat with them, not just throw information their way. It makes them feel special, creating a genuine affection for your brand.

You don't have to sound super professional. Casual talk works even better on social media. Just take a cue from McDonald’s:

And here’s something interesting to remember — very few people, less than one percent , interact with the brands’ posts. 

Here are the platform breakdowns:

• Facebook: 0.09%.
• Instagram: 1.22%.

So, once you get a comment, find the right way to interact and show that you care.

Don't just ghost and ignore. These comments boost your post higher in algorithms and make it more visible. 

Pro tip: Never delete negative comments unless they’re super offensive or totally inappropriate. Instead, use them as an opportunity for constructive engagement and improvement.

9. Measure your results.

“Without goals, a product roadmap, or even a full brand strategy, social media managers will struggle to know what to prioritize in the social space, what metrics to measure to convey progress, and what sort of content or social presence is ideal for the brand,” Bazile says. 

There are countless things to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts drive to your website or blog.

Social media platforms offer tools to help businesses track analytics.

For example, you can use Facebook’s Page Insights , Instagram’s Account Insights , and LinkedIn’s Visitor Analytics to see what people are responding to and look for trends related to topics or keywords that generate the most interest.

Once you get an idea of your average traffic and post-performance, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to measure your progress.

Be sure to choose metrics that are easy to gather because if it’s too time-consuming to track, you won’t be motivated to do it.

Examples of simple metrics include the total number of interactions, traffic to your website, and sales or revenue that can be attributed to social.

“One of the most valuable indicators, in my opinion, is impressions,” Nash says, “Impressions measure the number of times a piece of content is displayed on users' screens and help to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy in terms of exposure and brand awareness.”

Pro tip: Don’t only focus on platform numbers. Track the social sentiment as well. See if people express positive or negative feelings about you in online conversations. It takes a bit of manual work, but it's worth it. Check regularly for better insights.

10. Adjust your tactics as needed.

Social media won't start working overnight.

Establishing a following, stabilizing your brand, and seeing the results of your efforts take time. So, experiment to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience.

We can pick up some cool tricks from Victoria's Secret in this regard.

They’ve shifted from using only professional photos and videos to incorporating more casual content. Now, VS’s Insta feed also includes UGC and interviews with random people on the street and in their stores.

Victoria's Secret proves that even as a high-end brand, you don't lose anything by including everyday people. 

Actually, you gain. 

More followers, more engagement, more exposure.

Keep track of changes in your post views, audience demographics, and post interactions, and make changes as needed.

Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering, which will help you fine-tune your strategy and generate more consistent results.

Trying new stuff might seem a bit daring, but sometimes, it's just necessary to “survive.”

For instance, try to use funny content whenever possible.

In our 2023 survey of over a thousand global social media marketers, 66% said funny content works best, followed by relatable (63%) and trendy (59%) content. While 45% talk only about their brand values, the key is to use humor for the most impact. 

Don't believe that humor can pay the bills? One-third, or 34% of Consumer Trends respondents also told us funny content is most memorable to them. 

I asked Hodge to tell me about a time when changing tactics improved social media results. She recalls that at the start of 2023, Girl Power Marketing stopped growing on social media and started losing engagement. 

“It wasn’t until I sat down and reassessed my strategy that I was missing something, and that was humanization,” Hodge recounts. “Why should people trust my thoughts, opinions, and guidance if they have no clue who was behind GPM or the mission behind it?”

Hodge shares that she started showing up more intentionally. She created content that showed more of herself, her personality, and GPM’s mission. 

“And a year later, GPM has grown to a community of 180k+ people - all because I switched up my tactics that no longer worked,” says Hodge.

Pro tip: Tailor your content to match seasonal trends and holidays. This helps keep your brand messaging timely and relatable. And most importantly — people love it.

Keeping Up With Social Media Strategies

While these tips will help you optimize your strategy for ROI in the present day, it's important to get your footing and keep up with the big shifts that are inevitable as new tools, channels, and trends arise.

To keep up with low stress, keep following research like our State of Social Media Report and check out our blog and resources for the coverage of social trends and tactics you actually need to keep on your radar.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Create a plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

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How to Do Social Media Marketing for Small Business

Your time is valuable, but so is social media. Here’s what small business owners need to know to make the most of each platform.

Table of Contents

Social media marketing for small business is all about being strategic. While enterprise companies have the luxury of dedicated resources and time, small businesses need to be more agile, nimble, and creative.

You can’t just throw money at a problem and hope for the best. You need to be smart about how you’re using social media to reach your target audience.

Here are all the social media marketing tips you need to market your small business in 2023.

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

Why use social media for your small business

If you own a business, you’ve likely spent time researching social media marketing for small business. And for good reason.

There are now 4.2 billion active social media users . That’s almost twice as many as there were just five years ago, in 2017. Those users spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social channels every single day.

What’s more, social media isn’t just for big businesses anymore. In fact, 71% of small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media to market themselves, and 52% post once a day.

If you want to compete, you need to get online. Here are five essential reasons for using social media for business.

Reach more potential customers

Every business owner knows how difficult it can be to attract new customers . You can spend hours crafting the perfect product and designing an eye-catching website, but if no one knows you exist, it’s all for nothing.

Social media has leveled the playing field , giving small businesses a way to compete with larger companies for attention. By using social media platforms to create content that is interesting and engaging, you can reach a wider audience and encourage them to purchase from your brand.

Increase your brand awareness

A well-executed social media marketing strategy will lead to increased visibility for your business. When you create interesting, relevant content, people will share it with their followers, which will increase your reach and exposure. The more your brand is shown online, the more chances you have of people becoming familiar with it and eventually making a purchase.

Understand your customers better

How much do you really know about your customers? While you may have some information about their demographics, social media can help you to learn more granular information about their interests, needs, behaviours, and desires. This valuable customer data can be used to improve your social media marketing strategy and ensure that you’re creating content that appeals to your target market.

We’ve compiled demographic information for all of the major social networks. Use it to help gauge where your audience spends their time online. But remember that these demographics are just an overview.

Understand your competitors better

Your competitors are online. Period. And chances are, they’ve already put some thought into their social media presence. By taking a look at what they’re doing, you can not only get some ideas for your own strategy , but you can learn what’s working well for them and what isn’t . This competitor data is an essential part of creating a successful social media marketing strategy.

Conducting a competitive analysis can help you learn what’s working and what’s not for other businesses like yours. Don’t be afraid to look outside of your main competitors , and draw inspiration from the success of businesses in all industries.

Build long-term relationships with your customers

Social media isn’t just about posting pretty pictures and witty captions. It’s also about building relationships with your customers . These are the people who will buy your products and services and tell their friends about you, so it’s important to nurture these connections.

Showing that you care about your customers and their experience with your business will go a long way in securing these relationships long-term . And, as fans share and like your content, you rise in the social algorithms and gain new, free, exposure.

Keep in mind, the average internet user has 8.4 social media accounts , so you can connect with them on different platforms for different purposes. For example, you could use Facebook to build your audience and generate leads , and Twitter for customer service .

Let’s explore the benefits of each platform for small businesses below.

Which social media platforms are best for small businesses?

Now that you know how to use social media for small business, it’s time to get online.

As you begin researching the best platforms and tools to build your social media strategy, don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time.

Your instinct might tell you that if you’re targeting Gen Z, you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram and TikTok. But the data shows that nearly a quarter of Facebook users are aged 18 to 24.

If you’re selling to baby boomers, social might not seem like a top priority. But it should be. Facebook and Pinterest are the top social networks for boomers. Adults over age 65 are Facebook’s fastest-growing audience segment.

Choosing your platforms doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. You can use different social channels to reach different audiences or to meet various business goals.

Here are the best social media platforms for small businesses.

No matter how you feel about this social media giant, Facebook continues to be the most used social media platform globally. It boasts over 2.9 billion monthly active users and more than 200 million businesses.

Facebook is a great platform for small businesses because:

• There’s a wide demographic range. Facebook users span all age groups, genders, and interests.
• It’s multi-use. You can use create a Facebook page, run advertising campaigns across Meta products, track audience data, and create an e-commerce shop, all within one platform.
• It can be a one-stop shop. Facebook can provide a full customer service journey, from first touch to final sale.

If you’re thinking about using Facebook for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Who is your target audience? Facebook’s most engaged audience ranges from 18-44 years old. If your target audience falls outside of this age range, you may want to consider another platform.
• What are your business goals? Goals on Facebook can range from creating brand visibility with a Facebook Page, to selling products in Shop or through Facebook ad campaigns. Knowing your goals will help you determine whether Facebook is the right platform for your business.
• How much time can you commit? Research shows that the best way to get results on Facebook is to post 1-2 times per day . If you don’t have time to commit to this, you may want to revisit your resourcing strategy.

While Facebook acts as a generalist platform, Instagram is where you can get specific about your niche. If you’re in the fashion, food, or film industries, for example, odds are most of your target audience is on Instagram.

It’s also worth noting that the platform skews younger—the vast majority of users are between 18 and 34. So, if your target audience is baby boomers, you may want to focus your energy elsewhere.

Instagram is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It offers in-app shopping. Instagram makes it easy for users to buy products they see in your posts, Reels, and Stories.
• The platform is visual , which makes it ideal for businesses in the fashion, beauty, travel, and food industries.
• Instagram users are engaged —the average user spends 11 hours per month on the app.

If you’re thinking about using Instagram for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Does my brand present well visually? Instagram is a very visual platform, so your posts need to be appealing.
• Can I commit to posting regularly ? Like any social media platform, Instagram requires a consistent presence. Posting to Instagram 3-7 times per week is recommended.
• Do I have the time to create engaging content? If you don’t have the time or resources to create high-quality content, Instagram may not be the best platform for your business.

Another platform with generalist appeal is Twitter. Twitter is the 9th most visited website globally and has over 200 million daily active users. Twitter users are also highly engaged shoppers, with 16% of internet users aged 16-64 report using Twitter for brand research and 54% reporting they are likely to purchase new products. For advertisers, Twitter’s CPM is the lowest out of all the major platforms.

Twitter is a great platform for small businesses because it’s:

• Conversational: Twitter is all about engaging in conversation. This can be between you and your customers or you and other businesses.
• Real-time: Twitter is where people go to find out what’s happening right now. This is why news organizations and journalists love Twitter.
• Hashtag friendly: Hashtags are a great way to get your content in front of people who are interested in that topic.

If you’re thinking about using Twitter for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Are your customers on Twitter? Twitter is great for building relationships, but if your customers aren’t active on the platform, it might not be worth your time.
• What kind of content will you share? Twitter is a great platform for sharing quick news and updates, but if you’re mostly posting images or longer-form content, you might be better off on a different platform.
• Do you have the resources to commit to Twitter? We recommend Tweeting at least 1 to 5 times per day. If you don’t think you can commit to that, Twitter might not be the best platform for your small business.

Maybe you think TikTok marketing is not the right fit for your brand. But even well-established brands with an audience well outside Gen Z are experimenting with this platform .

@washingtonpost The Lower 48 states are seeing the coldest temps of the season so far due to a blast of Arctic air ❄️ #winteriscoming #winter #snow #coldoutside ♬ original sound – Colin Riggy Rigg

TikTok is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It’s a level playing field. You don’t need a huge budget to produce high-quality content.
• It’s all about creativity. If you can be creative and think outside the box, you’ll do well on TikTok.
• There’s a lot of opportunity for virality. If your content is good, it has a chance of being seen by millions of people.

If you’re thinking about using TikTok for your small business , ask these questions first:

• Do you have time to create TikTok videos? While you don’t need an entire production team at your side, creating TikTok videos, and posting consistently, does take time.
• Does your target audience use TikTok? Keep in mind, TikTok’s audience tends to skew towards the 18-24 range. So, if you’re marketing to Gen Z or young millennials, TikTok is definitely worth considering.
• Do you have creative ideas for videos? If you’re not sure what kind of content would do well on TikTok, take some time to browse the app and get inspired.

In recent years, Pinterest has grown from a creative catalogue platform to one of the most powerful visual search engines on the internet today. Not only do Pinterest users love to find and save new ideas, but they’re also increasingly using the platform to make purchasing decisions.

Pinterest is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It’s a positive space. 8 out of 10 Pinterest users say the platform makes them feel good. Being present on a positive platform can help your brand’s image and reputation.
• It’s highly visual. People love images because 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Pinterest is the perfect place to share beautiful visuals of your products or services.
• You can reach new audiences. Because Pinterest is a visual search engine, you have the opportunity to be found by people who are actively searching for products and services like yours.

If you’re thinking about using Pinterest for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Do you have enough visual content to use Pinterest? As we said above, Pinterest is a highly visual platform. You’ll need high-quality images to make your pins stand out.
• Is your target audience active on Pinterest? Women aged 25-34 represent 29.1% of Pinterest’s ad audience while men make up only 15.3%.
• Do you have products to sell on Pinterest ? 75% of weekly Pinterest users say they’re always shopping, so make sure you have something to offer them.

YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing social network that boasts a potential ad reach of 2.56 billion. Not only does YouTube offer a huge audience, but it’s also an effective platform for promoting products and services.

YouTube is a great platform for small businesses because:

• You can drive traffic to your website. By including a link to your website in your YouTube videos, you can drive traffic to your site.
• You can improve your SEO. YouTube videos often appear in Google search results, which can help improve your website’s SEO.
• You can build brand awareness. YouTube is a massive platform with a highly engaged user base. Use it to post engaging video content that will help build awareness for your brand.

If you’re thinking about using YouTube for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Do you have resources to commit to content creation? Unlike TikTok, creating YouTube videos requires more than just shooting a quick clip on your phone. You should have a decent camera and some editing skills (or access to someone who does).
• Do you have something unique to say? There’s a lot of content on YouTube already, so you need to make sure you have something unique and interesting to say before starting a channel. Ask yourself: what can I offer that other businesses in my industry don’t?
• Can you commit to a regular upload schedule? Once you start a YouTube channel, you need to be able to commit to uploading new videos on a regular basis. This could be once a week, once a month, or even once a day – but consistency is key.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Social media tips for small business

Once you’ve found the right platforms for your social media marketing, it’s time to start posting. Here are a few social media tips for business to get you started.

1. Plan your content in advance

The number one mistake small businesses make on social media is posting content on the fly. While it may seem easier to spend a little bit of time every day coming up with something to post, this can actually be more time-consuming (and stressful) in the long run.

Creating a social media content calendar can help you plan your content in advance and avoid last-minute scrambling. Plus, it’s easier to come up with a mix of content (e.g., blog posts, images, infographics, etc.) when you have some time to think about it.

When building out your content calendar, make sure to include:

• The type of content you’ll be posting (e.g. blog post, image, infographic, etc.)
• The date you’ll be posting it
• The social network you’ll be posting to
• A link to the content (if applicable)
• A brief description of the content
• Copy to include in the post body
• Any campaigns, special holidays, or important dates to be aware of
• All links, tags, or hashtags you want to include in the post

If you’re not sure where to start, check out our free content calendar templates to get started. Or, check out this handy video for a visual walkthrough.

2. Schedule your posts

Once you have that calendar in place, you can create your social posts in advance and use scheduling tools like Hootsuite to post them automatically at the right time.

Scheduling your posts in advance allows you to dedicate one block of time per day or even per week to creating your social content. It’s much more effective than letting social posting take you away from other business tasks throughout the day.

Automation tools like chatbots and AI content creation tools can also help you cut down on the number of hours you spend working on social media marketing.

3. Commit to community management

Sure, posting creative content is important. But if you want to really see results from social media marketing for small business, you need to commit to community management.

Community management is the process of building a community with your customers through the interactions you have online. This can include responding to comments, answering questions, and interacting with customers on social media.

Think of it as an extension of your customer service. You should be interacting with your audience as much as they are interacting with you. This way, you can create a network of customers who feel connected to your brand and are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers.

Community management is also an important part of ranking in social media algorithms . Platforms reward users who are active and engaged , so the more you interact with your audience, the more likely you are to show up in their feeds.

Use Hootsuite Streams to like, comment, reply, and engage with your target audience. You can also use Hootsuite Inbox to keep track of all the conversations you need to be a part of, without missing anything important.

4. Pay attention to trends

We’re not saying you should leap on every meme that goes viral. (In fact, please don’t leap on every meme that goes viral.)

But, it is a good idea to pay attention to trends in social media , so you understand what people are looking for when they sign into their social channels. This helps you create appropriate content that resonates over time.

If you have time to dedicate to it, social listening is a highly valuable information-gathering tool that can help you understand what your audience (and potential audience) might want to hear from your business. It’s extremely easy to do with a tool like Hootsuite.

You can simply set up a stream for mentions of your brand on different social channels, so you can respond to concerns or positive reviews immediately and keep tabs on sentiment regarding your business.

5. Sell products on social

Social media marketing has evolved in recent years to include social commerce : the ability to sell your products directly from social channels. And business is booming, with a projected global market value of $492 billion in 2022 .

Almost every social platform now boasts some form of social selling . There are Facebook and Instagram Shops , Pinterest Buyable Pins , the TikTok Shop , and more.

Social commerce is a particularly useful tactic for small businesses in the ecommerce or retail space. The beauty of it is that you can cut down many of the friction points that come with selling online. Your potential customers are already on social media, so they don’t need to go through the process of visiting your website and navigating to your product pages. And since you’re meeting them where they already are , you have a much better chance of making a sale.

6. Use analytics to guide future posts

Even for small businesses, it’s important to keep track of what works and what doesn’t on social . Social media analytics tools can help you track your progress over time and identify which posts are generating the most engagement—likes, comments, shares, clicks, etc.

This data can be extremely valuable as you plan future content . If you see that a particular type of post is doing well, try to replicate that success in future posts. And if you notice that a certain type of post isn’t performing well, experiment with new content to see if you can find a better way to engage your audience.

Analytics can also help you understand which social media platform is working best for your business. If you see that you’re getting more engagement on one platform than another, you may want to consider making a switch. You don’t have to be everywhere, so stick to the platforms that are giving you the best results.

Social media management tools for small business

If you’re like most small business owners, you wear a lot of hats. You’re the CEO, the CFO, and the superstar sales team. It’s no wonder marketing often falls by the wayside!

But even if you’re not a marketing pro, that doesn’t mean you can’t effectively market your business on social media. In fact, with a little help from the right tools , you can actually save time and energy by using social media to reach your target audience.

Obviously we’re a bit biased, but we think Hootsuite is especially helpful for small business owners. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that gives you the ability to track and post to all your social media channels in one place , which will save you a lot of time in the long run.

It also offers recommendations on when to post, what kind of content to post, and how to interpret your performance . So it’s a beginner-friendly platform for people who don’t have a lot of time to waste on creating the perfect strategy.

Don’t believe us? Check out this 5-star review from Todd W., who doesn’t have a ton of people to help him do his social media marketing.

“Hootsuite has proven invaluable as we work to plan our social media calendar for the month – especially with limited staff . We’re able to create and schedule posts and see where our planning leaves “gaps” in our social media coverage” – Todd W.

One last Hootsuite feature we think is super useful for time-strapped small business owners?

If you’re ever stuck for content ideas, just go to the Inspiration tab and use a template to get started.

What about the native tools?

Hey, we understand that splurging on yet another monthly subscription might not be in the cards for your small business —especially when the networks offer free tools. But here’s the thing: those native tools come with limitations.

For example, let’s say you want to post the same message on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With most social media management tools, you’d have to type that message three times—once for each network. But with Hootsuite, you can compose one message and post it to all three networks at once . That means less time spent on social media, and more time spent growing your business.

Plus, the free tools offered by the networks only give you limited insights into your social media performance. With Hootsuite Analytics, you can track your posts and tweets to see which ones are getting the most engagement, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

So if you’re serious about using social media to grow your small business, investing in a tool like Hootsuite might actually save you money in the long run.

Save time and grow your small business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can publish and schedule messages to all your social media channels, engage your followers, and monitor what people are saying about your brand online. Try it free today.

Get Started

Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

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Hannah Macready is a freelance writer with 12 years of experience in social media and digital marketing. Her work has appeared in publications such as Fast Company and The Globe & Mail, and has been used in global social media campaigns for brands like Grosvenor Americas and Intuit Mailchimp. In her spare time, Hannah likes exploring the outdoors with her two dogs, Soup and Salad.

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The complete guide to social media for businesses

Written by by Brent Barnhart

Published on  May 25, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Hot take: mastering social media is what sets businesses today apart.

Competition is fierce among brands and attention is scarce. Establishing an identity and sense of community via social is key to standing out.

Not to mention attracting valuable new customers.

Done right, a goal-driven social strategy means positive results for your business. Countless brands have been built from the ground up via Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Wrangling your social media strategy can be daunting with so many moving pieces. This is especially true if you’re totally new to the space. We get it.

That’s why we put together this post breaking down the basics of social media for business.

Table of contents

Benefits of social media for business

Setting social media goals for your business, follow these 5 social media tips for business.

• Use social media marketing tools for business

Uncover social analytics and reporting for business

Involve your c-suite and employees to amplify your business, work on a corporate communication plan.

• Go beyond the basics of social media for business

“Okay, so why is social media important for business?”

Good question! A decade ago, the upsides of social media for business were tougher to quantify.

Thankfully, times have changed and ROI is no longer a question mark. Let’s be crystal clear:

Social media is valuable for businesses of any size or industry. Finding customers on social media has a direct impact on sales and your bottom line.

Building awareness. Nurturing leads and driving sales. Community-building.

The list goes on given that the benefits of social media aren’t one-size-fits-all. That said, here are five upsides that brands can see from a smart social presence.

Like it or not, social media has become a go-to research channel for consumers at large.

Think about your own experience looking up businesses.

Chances are you’ve visited a restaurant’s Facebook to confirm their hours. Maybe you’ve combed a company’s IG content and comments to see if their products live up to the hype. This highlights how social media builds awareness for brands in a way that your website can’t.

Your business’ social presence is a powerful touchpoint with new customers. That’s because social media serves as an authentic reflection of what a company is all about.

Comments and shout-outs from satisfied customers speak volumes about your business. If someone’s first impression of your business is a glowing social review, that’s a huge plus.

Create a meaningful connection with your customers

It’s no exaggeration to say that social media serves as a Swiss Army Knife for customer support .

For reference, many brands use their social presence to…

• Answer questions from potential customers
• Handle concerns from existing customers
• Celebrate and welcome new customers
• Gather feedback from your target audience

Show off your products (and what makes them compelling)

From testimonials to tutorials and beyond, social media is a prime place to show off products.

As noted in the Sprout Social Index™ , the most popular types of posts teach people how products work.  For example, an IG Reel or TikTok can educate a potential customer in a matter of seconds. Contrast this with static photos and traditional product descriptions.

Formats such as short-form video empower brands to bring their products to life. Bonus points if you can feature real people and satisfied customers in your content.

Increase your brand’s visibility and reach

Recent demographics show us that people are spending hours per day on social media, not just a few minutes here and there.

This highlights the value of businesses having an established social presence. Many potential customers will see your brand’s Facebook or IG before they see your website.

Look no further than the rise of social search as evidence of this. Trends and research say that young consumers treat social media like a search engine .

The more word of mouth your business earns, the easier it is for your audience to find you. This applies to social searchers and potential customers alike.

Gather real-time insights to make data-driven business decisions

Social media marketing for business is about so much more than promotion.

Consider how you can use analytics to research the following in real-time:

• Audience pain points
• Competitor messaging and content
• Sentiment analysis (and how people feel about your brand)
• The most popular types of products and content among your follow
• The latest trends in your industry

And that only scratches the surface!

From your audience to competitors, there’s no better place to conduct market research . That’s because social media is a treasure trove of data points that are all out in the open.

The benefits of using social media for business speak for themselves.

That said, achieving them doesn’t happen by accident. That’s why goal-setting is so important.

Keep in mind that social media goals > are unique as they’re totally dependent on your business. Also, you can set multiple goals that actually overlap and influence each other. Goals affect everything from your content strategy to the social platforms you use.

Setting social media goals for business

There’s no “right” way to set goals but the process can be a lot. A few tips to get you started:

• Start with the big picture before getting granular. Why does your business need a social presence? What resources do you need to make those results a reality?
• Look at your target audience and customer personas . For example, how are your customers using social media? Is your audience glued to TikTok or Instagram? What types of content do they want to see? Brainstorm how using social media for business can help you reach your audience.
• Think about your business’ holistic marketing strategy and how social media fits in.
• Tie your social media goals to actual metrics and KPIs . This is a big one in an era where marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. From engagement to traffic and beyond, there’s plenty to track.

Sample B2B social media goals and KPIs

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
• Competitor analysis (share of voice) and market share
• Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc.)
• Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
• Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
• Reputation management
• Customer satisfaction
• Positive reviews
• Customer sentiment online

Sample B2C social media goals and KPIs

• Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
• Uncover brand expansion opportunities
• Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Product launch analysis
• Competitive analysis

Create a social media strategy for business

Let’s say you have your goals squared away.

Remember: effectively using social media for business means having a plan. Posting at random won’t do you any favors. Without a strategy, your social presence can quickly become a time-sink.

No pressure, right? Mapping your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to be daunting. To keep your focus and avoid getting overwhelmed, here’s what we suggest you focus on:

• Ensure social goals solve challenges
• Extend social marketing efforts throughout your organization
• Focus on networks that add value
• Create engaging content
• Identify business opportunities through social
• Engage instead of ignore
• Track, improve and market your effort

If you focus on these points, you’ll already be way ahead of the curve.

There’s no shortage of social media tips out there to help you fine-tune your strategy.

Some best practices related to social media for business are relative. Below are five universal tips that are fair game for companies of all shapes and sizes.

1. Build a human, people-first social presence

This might seem like a no-brainer.

That said, busy businesses tend to get stuck in a “copy-and-paste” approach to social. Comments and social captions should feel like they were written by a real person, not a robot.

Injecting personality into your posts is a low-hanging way to relate to your audience. Beyond that, personalizing your replies to people shows that you’re there to help them. This is an example of how to use social media for business to build connections.

2. Look at your social presence as a resource ( not just a promotional channel)

Don’t make the mistake of treating your social presence as a dumping ground for offers. Building an audience means being genuinely helpful, not salesy.

Many of the best practices across social media treat their accounts as resources. That means:

• Creating actionable, educational content (think: how-tos, tutorial videos)
• Answering questions and sharing advice with your audience
• Sharing company updates and keeping customers in the loop (see below)

Imagine that your social accounts are your first touchpoint with a potential customer. Sharing resources makes a better first impression than screaming “BUY NOW!”

3. Show up consistently

This applies to both publishing content and engaging with customers.

Conventional wisdom says that social media algorithms reward consistency. Sprout’s own research on the best times to post on social media confirms this.  If nothing else, letting your social feeds gather cobwebs isn’t a good look.

Neither is leaving your followers hanging. Making a conscious effort to reply to questions and comments is crucial. This is why you need to keep a close eye on your @tags and social notifications.

4. Be prepared to experiment with different types of content

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of content they can post.

Below are two examples of brands with diverse social feeds in terms of content.

From short-form videos to Stories and slideshows, you have plenty of options. Different industries and types of brands thrive on different types of content.

That said, don’t make assumptions when it comes to what performs best.

Just because a competitor posts a bunch of memes doesn’t mean you should follow suit. Let your own analytics and engagement guide your content strategy.

5. Don’t treat your social presence like an island

Social media shouldn’t be a siloed channel separate from the rest of your marketing efforts.

From announcements to offers and company initiatives, social can be in the middle of it all. For example, a feature rollout isn’t something a SaaS brand should restrict to its email list. These sorts of updates should be front and center on social, too.

A more holistic approach to social media marketing for business is ideal. In turn, you maximize your marketing assets elsewhere and see a greater ROI for your efforts.

Use social media marketing tools for businesses

Good news: you’re not expected to do everything totally DIY when building your presence.

There’s no shortage of social media marketing tools out there to help with the heavy lifting. Depending on your needs, you might consider investing in a combo of the following:

• Scheduling tools that allow you to queue up content across multiple platforms
• Analytics tools that measure content performance and engagement (see Sprout Social below)
• Listening and monitoring tools that make it easier to track audience conversations

Remember: the purpose of these tools should be to make you more productive. A big challenge in building any sort of marketing stack is redundancies. It’s easy to invest in tools that overlap. This results in brands burning through their budgets and needlessly bouncing between platforms.

The more opportunities to consolidate your tools, the better. Working with fewer tools means squeezing the most out of what you have. Also, you save a ton of time onboarding.

The less bouncing between tools, the better. This speaks to the value of an all-in-one social media management platform like Sprout.

With Sprout, brands access a comprehensive suite of social tools and analytics. For example, the platform makes it a cinch to map out your content calendar across platforms. This is a shining example of how to save time and avoid bouncing between tools.

Sprout’s analytics and dashboards encourage a goal-driven approach to social media for business. Advanced analytics means fewer question marks and a better understanding of your presence. This includes your top-performing content and social channels.

In short, you have a constant pulse on what’s working, what’s not and what you should do next.

As noted earlier, social media shouldn’t be treated as an island.

This applies to your own team as well. The sooner you’re able to get approval and buy-in from your C-Suite, the better. Brand-building through employee advocacy is another way to use social media for business.

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a brand by its employees on social media.  Instead of solely promoting products, advocates promote a company at large. This means:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes experiences about work life
• Celebrating team members and workplace accomplishments
• Amplify company messages and promotions

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of employee advocacy in action on LinkedIn.

Again, the crowded nature of social media means anything you can do to stand out is a plus. Advocacy is an opportunity to boost your company’s profile and exposure via social.

One last pointer for anyone on the enterprise level.

The power of social media as a communication channel shouldn’t be taken lightly. Brands have the opportunity to reach massive audiences at a moment’s notice. This applies to customers, industry leaders and competitors alike.

The stakes are high for large companies with significant audiences and stakeholders. That’s why having a corporate communication plan is crucial. In short, you need to establish rules for:

• Internal communication , including employee engagement and internal marketing
• External communication , including PR and how you speak to the public
• Executive communication (ex: how the C-level discusses your company on social media)
• Crisis communication to deal with controversies and damage control situations

Having all of the above squared away empowers brands to have consistent messaging. Likewise, you can avoid miscommunication and countless public headaches in the process.

Going beyond the basics of social media for business

An active social presence is an expectation, not an exception for companies today.

The tips and best practices above serve as a solid foundation. With the right goals and mentality, social media can have a positive impact on your business.

Building a results-driven social media presence is so much easier with a platform like Sprout.  From content to trend analysis and beyond, Sprout empowers brands to build their presence with confidence. If you haven’t already, test-drive a free trial of Sprout Social to see the full suite in action for yourself!

Social Media Management Buyer’s Guide

• Social Media Engagement
• Social Media Strategy

Creating a 30-Day Social Media Plan

• Social Media Trends

Post Performance Report: Brands turning IRL events into online engagement

What social media tasks to automate and what to personalize

• Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

Need a hand creating engaging content? Try Buffer for free →

Social Media for Small Business: A Guide for 2024 and Beyond

Social media will play an increasingly crucial role in supporting small business growth. Here’s how (and why) you should work social media into your plans for 2021 and beyond.

You will learn

• Why social media matters for small businesses
• The positive impact a small, loyal following can have
• How to measure the metrics that matter

Around the world, 47% of internet users ages 16 to 64 have spent more time on social media in 2020 than they did in 2019 . And those users aren’t just mindlessly scrolling: ecommerce sales are on the rise as well. This only further highlights the value of social media for small business.

“In a sense, social media is our business,” says Laura Moss, cofounder of outdoorsy cat-lover company Adventure Cats , “It's where we engage with our audience, promote products, and even answer a lot of customer questions.”

In the coming years, social media will play an increasingly crucial role in driving sales, providing customer service, and improving brand awareness. Here’s how (and why) you should work this valuable asset into your plans for 2021 and beyond.

How social media helps small business

You’ve known for a while that social media for small business is important — but 2020 has made it essential. Seventy percent of small-business owners are concerned about financial hardships due to the COVID-19 crisis . At a time when money is tighter than ever, social media can be a lifeline.

While social media can serve many functions, here’s a quick look at some high-impact benefits of social media for small business:

• Low-cost brand recognition with free social media accounts or small-budget brand-awareness initiatives
• Targeted reach through tools, such as Instagram Ads or Facebook Ads , that homes in on specific demographics (i.e., age, gender, salary, location, etc.)
• Event promotion through features such as Facebook Events and Facebook Groups
• Customer service options that endears you to customers

5 Social media tips for small business

People typically choose a small business over a big-name company because they value the personalized experience and unique character of the business itself. You can use social media to show off your personality and get to know your customers better while also growing your business.

1. Determine which metrics matter

Before you start running reports, decide which metrics matter to you and your business. Don’t get caught up on “vanity metrics” — metrics that make you feel good but don’t help you make decisions, take action, or judge value. While it’s tempting to obsess over followers and likes, those metrics don’t necessarily serve your business goals. For instance, local businesses get more out of a small, local following than a large following that includes people who will never visit the businesses’ physical stores.

Don’t get caught up on “vanity metrics” — metrics that make you feel good but don’t help you make decisions, take action, or judge value.

Danni Eickenhorst, co-owner of St. Louis-based restaurant Steve’s Hot Dogs , has gained an impressive following on the restaurant’s social accounts . But when it comes to driving sales, local love is crucial. When Eickenhorst needed to get the word out about a restaurant event, she focused not just on the city but, more specifically, on the restaurant’s surrounding neighborhoods as well.

“We reached out to the neighborhood associations nearby and asked them to push out the word to their people,” Eickenhorst says. “They all pushed in their Facebook Groups and Nextdoor posts, and that was a huge help.”

The Facebook event reached 28,100 people and earned them 150 new Facebook page likes and 75 new Instagram followers. Thanks to the extra social media push, sales were three times as high as a typical Saturday. Plus, social media fans immediately requested similar events, leading to a second Six Feet ApartY, with additional events and local partnerships.

Social media tends to be among the first things on the chopping block for small businesses, because social media managers struggle to convince the company of its value. That’s why focusing on the right metrics is so crucial. Bosses might not be impressed by how many likes your post gets — but they’ll certainly be interested in how many sales it brings in.

“Social media is our second-biggest driver of sales,” Moss says. “Most customers say they discover us on Instagram and didn't realize we had a content site or a store until we promoted them on social.”

Of course, sales numbers aren’t the only valuable metric. You might also monitor the traffic social media drives to your website, engagement rates for individual posts, or even specific types of engagement, such as retweets versus likes. Every metric can give you information, and the value depends on whether or not that information helps you make decisions for your business.

2. Use reports to analyze what’s working (and what isn’t)

Once you decide on your key metrics, make sure you track them regularly by building custom reports that highlight what matters most to you. Remember: focus on data that drives business decisions, such as metrics that tell whether Instagram Shop Grid or Instagram Shop Post content drives more sales.

With reports, you can compare metrics such as engagement rates, click-throughs, and follower demographics to determine which type of content resonates with your audience. For instance, HIKI , a company with a line of products to minimize sweat, confirmed that their followers are mostly millennials and Gen Zers, so they craft content that speaks to that age group.

HIKI jumped on the “Put a finger down” trend on TikTok and got real about sweat problems — a tactic that would probably fall flat with baby boomers but got a lot of engagement from HIKI fans.

3. Own your personality

On social media, your followers come for your products and services — they stay because they like your style. Think of your social media as an extension of your brand’s voice, tone, and personality.

As you craft your brand persona, consider questions such as:

• What’s your tone? (Funny, playful, serious, informative, etc.)
• What are your top interests outside of your business?
• What are your values?
• Who are your friends? (Other brands or people you support, neighborhood businesses, etc.)

Make your brand’s persona part of your branding guidelines, and let your unique personality shine in your posts.

Tim Urch, social media manager at Huel , a company that delivers nutritionally complete food, crafted a persona that appeals to their customers on multiple levels. “Creating a sweet spot between what we want to say and what our audience wants to hear is tough,” Urch says. “When those two things are the same, we’ve struck gold.”

Adventure Cats shows off their playful personality with cat puns and promotes their values by sharing the organizations they donate to — along with displaying a healthy dose of cute kittens, of course.

4. Use social media to provide great customer service

Customer service plays a major role in brand loyalty, and the majority of people ages 18-54 see social media as an effective channel for customer service . Here’s the bottom line: most of your customers expect support via social media and are almost equally likely to praise or complain about your response, so you might as well make it a great interaction.

Our complete guide to using social media for customer service can show you how to leverage social platforms effectively. But here’s the TL;DR: Superior customer service via social media boils down to three things: speed, tone, and results. People want quick responses from empathetic humans who are prepared to resolve problems.

5. Schedule a baseline of posts

Social media for small business is often something that gets regulated to the “whenever I have the time” category. But inconsistent activity isn’t a good look for any brand.

The good news is, just because social media is on 24/7 doesn’t mean you have to be. You can schedule posts ahead of time to ensure that your brand has a consistent presence. First, you’ll need to determine how often you want to post on each platform . Once you have your baseline, you can use Buffer's publishing tools to set posts for weeks in advance so your brand never appears to go dark on any social platforms.

Scheduling also gives you more visibility into your messaging over time. When you can look at all of your posts across platforms for the coming weeks, it’s easier to ensure that you’re varying your content. Plus, when you plan ahead, you have more time to pop in on different platforms for real-time engagement.

Authentic social media for small business is essential

By now, you know that having a social media presence is important, but you have to go beyond just showing up. Social media for small businesses thrives on authenticity and consistency.

“Social media is a totally invaluable channel for us,” Eickenhorst says. “Before I joined the company, Steve let the creativity part of social media slide. It wasn’t authentic, and business fell away.”

People want to see a genuine personality on social media, particularly from small businesses. If you’re simply going through the motions with generic posts and occasional product features, your customers won’t have a reason to stick around and engage with you. Authenticity is about owning the tone and style your fans have come to expect from you and using social media to listen to and engage with your audience.

“Now, we put real effort into varying our content and keeping it authentic,” Eickenhorst says. “Now, our audience [and business] is back.”

Did you find this article helpful? You might also like our all-you-need social media toolkit.

The all-you-need social media toolkit

Publish Flawlessly. Analyze Effortlessly. Engage Authentically.

Buffer is the all-you-need social media toolkit that lets you focus on doing what you love for your business.

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Blog Beginner Guides Guide: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

Guide: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

Written by: Tobi Ojenike Nov 21, 2023

In today’s fast-paced business scene, having a solid online game is not just cool—it’s pretty much a must, especially for small businesses trying to make it big.

While social media marketing can be expensive for businesses navigating the complexities of online promotion, there are also cost-effective marketing options that are accessible to businesses of various sizes. This way, there is something for everyone.

So, in this guide, I’m going to break down social media marketing for small businesses without all the jargon. Think of it as your easy-to-follow map to navigate the world of social media and give your small business a boost. 

Ready to dive into social media content creation ? Check out our stash of free social media graphic templates tailored for various platforms. They’re here to spark your creativity and give you some cool ideas. Let the inspiration flow!

Click to jump ahead:

What is social media marketing?

Why small businesses need a social media presence, what are the core pillars of social media marketing, how to build an effective social media strategy, what social media platforms are best for my small business, 14 tips for expanding your small business with social media, how to set the right social media goals for your business, social media tools for small businesses.

Social media marketing is a strategy that involves promoting products, services or brands on social media platforms and engaging with the target audience. 

It includes a wide range of activities aimed at creating and sharing content, staying updated with the latest YouTube trends , increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic , generating leads and eventually increasing sales. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok are the most popular social media marketing platforms.

Publishing quality content to your social media accounts, running social media adverts, replying to comments and messages and tracking and analyzing social media analytics are all part of social media marketing. 

Think of it this way: when you’re on social media, you’re not just selling your brand or product. You’re making connections, having conversations and building relationships with your customers. It’s worth noting that with the global social media user count reaching 4.95 billion , it’s hardly surprising that numerous small businesses leverage these platforms to amplify their brand presence.

From making new connections to building epic customer relationships, the perks are endless. Let’s have a look:

Visibility : Social media platforms give small businesses a platform to display their products and services to a worldwide audience.

Cost-effective marketing : Traditional advertising methods, such as television commercials or print advertisements, can be too expensive for small firms on a shoestring budget. Social media is a low-cost strategy to reach out to potential customers and compete with larger competitors. 

Customer engagement : Social media allows for direct engagement with customers, which helps to establish loyalty and trust. They can have real-time conversations, answer inquiries and address issues, all of which were previously unavailable in traditional marketing.

Brand building:  Building and sustaining brand visibility is a major challenge for small businesses. With social media, as a small business, you can better establish and strengthen your brand identity, making your company more visible.

Analytics : For market research, social media is a goldmine. As a small business, having access to insights and analytics aids in the refinement of marketing tactics for improved results. This data can then be used to help with product development, content generation and general business initiatives.

Competitive advantage:  With social media, small businesses can respond to market shifts and adapt to changing trends and customer preferences more quickly. A social media presence levels the playing field and assists small businesses in remaining competitive.

A great social media marketing strategy is built on important pillars that work together to form a solid social media marketing plan. 

Businesses that invest in each of these areas can have a strong and effective online presence, resulting in increased brand awareness, engagement and growth. Let’s take a what are the core pillars that can make or break your social media strategy:

Advertising

All social media posts can be labeled as paid or organic. Organic material is free to post and the breadth of its reach is determined by your follower count and the platform’s algorithm. 

Paid content (or social media advertising) on the other hand enables businesses to pay platforms to promote postings to a larger audience and to target specific audiences. While organic reach is important, paid social media advertising may greatly increase your brand’s visibility.

Data is essential in social media marketing. This pillar entails monitoring and analyzing critical performance indicators such as engagement, reach, clicks, conversions and ROI. In order to fine-tune your approach, you must rely on data-driven insights.

Your social media marketing strategy will comprise objectives, target audiences, essential platforms and social-specific content. It determines why, where and what your firm will broadcast, as well as which data you will track.

Publishing is the process of creating and distributing social content to audiences. You’ll decide how frequently and when to post, as well as what publishing and scheduling tools you’ll require to support your approach.

Engagement and community building

It is critical to create and nurture a community around your brand. This pillar entails actively connecting with your target audience, reacting to comments and messages and cultivating connections. Brand loyalty and advocacy can be boosted by a robust online community.

Creating an effective social media strategy is a multifaceted process that involves thorough planning and execution. But how do you build an effective social media strategy for your small business? Let me walk you through it.

Set your budget and objectives

The first step in developing a social media marketing strategy is to examine your digital marketing budget. 

Determine how much time and money you can devote to social media marketing and what objectives you hope to achieve. 

Set defined and quantifiable goals for your social media campaigns. Clear goals provide direction, whether it’s improving brand exposure, driving website traffic, generating leads or increasing sales. Additionally, consider investing in a mobile measurement partner (MMP) to gain deeper insights into your mobile campaign performance.

Determine your target audiences

Conduct audience research to establish the demographics of the most prominent social media networks’ active users. 

Then, for your social media activities, determine your target audience. Knowing who you’re attempting to reach and who is active on each platform will assist you determine which platforms your company should be present on.

Research competitors

A competitive study can also help you identify successful content, brand attributes and publishing patterns. 

Although you don’t want your strategy to be precisely like other companies, competitive research can help you find techniques that work for organizations like yours. 

When it comes time to develop content, you and your creative team can design assets that feel distinctive to your company while drawing inspiration from what you see competitors doing well.

Choose the right platforms

Choose social media sites that correspond to your target demographic and company objectives. Concentrate on where your target audience is most engaged — not all platforms are appropriate for every business.

Your social media marketing strategy could also include a mix of diverse strategies for each social media site. If you’re selling products, consider a platform with in-app shopping functionality, such as Facebook or Instagram. If you want to share links to blog posts or articles, consider using a platform that can extract featured photos from external links, such as Twitter or LinkedIn. 

Content strategy

Create a content plan that includes a variety of content kinds such as text, photographs, videos, and infographics. Also, you can generate engaging animation videos with the help of AI animation tools . 

Your material should be valuable and engaging to your readers. Your goals, target audience data and competition analysis can be used to determine the important subjects, types of post and posting patterns for each social media platform, as well as the best time of day to post on each.

Also, create a content calendar to keep a consistent posting schedule. Regular posting keeps your audience interested and informed.

Related: How to Grow Your Brand’s Social Media Influence with Infographics and More

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube—the “Big Five” social media platforms—provide a plethora of chances for small businesses to develop an effective social media strategy. Here are some important things to consider for these platforms and more:

Facebook marketing for small businesses

One of the first social media platforms that emerged was Facebook which currently has over 2 billion monthly active users and 1 billion daily active users. If your target consumer is on social media, it’s most likely Facebook. 

Facebook’s audience is extremely diverse, making it suited for a wide range of businesses. It can benefit both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Facebook is adaptable for addressing diverse target demographics because it has users of all ages.

How to maximize Facebook:

• Create a business page and optimize it with relevant information.
• Share a mix of engaging content, including posts, images and videos.
• Use High Performing Facebook Lead Ads to target specific demographics.
• Engage with your audience through comments and messages.
• Schedule posts for optimal reach and consistency.

LinkedIn marketing for small businesses

LinkedIn is a social networking site where people may connect with other business professionals and network online. If a LinkedIn user follows your firm, they are likely interested in the information and insights you can provide them, as well as business-related updates. 

LinkedIn has a professional audience that is great for connecting and sharing industry-specific content for B2B organizations and individuals. It’s fantastic for job search, career advancement and demonstrating expertise. LinkedIn users are often older and more professional.

How to maximize Linkedin

• Create an engaging corporate page as well as individual profiles for essential team members.
• Distribute professional, industry-specific content such as articles and updates.
• Connect with industry experts, clients and possible partners.
• Join LinkedIn Groups to participate in discussions and build your network.
• For B2B advertising initiatives, use LinkedIn Ads.

X (formerly known as Twitter) marketing for small businesses

X undoubtedly the most conversational of all social media platforms, consists of a large network of individuals and brands communicating with one another in a very fast-paced atmosphere. Most company profiles tweet a variety of information, including product promotions, online contests, offers, funny industry-related views, data insights and new releases. 

X has a younger user base, making it ideal for products or services aimed at this generation. It is, yet, ideal for companies that wish to publish real-time updates and join in discussions about current events and trends. X can benefit both consumer and business-oriented businesses (B2B and B2C).

How to maximize X

• Create a strong presence with a distinct brand look.
• Tweet on a frequent basis, focusing on hot topics and relevant hashtags.
• Use Lists to organize and interact with important people.
• Use Twitter Ads to broaden your reach and reach targeted demographics.
• Respond to mentions and direct messages as soon as possible.

Instagram marketing for small businesses

Instagram has three types of publishing formats: stories, reels and permanent posts. With these options, you can design your Instagram presence to focus on your business goals and the desires of your audience. 

Because Instagram is linked to Facebook, paid advertisements from your business Instagram account are created immediately within Facebook and do not require the use of a separate platform. 

Instagram’s audience is younger, making it ideal for marketers targeting millennials and Gen Z. Instagram is a popular platform for businesses in the lifestyle, fashion, beauty and creative industries. It is ideal for showcasing items or services with high-quality images.

How to maximize Instagram

• Create a business account on Instagram to have access to analytics and promotions.
• Post visually appealing images and stories about your company.
• To improve discoverability, use relevant hashtags and geo-tags.
• Collaborate with influencers to broaden your audience.
• Use Instagram Ads to reach out to certain demographics.

YouTube marketing for small businesses

Creating video content for YouTube can boost your brand’s credibility and attract a lot of engagement. Optimizing your videos for search is an important factor in ensuring that they appear for users searching for your content. 

YouTube’s user base covers all age groups, making it appropriate for a wide range of audiences. It is a fantastic medium for reaching a large and diversified audience if your company can create captivating video content. It’s ideal for instructional videos, educational information and entertainment.

How to maximize YouTube

• Create a YouTube channel and stick to a regular publishing schedule.
• Create high-quality video content, such as tutorials, product demonstrations and vlogs.
• Improve the searchability of video titles, descriptions and tags.
• Encourage subscribers to remark and provide feedback.
• To reach a larger audience, use YouTube Ads to promote your videos.

TikTok marketing for small businesses

TikTok has quickly established itself as an effective platform for businesses to communicate with a wide and engaged audience. TikTok marketing may be a game changer for small businesses, giving them a platform to demonstrate their creativity, engage with a younger clientele and increase brand exposure. 

TikTok mostly attracts a younger audience, with a sizable proportion of Gen Z and Millennials. The short-form video format matches to the shorter attention spans of its largely younger audience. Through features like likes, comments, shares and duets, the platform encourages active engagement.

How to maximize TikTok

• Create visually appealing and innovative videos that reflect the personality of your brand.
• Take advantage of TikTok trends and difficulties to stay relevant and increase discoverability.
• Respond to comments and interact with your audience to foster a sense of belonging.
• Create branded hashtags to encourage engagement and user-generated content .
• Consider using TikTok ads or even buying TikTok followers to reach out to targeted audiences and increase brand awareness.

Related: Hidden Social Media Features to Help Your Small Business Thrive

As a savvy business owner, you recognize that your online presence is a powerful asset. But, the real magic lies in knowing how to leverage platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to not just exist online but to thrive and expand. 

Look no further, to help you with that, I’ll unravel tips and strategies that go beyond mere existence on social media in this section. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting a business , these insights will empower you to navigate the digital realm with confidence, turning your social media presence into a catalyst for significant business growth: 

Understand your target audience

Understanding your audience is a vital step for using social media to grow your small business. This way, you can adjust your social media content and techniques to effectively resonate with your audience by acquiring deep insights into their preferences, behaviors and needs.

Focus on branding

Maintain a consistent brand image, from your profile graphics to your content style. Social media branding can boost your company’s visibility as people will share your posts with their followers, thereby increasing your reach and exposure. 

The more visible your brand is online, the more likely it is that consumers will become acquainted with it and eventually make a purchase.

Engage actively

Engage with you social audience by responding to comments and messages as soon as possible to create relationships with customers. 

Also, give life to your posts, captions and comments. It gives your customers a sense of trust and belonging relating to someone like them and not a robot. 

Commit to community management, which entails creating a community with your customers through online interactions.

Focus on quality over quantity

As a small business, prioritize quality over quantity. While it may be tempting to publish a large amount of posts, prioritizing quality ensures that each piece is effective, resonates with your audience and is consistent with the identity of your business. 

Rather than bombarding your audience with information, provide captivating and relevant content that adds value to their lives. High-quality content attracts greater engagement, reach and shares, resulting in a stronger online presence and higher brand visibility.

Plan using a content calendar

One common mistake small businesses make on social media is posting material on the fly. While it may appear easier to spend a little time each day thinking of something to publish, this might actually be more time-consuming (and frustrating) in the long term. 

To avoid this, create a content calendar to ensure consistent posting and to stay organized.

Use visuals

Visual content not only appeals to the eyes, but it also makes selling easier and faster as clients begin to distinguish your brand from competitors. Enhance your posts with eye-catching graphics such as images, infographics and videos.

Use hashtags

Use hashtags to categorize and amplify your content, increasing its discoverability among customers with similar interests. 

Also, make sure your hashtags align with your industry, niche and target audience, elevating both visibility and engagement levels. Leveraging trending or popular hashtags can notably broaden your content’s reach, helping you reach audiences beyond your current follower base.

Run promotions

Hosting a contest or giveaway is an effective strategy. The appeal of freebies and the thrill of competition can create significant engagement, assisting in broadening your reach and attracting new fans. 

Encourage users to share your material, tag friends or use certain hashtags, which will turn your current audience into brand ambassadors.

Do your analytics

Track and evaluate your social media performance to fine-tune your plan. Analytics may help you choose which social media platform is ideal for your company. 

If you notice that one platform is receiving more engagement than another, you may want to consider switching. You don’t have to be everywhere, so focus on the platforms that produce the best results.

Stay informed on trends

To stay relevant, keep up with social media trends and platform updates. You don’t necessarily have to jump on every trend on social media, but finding one that is niche to your brand and will help you gain visibility is important. 

It’s also a way for you to know what people are searching for at that time, which allows you to develop relevant material that will resonate over time.

Consistent posting

Consistency is rewarding. Post on a regular basis to keep your audience engaged and informed. This applies to both content creation and consumer interaction. 

Leaving your social media for too long without a valid reason or not responding to comments on your post is not a pretty sight. Customers want a brand that is timely and one that they can rely on to truly deliver.

Advertise strategically

Strategic advertising is a must-have for small businesses looking to grow through social media. When paid advertising coincides with your aims and budget, use it. 

Also, use social media platforms’ extensive targeting options to narrow down your target demographic. Choose the ad format that best communicates your value proposition, whether it’s through sponsored articles, carousel advertisements or video content.

Create accessible content

Creating accessible social media content is a strategic move that can significantly contribute to expanding your small business. By considering various needs, such as visual or hearing impairments, you make your content more inclusive, attracting diverse customers.

Accessible content improves the overall user experience for everyone. Clear and well-structured content is easier for all users to understand and engage with, leading to increased satisfaction and positive interactions with your brand.

Mobile optimization

Prioritizing mobile optimization is an important step for small businesses looking to grow via social media. Make sure your material is mobile-friendly, as many people use mobile devices to access social media. 

Given the growing nature of mobile device usage, ensure that your content, website links and advertising are mobile-friendly. One way to ensure everything runs smoothly, no matter the location or device, is to test yourself from various locations by using mobile proxies . Mobile-friendly content is highly valued by social media platforms and a user-friendly mobile interface boosts engagement.

Setting the right social media goals is critical for achieving real results for your small business. You should understand that social media objectives are unique because they are entirely based on your company and these goals can also overlap and influence each other. Everything from your content strategy to the social networks you employ is influenced by your goals.

Let’s take a look at how you can effectively set social media goals for your small business.

• Begin with the broad picture and work your way down. Why does your company require a social presence? What resources are required to make such outcomes a reality?
• Study your target market and customer personalities. For instance, how do your customers use social media? Is your target audience obsessed with TikTok or Instagram? What kinds of material are they looking for? Consider how using social media for business might assist you in reaching your target audience.
• Consider your company’s overall marketing plan and how social media fits into it.
• Connect your social media objectives to actual analytics and KPIs. This is significant in an era when marketers are under pressure to demonstrate ROI. There’s a lot to track, from engagement to traffic and beyond.
• Review your progress on a regular basis and revise your goals as appropriate. Social media is a fluid medium and your objectives should evolve in response to changes in your business landscape and industry trends.
• Building relationships is the goal of social media. Consider goals that encourage interaction, conversations and the creation of a sense of community around your business.
• Compare your objectives to those of your competitors in the industry. Analyzing their social media strategy can provide insight into what is feasible and assist you in setting competitive yet reasonable goals.

Some examples of these goals are:

Increase website traffic

Objective: The goal is to get more people to visit the company’s website.

Example: Increase website clicks from social media by 30%, and monitor click-through rates.

Increase customer loyalty

Objective: Build a community of brand champions and devoted customers.

Example: Launching a reward program and responding quickly to customer inquiries.

Increase social media followers

Objective: Broaden the audience and reach on social media channels.

Example: Run targeted follower acquisition campaigns, or partner with influencers.

Metrics monitoring and analysis

Objective: Continuously assess and optimize social media performance.

Example: Reviewing statistics on a regular basis and adjusting plans based on key performance metrics.

Increase product sales

Objective: Increase sales and revenue through social media channels.

Example: Increase online sales by 15% via social media promotions.

Increase engagement

Objective: Encourage engagement and participation on social media sites as a goal.

Example: Grow likes, comments, and shares by 25%, and hold interactive polls or contests.

Small businesses can utilize the help of tools to streamline their social media presence, monitor performance, find content trends and manage other areas of their digital marketing plan. 

The tools used are however determined by the specific needs and goals of the organization. Let’s take a quick glance at these tools and how they can benefit small businesses.

Purpose: Social media management

Hootsuite acts as a unified center for managing various social media accounts, allowing organizations to plan posts, manage engagement and assess performance using its built-in analytics features.

Purpose: Social media scheduling and analytics

Buffer enables organizations to streamline social media posting with scheduled content, while also giving analytics to analyze post performance and encouraging team participation in managing social media activities. Although today there are plenty of Hootsuite alternatives on the market. Hootsuite remains robust and still one of the best tools for social media management.

Purpose: Design and infographics

Venngage is a user-friendly online tool that allows businesses to create visually appealing infographics, reports and presentations. With its easy-to-use interface and customizable social media templates , Venngage can help businesses effectively communicate complex information and data on various social media platforms.

Sprout Social:

Purpose: Social media marketing and analytics

Sprout Social covers social media management , marketing and analytics, allowing organizations to schedule posts, monitor conversations and receive insights into social media ROI.

BuzzSumo: 

Purpose: Content discovery and analysis

Buzzsumo distinguishes itself by recognizing hot material within a certain market, identifying prominent content providers and providing insights into competition content tactics.

Purpose: Instagram scheduling and analytics

Later, which focuses on Instagram, makes post planning and scheduling easier by giving a visual content calendar and analytics to track post performance on this popular site.

Purpose: Unified customer support

Sprinklr enables businesses to monitor brand mentions, communicate with customers and evaluate customer interactions and sentiment by integrating social media management , customer service and marketing features into a single platform. 

Key takeaway

So, wrapping things up – social media is like the secret sauce for small businesses. Everything you need to create an effective social media strategy is in this guide, from creating awesome content to chatting with your audience and digging into the nitty-gritty with analytics.

Think of your online presence as a turbo boost for your business growth. With these insights, you’re not just navigating social media; you’re owning it. It’s like stepping into the digital arena with confidence, ready to rock the small business game.

So, here’s to embracing social media, because it’s not just a trend – it’s your ticket to thriving in today’s business scene. Get out there, make your mark, and let your small business shine in the world of pixels and posts!

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How to create a social media strategy (with template)

I've been in the social media game for years now, and despite the vile cesspool of nonsense on social, there are plenty of decent people looking for what we marketers are offering. But you need to know what you're offering.

To make the process easier, I developed this downloadable social media strategy template. Read on for details on how to fill it out.

How to create a social media strategy:

What is a social media marketing strategy? 

A social media marketing strategy is a game plan for using social media platforms to promote your offerings and stand out in an oversaturated digital market. It's not just a five-minute whiteboard drawing; it's a comprehensive document detailing how you'll use social media to achieve your business objectives.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when you're getting started, which you'll want to comprehensively answer in your strategy:

What are your goals? Your social endeavors should tie back to your business objectives. Be it driving sales, boosting engagement, or elevating brand visibility—know what you want to get out of it.

Who's your audience? Understand who you're talking to. Tailor your content to resonate with the people you want to reach, ensuring your messages aren't just broadcasted but effectively land.

What's the competition up to? Take a look at your rivals. Learn from their hits and misses, then carve your unique path. Inspiration is good; plagiarism isn't.

Remember, the purpose of this strategy is to guide your online endeavors so that every post, every comment, and every share has a purpose behind it.

Benefits of a social media strategy

Having a strategy for your social media isn't about cramping creativity but rather channeling it effectively. Setting a clear direction ensures that your online efforts lead to tangible business benefits:

Increase sales: When done right, your social media content should funnel people to your website or store. Then, you can use more middle- and bottom-funnel content to turn those visitors into paying customers.

Boost engagement: Strategic content isn't just seen; it's interacted with. And that doesn't just mean more likes. We're talking real engagement, like shares, comments, and conversations. That's what really builds brand awareness and fosters trust within your audience.

Track preferences: Predetermined metrics like reach, engagement, conversion rates, and ROI provide awesome insights into what types of content are and aren't effective, so you can take that content and scale it beyond social media.

Build communities: Your brand isn't just about selling; it's about connecting. A well-honed strategy helps cultivate spaces where enthusiasts can rally around what you offer and get the word out to others.

Gather feedback: Your digital communities also become treasure troves of insights. They're your direct line to what customers adore, desire, or would change.

Support cross-functional efforts: A cohesive social media strategy amplifies other departments' efforts, whether announcing a product launch, amplifying a PR campaign, or driving attendance to a corporate event.

How to create a social media marketing strategy

I've run quite a few social media campaigns for my personal brand as well as different businesses I've worked for. Each one had different goals, which is to be expected. But regardless of your end goal, you can use the same big ideas to formulate your social media marketing strategy.

1. Establish a clear purpose

I can't tell you how many social media managers I've seen just throw as many things at the wall as possible and hope something sticks: giveaways that get short-term engagement, services that guarantee followers and likes, or jumping on whatever the most recent bandwagon is. What these lack is a clear purpose. 

Within three months, increase website traffic by 15% and online sales by 10% by implementing effective call-to-action (CTA) strategies and conversion tracking on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).

Within 12 months, identify and hire at least 50 brand advocates who consistently share our content and refer new customers through the implementation of a brand advocacy program.

When you have an overarching purpose, the rest of the strategy planning is simple. It also makes it easy to adjust your social media strategy as you go without losing sight of your long-term goals. Each time you make a social media decision, ask yourself: does this align with the purpose? Yes? Keep it. If not, get rid of it.

2. Understand your target audience

From there, orient each part of your strategy—from which platform you post on and when to what metrics you're trying to hit—toward that target audience. 

Aim to create a strategy that answers all of these questions:

Is your strategy respectful of your audience's backgrounds and experiences, and what value does it add to their lives?

What are you hoping they take away from your content, and what are they hoping to take away from it?

What existing knowledge do you expect them to come with, and what can you teach them?

3. Research your competitors

As much as we all want to feel like unique, creative geniuses, everything is inspired by something. But don't just copy what your competitors are doing—ask yourself why they're doing it that way and what the thought process is behind it. 

Here are some questions you can consider when filling out the social media strategy template:

Who are your competitors trying to target?

Why is their strategy working?

What social media platforms are they using and why?

What social media platforms aren't they using and why?

How often do they post content to each platform?

Are they replying to comments?

What is the ratio of posts trying to sell something compared to fun, interesting, or educational content?

Look for gaps and opportunities that your competitors—whether they're crushing it on social or not—aren't taking advantage of. What are they missing that you think your target customers would enjoy?

Let's say you're a vegan restaurant and other vegan joints only post images of their food. They may have plenty of followers, likes, and sales, but you know you can do more. You can post behind-the-scenes videos, recipe tutorials, and images of your clientele with rich anecdotes as captions, Humans of New York style, to show your audience you're more than a menu.

4. Research your audience

Outlining a social media strategy without doing audience research first is like going out of your way to get your friend an iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso when they hate oat milk, brown sugar, and turns out they drink tea. But unlike your pal, your audience won't just smile and say thanks—they'll keep scrolling.

You need to know what type of content your audience likes, so you don't leave them scrolling for something better. Take these steps to get to know your audience:

Analyze engagement metrics: Look at posts from your account and your competitors' accounts that get the most engagement. What topics resonate the most? Do they prefer short, funny videos? Or educational deep dives?

Segment your audience: Not all of your followers are the same, so you'll want to divide them into groups based on their behaviors or preferences, like followers who engage more with your trending content rather than business updates. This can help you more precisely target your audience rather than trying to appease everyone with broad messaging.

5. Choose the right social media channels

Make sure the social platforms you choose are right for your brand. Consider some of the following questions:

Does the platform host your target audience?

Is it working for your competition?

If it's not working for the competition, is it because your target audience isn't there or because competitors are doing something wrong?

Does it fit well with the content you plan on making?

Is it worth your time and effort to create content for it?

Once you've chosen the social media platforms you plan to use, check out these channel-specific guides for more detailed strategy tips:

6. Determine your KPIs

So, what exactly does social media "success" look like? Bringing in more business, sure, but that's a little vague. You want to see that your social media strategy is hitting smaller goals along the way. To gauge how your strategy is paying off, define some quantifiable key performance indicators, or KPIs. 

Here are some examples.

You need to please the social media algorithms in order to get your content promoted organically, and the algorithms care about engagement. Social media engagement, like shares, comments, and likes directly impact every other KPI due to how the algorithms work, so engagement should be your main focus.

7. Conduct a social media audit

As marketers, analytics are our bread and butter (if you're wondering why you're salivating right about now). A social media audit highlights the data behind your efforts. 

It's probably a good idea to audit your accounts before embarking on a campaign to get a sense of where you're starting off. But most importantly, perform an audit after each campaign to ensure your strategy is paying off. 

Other than your KPIs, here are some things to track when you audit yourself:

What types of content you're posting and on which platforms

How much engagement each post received

How many followers you have (or gained/lost)

Any positive or negative comments

Whether you're reaching your target audience or not

8. Perfect your publishing cadence

If you send me an email at 5 p.m. on a Friday, you can expect a response Monday morning at the earliest . And if you spam me with 11 messages that definitely could've been consolidated into one, there's a chance they're all going in the trash.

The same goes for your social media strategy. When and how often you post can make a big difference in how your content performs.

Here's how to figure out a publishing cadence that works best for your brand:

Analyze peak times: Use analytics tools within social platforms or external tools like HubSpot or Later to find the days and times your audience is most active. Remember, time zones and holidays can affect engagement.

Prioritize quality over quantity: It's better to post high-quality content a couple of times per week than bad content every five minutes.

Test and learn: Conduct A/B tests by posting at various times and days of the week, and monitor engagement to see which posting times perform the best.

Plan ahead with a content calendar: Use a social media scheduling tool to plan your content in advance. Look for a tool that lets you schedule posts and view and adjust how your feed will look.

Stay on top of trends: You have to be able to adjust to changes like trending topics or news that's relevant to your brand. Hold space in your content calendar to create trending content.

Bonus: Get inspired by these 6 examples

Here are some examples of how real-life social campaigns knocked it out of the park. Each one has a clear strategy behind it (which I've teased out based on the campaign itself).

1. Olivia Rodrigo #ShotoniPhone15Pro campaign

Apple wanted to flaunt the iPhone's camera capabilities and knew it had to resonate with the younger demographic obsessed with photography and music. Enter Olivia Rodrigo—a contemporary musical sensation. Through their collaboration, Apple seamlessly blended tech and pop culture, using platforms like YouTube, where both visuals and melodies reign supreme. This helped showcase Apple's camera and Olivia's music while also boosting brand recognition among younger demographics.

Audience: Tech-savvy and pop culture-conscious Gen Z users 

Goal: Increase awareness of the iPhone 15 and its advanced camera capabilities

Tactics: Celebrity partnerships; high-quality videography and photography

2. Marcus Theatres

Audience: Gen Z and Millennial TikTok aficionados

Goal: Build brand loyalty and resonate with the TikTok community

Tactics: CEO-led TikTok videos; tapping into trending sounds

Audience: Tech and Zapier enthusiasts

Goal: Generate buzz for an upcoming product and reinforce brand community

Tactics: Interactive teasers; encouraging audience predictions

4. Poppin Candy

In a sweet twist, Poppin Candy turned to its followers for new candy concoctions. Instead of guessing what their audience might want, they went straight to the source. By letting followers have a say, they're boosting engagement and making sure their treats hit the sweet spot every time.

Audience: Sweet-toothed fans and creative candy connoisseurs

Goal: Enhance engagement and customer connection to the brand

Tactics: Audience-driven candy mix challenges; crowdsourcing flavor ideas

Audience: Kids, teens, and those with nostalgic connection to Barbie

Goal: Promote the Barbie movie and its doll catalog

Tactics: Brand collabs; capitalizing on viral TikTok trends

6. Starbucks

Starbucks knows a thing or two about creating a buzz. Their September ThursYays BOGO on fall drinks was all over social media. And if the long lines post-noon on Thursdays are any indication, their cups—and registers—were overflowing.

Audience: Fall flavor fans and deal hunters

Goal: Drive up sales and increase word-of-mouth promotion of fall flavor release

Tactics: Limited-time deals; heavy promotion of seasonal specials

How to get the most out of our social media strategy template

This article was originally published in November 2020 by Tierney Mosier. The most recent update, with contributions from Michael Kern, was in October 2023.

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Chris is a Las Vegas local and has years of experience in content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. He is also an author, YouTube influencer, podcast host, and committed advocate for mental health.

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Social Media Marketing Guide for Small Business Owners

Social media marketing (SMM) is where you use social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, to promote your brand.

The average billboard in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, costs about $2,000 a month . If you purchase one and all 100,000 people in the city see it in a month, the space would have cost you 2¢ per impression, which isn’t bad. Now, imagine you publish a post to the world’s largest social media platform, Facebook, and all 2.96 billion users see your post. All those impressions would cost even less because organic Facebook posts are free. 

Of course, neither of these scenarios is particularly realistic—not everybody in Tuscaloosa will see a billboard, and not everybody on Facebook will see a post. Still, the comparison gives you a sense of the power and scale of social media marketing. Done strategically, a social media post can reach more people for less than most other marketing tactics. Here’s what social media marketing entails, and how you can get started with it.

Turn your followers into customers

Create irresistible content and transform your followers into loyal customers with our social media marketing strategy template.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to promote your products or services, increase brand awareness, engage with audiences, and drive website traffic. It involves publishing high-quality content to your social media accounts, running social media advertisements, responding to comments and messages, and tracking and analyzing social media metrics. The most common platforms for social media marketing include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok. 

Pillars of social media marketing

There are five core elements to social media marketing:

• Strategy. Your social media marketing strategy will include your goals, target audiences, key platforms, and social-specific content strategy. Essentially, it dictates why, where, and what your company will post, as well as what metrics you’ll track. 
• Publishing. Publishing is how you actually create your social content and get it in front of audiences. You’ll decide how frequently to post, when to post, and what publishing and scheduling tools you’ll need to support your process. 
• Community management. Social media marketing allows you to engage directly with audiences. You can like or respond to comments on your posts, monitor social media websites for mentions of your company, and receive and reply to direct messages from social media users.
• Advertising. All social media posts can be classified as either paid or organic content. Organic content is free to post, and the extent of its reach depends on your follower counts and the specifics of the platform’s algorithm. Paid content (or social media advertising) allows businesses to pay platforms to promote the posts to more people and provide the ability to target specific audiences.
• Analytics. Social media analytics refers to the set of practices you use to monitor the effectiveness of social media campaigns. It involves tracking, looking at, and analyzing metrics including your account or post’s reach, views, engagements, clicks, and mentions. 

Pros and cons of social media marketing for small businesses

Social media marketing is popular with all types of businesses—over 96% of small businesses and 97% of Fortune 500 companies use social media channels as part of their marketing strategies. Here’s an overview of the benefits and a few relevant drawbacks for small ecommerce businesses:

Benefits of social media marketing 

• Increased sales. An effective social media marketing campaign can generate leads, increase brand recognition, and drive traffic to your website—all of which can increase sales. 
• Strong return on investment (ROI) . Organic social media marketing can be cost effective since it costs almost nothing to post on a social media platform—particularly compared to the relatively high expense and low reach of traditional marketing channels like billboards and print ads. 
• Improved customer relationships. Businesses can use social networks to interact directly with current and potential customers, addressing their concerns or answering any questions immediately. Positive interactions can improve customer relationships and lift brand perception. 

Drawbacks of social media marketing

• Can be time consuming . Developing a strong social media presence across multiple platforms takes time. For example, depending on your goals, you might need to create and publish more than 20 posts a week on each of your key social platforms and devote another two hours a day to community management activities. 
• Requires diverse and specialized skills. The ideal social media manager is an expert (or at least competent) in graphic design, photography, videography, content writing, and customer service. They are also well versed in platform-specific best practices and in touch with social media trends. It can be challenging for small businesses to meet all of these expectations internally, and outsourcing to freelancers or social media marketing agencies can get expensive. 
• Won’t reach all audience segments. Social media marketing only reaches social media users. If your audience is elsewhere, select a different marketing tactic.

How to develop a successful social media marketing strategy

• Set your budget and goals
• Identify your target audience
• Research competitors
• Select social media sites
• Define your social media brand
• Develop a content strategy

Effective  content marketing  starts with a plan. Here’s how to develop your social media marketing strategy in six steps:

1. Set your budget and goals

Creating a social media marketing plan should start with reviewing your digital marketing budget. Decide how much time and money you can allocate to social media marketing and what goals you expect to hit. There may be costs associated with promoting social posts, hiring an agency or freelancer, or having an employee handle your social media campaigns internally. Set social media targets that support your broader business objectives but are also attainable given your budget. 

For example, if one of your business goals is to generate 10% more leads in the upcoming calendar year, you might set a social media target of increasing traffic to gated landing pages by 25% over the same period (with the understanding that not everyone who visits your website will fill out a form to become a lead). If your budget is larger, you might bump your social media target to 35% to reflect the increase in marketing resources available for the campaign. If you aren’t seeing results from organic content, you might invest in paid LinkedIn posts, Facebook advertising , or influencer marketing strategies to reach your goal.

2. Identify your target audiences

Conduct audience research to determine the demographics of active users on each of the most popular social media platforms. Then, identify the target audience for your social media efforts. Knowing who you’re trying to target—as well as who is active on each platform—will help you identify which platforms your business should have a presence on. For example, if your target audience consists of men between 45 and 65, you might focus your social media marketing strategy on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, because these channels are the most popular with these audiences . 

3. Research competitors

In some cases, you can speed up the audience research process by conducting a competitive analysis . For example, let’s say your target audience is eco-conscious, stay-at-home parents between 25 and 45 years old with some disposable income. You can identify successful competitors in the space by searching for similar brands online, surveying your customers, or evaluating social media mentions and follower counts. Then, see what social media platforms your competitors are on and whether they’re receiving likes and comments on those platforms. If you see a trend across several competitors on a specific platform, you can conclude that your target audiences are particularly active on that platform.

A competitive analysis can also help you identify successful content types, brand characteristics, and publishing cadences. Although you won’t want to mimic another company exactly, competitor research can help you identify tactics that work for businesses like yours. When it’s time to create content, you and your creative team can make assets that feel unique to your business but draw inspiration from the positive things you see competitors doing. 

4. Select social media sites 

To select platforms for your social media marketing strategy, start with the audience, ruling out any platforms that don’t serve the target audiences you’ve identified. Next, consider features, displays, and how specific content types perform on individual social media networks. For example, if you’re planning to sell products, consider a platform with in-app shopping features, such as Facebook or Instagram. If you plan to post links to blog posts or articles, consider a platform like Twitter or LinkedIn that can pull featured images from external links. Your social media marketing strategy may also involve a combination of different tactics for each individual social media platform. 

5. Define your social media brand

While your social media content will reflect your main brand identity, you may decide to have slight variations in visuals, tone, and voice, depending on the social channel. For example, you might permit a lightly ironic tone on Twitter but keep your LinkedIn content buttoned up, given that the platform is predominately for business networking. 

Once you’ve established a social media brand, create brand guidelines , making sure to note any platform-specific variations. These will help your social content look cohesive.

6. Develop a content strategy

Use your goals, target audience research, and competitive analysis to identify the key topics, post types, and publishing cadences, as well as what time of day to post on each social media platform. To create compelling content and keep your audience engaged, resist the urge to lean too heavily into promotional content. One common rule for an effective social media marketing strategy states that 80% of your content should entertain or inform, and 20% should directly promote your company. 

For example, imagine that your main goal is to boost sales of your reusable water bottles. Your target audience is health- and eco-conscious, and your competitors see high engagement on wellness posts and video content. Your content strategy might include content about the negative environmental impacts of plastic water bottles, the health risks of disposable plastics, and positive wellness tips. This content might take the form of short videos, excerpts from long-form articles on your blog, and branded infographics.

Social media marketing metrics

Marketing teams use social media metrics to evaluate campaign results and identify successful tactics so they can adjust the strategy to optimize results. Here’s a list of metrics that provide valuable insights:

• Reach. The number of unique people who see a social media post.
• Impressions. The number of times a post is displayed to users.
• Engagements. The number of likes, comments, clicks, shares, or direct messages on an individual post or for an entire account. 
• Engagement rate. The percentage of reached users who engage with a post out of all those who saw it. The formula to calculate this is: engagement rate = post engagement / post reach.
• Amplification rate. The percentage of followers, out of all your followers, who share a post. The formula for this is: amplification rate = post shares / total account followers.
• Click-through rate. The percentage of people, out of all the times the post was displayed, who click on a link in your post. The formula for this is: click-through rate = post link clicks / post impressions.
• Account views. The number of people who view your company’s social media profiles.
• Audience growth rate. A measure of how quickly your audience is growing, expressed in a percentage. The formula for this is: audience growth rate = (net new followers over a certain time period / total followers) x 100.
• Cost-per-click (CPC). A measure of cost effectiveness expressed by how much you pay for every click a post receives. The formula for this is: CPC = ad spend / number of clicks.
• Conversion rate. The percentage of people who take a desired action, like purchasing a product or filling out a contact form. The formula for this is: conversion rate = number of impressions / number of people who take a desired action.
• Return on investment (ROI). A measure of the profitability of a social media marketing campaign. The formula for this is: ROI = profits attributable to a campaign / total campaign cost.
• Mentions. The number of times users mention your company on a social platform. 
• Share of social voice (SoSV). The frequency of your company mentions compared to your competitors, expressed in percentage form. The formula for this is: SoSV = (number of mentions of your brand / number of mentions of competitor brands) x 100.
• Social sentiment. The distribution of neutral, positive, and negative sentiments about your company. The formula for this is: social sentiment = (total number of positive mentions - total number of negative mentions) / total number of mentions.

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Social media marketing FAQ

What do social media marketers do.

Social media marketers promote a company’s products or services on social media platforms. They might develop a social media strategy, monitor trends, create engaging content, schedule and publish posts, and track and analyze analytics.

What types of content perform best on social media?

Although specifics vary by platform, the following types of content tend to perform well on social channels:

• Short-form videos: TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram
• User-generated content: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
• Company culture content: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
• High-quality images: Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook
• Infographics: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook

How can businesses measure the success of their social media marketing campaigns?

Businesses track social media metrics—like engagement, reach, click-through rate, and conversions—to measure the success of their social media marketing campaigns and calculate return on investment (ROI).

What are some common social media marketing mistakes to avoid?

Businesses just starting out sometimes make these common social media marketing mistakes:

• Choosing the wrong platforms for the target audience
• Not tracking social media metrics
• Not publishing often enough
• Over-indexing on promotional content
• Neglecting community management

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How to Create a 30-day Social Media Plan

30 is your new lucky number. 🌟

Whether you’re a social media manager in a new role or a solopreneur managing multiple accounts, creating a social media plan is a great way to realign your goals, stay organized, and grow your online community.

And while the task may seem daunting, we’ve got you covered. 

We’re breaking down how to build a successful (30-day!) social media plan, so you can hit the ground running — plus, the best tool for managing your posts . 

Table of Contents

What is a social media marketing plan.

• How to Create a Social Media Plan

Bonus: Get Inspired & Stay on Trend

A social media plan is the blueprint you create to optimize your social media strategy.

From auditing your social media profiles to building your content calendar , a 30-day plan will keep you calm and collected — rather than doing everything all at once.

The best part? We’ve laid it all out for you, week by week (keep reading). 

FYI: Later is trusted by over 7M social media managers, brands, & creators to organize, publish, and analyze their social media content — saving them tons of time. Create an account today.

How to Create a Social Media Plan (That You Can Use Again and Again)

Ready to tackle creating your very own 30-day social media plan? Social media success awaits, below. 

Week 1 (Days 1-7): Set New Goals & Metrics

Week 2 (Days 8-14): Audit Your Social Media Profiles 

Week 3 (Days 15-21): Create & Build a Content Calendar 

Week 4 (Days 22-30): Revisit & Readjust Your Strategy

Week #1 (Days 1-7): Set New Goals & Metrics

Social media goals are the foundation on which your social media plan (and strategy) are built. 

They inform the type of content you create, the cadence , and define your "why."

So, it’s fitting that your first seven days will be to choose your success metrics and create long-term SMART goals:

M easurable 

A chievable 

Whether you want to improve engagement or build brand awareness, defining these goals and metrics with the SMART method will help you drive your strategy forward.

TIP: Learn how to set intentional, SMART goals in this Later blog: How to Set Social Media Goals (+ Free Course)

Week #2 (Days 8-14): Audit Your Social Media Profiles

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for your social media plan, it’s time to figure out what's working, and what's not.

How? With a social media audit. 

This process involves a comprehensive evaluation of your social media platforms, content, and performance metrics — whether you have a few posts or hundreds. 

Our advice? Spend the first couple of days sweeping the surface: Is your tone of voice consistent across platforms? Is it obvious who you are and what you have to offer?

TIP: Creating a consistent bio across platforms makes it easy for followers to find you and identify with your content. 

For the second half of your week, dig into platform analytics to see how you’re tracking towards your goals.

Make note of high-performing social media posts, their captions, the visuals used, and any relevant hashtags (or keywords). 

Then, start thinking about how you can replicate your success (more on that, later). 

NOTE: If you’re starting from scratch , opt for auditing similar brands in your niche for inspiration!

Week #3 (Days 15-21): Create & Build a Content Calendar 

Ultimately, content is the key to building (and sustaining) a community online — so it’s no surprise it’s the center of a solid social media plan. 

Dedicate the first part of this week to drafting a social media calendar , choosing your content pillars , and defining how often you’ll post on every platform. 

By getting a macro look at the upcoming week (or month), you’ll know what type of content needs to be created, identify any gaps, and leave room open to jump on a potential trend or meme .

PRO TIP: Download our free ready-to-use social media calendar to streamline your social media strategy. 

Next, put on your brainstorming hat and then start creating content — whether it’s educational carousel posts, short-form videos for Reels, or longform LinkedIn captions.

Once your content is up to par, congrats — the hard part is officially over.

You’re now ready to populate your calendar and schedule your posts! 

With a social media management platform like Later , you can drag and drop images from your Media Library onto your content calendar, insert your captions, schedule at your best time to post , and more.

TIP: Improve your social media workflow with Later's features and tools! Create an account in just two clicks.

Week #4 (Days 22-30): Revisit & Readjust Your Strategy

And just like that, you’re nearing the finish line of your social media plan. 

The final week is all about digging into the performance of the posts that have gone live and making light adjustments to better your results. 

This is also the perfect time to set the cadence for reviewing your insights on a weekly and monthly basis. 

With Later's in-depth analytics tool , you can track key metrics like comments, likes, and your engagement rate:

You can also dig into your top performing posts, audience demographics, your growth rate, hashtag analytics, and more.

Create a free account — or try one of our paid plans — and start diving into your data today.

Need more help?

Lucky for you, we have a long list of resources to keep you inspired, on trend, and dominating social media feeds everywhere: 

The Top TikTok Trends to Try This Week  

The Top Instagram Reels Trends to Try This Week  

How to Create Shareable Content on Social Media

How to Go Viral on Social Media — With Original Content

The Ultimate Guide to Evergreen Content (+ 5 Ideas To Get You Started)

15 Easy Instagram Reels Ideas to Post Today (+ Free Planner)

10 TikTok Ideas for Your Next Post

7 of the Best Apps for Editing Your Instagram Reels

65 of the Best Instagram Captions for Brands

25 Instagram Stories Ideas to Level-up Your Social Strategy

And just like that, your social media strategy is revitalized and ready to shine. 

Whether you’re looking to grow your existing social accounts or start from scratch, a social media plan is the first chapter of your brand’s social media success story. 

ICYMI: Our free weekly newsletter shares the latest social media news and tips — right to your inbox. Subscribe now .

Alyssa is a Toronto-based creative writer and Content Marketer at Later. If you can’t reach her, she’s probably glueing gems to her face, rollerskating, or thrifting. Keep up with her nonsense on Instagram – @alygagliardi .

Plan, schedule, and automatically publish your social media posts with Later.

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Social Media Marketing In 2024: The Ultimate Guide

Updated: Feb 15, 2024, 8:48pm

Table of Contents

What is social media marketing, benefits of social media marketing, 7 top social media marketing platforms for business, key components of a good social media marketing strategy, how to create a social media marketing strategy, social media marketing best practices, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Social media marketing has become a vital component to the market mix of many businesses–large and small. After all, there are 4.9 billion people who use social media platforms worldwide and so having a presence on social is a good way to connect with both current and potential customers alike. No matter your industry, social media is an effective way to reach your target audience, strengthen your brand, establish a loyal customer base and increase your revenue. In this guide, we detail everything you need to know about social media marketing, including what it is, how it works, the best strategies and how to implement it.

Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that uses social media platforms to promote your brand and offerings to your ideal customers. Contrary to popular belief, it involves much more than random posts on your business accounts. An effective social media marketing campaign requires sound strategy and planning.

Once you create your business profiles, you’ll need to maintain and optimize them. Then, you’ll want to develop a content calendar that describes what you’ll post, when you’ll post it and where you’ll post it. Your posts will likely include a combination of text, images, videos and stories that position your brand in a positive light and capture a relevant audience.

In addition to unique, regular posts, you’ll respond to comments, likes and shares to monitor your reputation and hopefully build a community. Depending on your budget and particular goals, social media marketing might also include paid social ads that allow your brand to appear in front of the right people at the right times.

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Due to its popularity and versatility, social media is a powerful tool for marketing your business. It’s also highly measurable, unlike other types of traditional marketing such as billboards, print ads and radio spots. The most noteworthy benefits of social media marketing include the following.

• Add a Human Element to Your Business: Social media platforms allow you to interact with your current and prospective customers. As long as you use them correctly, you’ll be able to “humanize your brand” and form a deeper connection with your audience.
• Drive Traffic: By adding links to your website throughout your social media posts, you’ll bring relevant traffic to it. This type of traffic can do wonders for your search engine optimization and convert visitors into customers. Another key way to drive traffic is through search engine optimization (SEO). Learn more about SEO and the best SEO services .
• Generate Leads: Thanks to features such as appointment booking and call-to-action buttons, Facebook and Instagram shops, and direct messaging, you can generate leads and conversions through social media. Leads and conversions are a sure way to increase your revenue.
• Increase Brand Awareness: If you’re a startup or smaller business, social media marketing will give you the chance to show off your brand. You can use it to explain how you’re different (and hopefully better) than your competitors.
• Build Relationships: Forming relationships with your customers is important if you’d like to retain them for the long haul. Since social media opens the doors to easy lines of communication with your followers, it’s a powerful relationship-building tool.

There are a number of social media marketing platforms you might want to take advantage of when you develop a social strategy. As you explore your options, you’ll find that some platforms are a better fit for your brand and target audience than others. Here’s a brief overview of several platforms that can help you leverage the power of social media marketing.

1. Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform, making it a smart choice for almost any business. You can use it to boost brand awareness, gain followers, generate leads and increase sales. It also offers the chance to display highly customizable, targeted ads. Keep in mind that while Facebook is an effective platform for social media marketing, it also comes with a lot of competition.

2. Instagram

Instagram began as a basic platform to share images. Over time, it’s evolved into a place where brands can engage their audience with attractive photos and videos. Instagram also offers stories, reels, live streams and shops that can take your marketing efforts to the next level. If your business relies on visuals to sell your products or services, you can’t go wrong with Instagram.

Twitter uses short posts called “tweets” with text, images, animated GIFs, videos and links. You can use Twitter to connect with your audience through short yet valuable messages. Depending on the nature of your business, it may allow you to provide customer service, build brand awareness and look for topics and information related to your industry and target audience. A tweet can usually contain up to 280 characters.

YouTube is a streaming social media platform and the second-largest search engine next to Google. If your brand has the desire and ability to produce meaningful video content, YouTube should definitely be on your radar. With YouTube, you can explain complex topics, showcase interesting processes, promote the unique features of your offerings and so much more. It’s a great way to include videos in your marketing strategy.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is known as a “visual discovery engine” that inspires users. Users often search the platform for ideas that help them renovate their homes, take dream vacations, plan weddings and fulfill other dreams in their lives. If your brand provides products or services that can allow users to discover their dreams and achieve them, Pinterest is the way to go.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business networking platform that’s particularly useful if you’re a B2B business. It’s geared toward professionals and can give you the opportunity to share your industry expertise. You might also use it to promote job openings within your company, connect to your employees and even generate leads through paid ads.

TikTok is a newer social media platform that revolves around short-form videos. It tends to target younger females so it may make sense if you’re trying to reach that particular demographic. As a business on TikTok, you can use hashtags that relate to your posts, brand and offerings. When users search for these hashtags, they may come across your content.

While it may be tempting to post on a few social media platforms whenever you feel like it, doing so isn’t recommended. To truly make the most out of social media marketing and increase its chances of success, you need a solid social media strategy.

Put simply, a social media strategy is a game plan that lays out your social media goals, the tactics you’ll use to achieve them and the metrics you’ll track to measure performance. Here are the key components of an effective social media strategy.

• Audience Research: Before you post anything, you should have a strong understanding of your particular target audience. Answer questions such as, what platforms do they use, what type of content do they prefer, and who else do they follow.
• Brand Identity: Determine how you’d like to position your brand when you post on social media and interact with your followers. Think about the messages you hope to convey.
• Content Strategy: Content strategy describes how you’ll use content to grow your brand and attract your audience on social media platforms. The more specific your plan is, the more likely it will succeed.
• Analytics: Social media analytics is a process where you collect and analyze data from your social media platforms so you can measure performance and determine how to improve your strategy. Without it, you won’t know whether or not what you’re doing is working.
• Ongoing Activity: Along with most types of marketing, social media marketing is not a one-time deal. You’ll need to post on it, engage with your followers and optimize your profiles on a regular basis.

Keep in mind that in addition to your social media strategy, you also need a professional business website. This way, those who discover your business via social media can go to your website to learn more about what you offer. If you don’t already have a site, learn how to design a website . Or, if you want a very easy way to build a site quickly and affordably, consider using one of the best website builders .

Now that you know what’s involved in a good social media marketing strategy, you may be wondering how to create it. If you follow these steps and utilize all of the resources at your disposal, you’re bound to set your business and brand up for social media success.

1. Set goals and objectives for your business

First and foremost, think about what you hope to achieve with your social media marketing efforts. Maybe your main priority is to build brand awareness. Or perhaps you’d like to generate more leads online. Once you establish your goals, set metrics for each channel you plan to use. Several examples of metrics you might consider include reach, impressions, audience growth rate and video completion rate.

2. Understand your audience

To develop content that attracts and inspires your target audience, you need to find out who they are and what resonates with them. You can conduct focus groups, interviews and polls to dive deep into their likes and dislikes. It’s also a good idea to perform some social listening in which you analyze conversations and trends that pertain to your brand and the brands of your competitors.

3. Study your competitors

At the end of the day, you want your target audience to choose you instead of your competitors. That’s why competitor research is essential. It can give you insight on what your competitors are doing on social media and give you ideas for your own social strategy. It may also empower you to think out of the box and come up with fresh content that allows your brand to stand out. As you study your competitors, focus on the content that generates the most interaction and engagement. Don’t forget to look for influencers in your industry for some inspiration.

4. Choose your platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal. The right platforms for you depend on factors including your target audience, industry and goals. If you’re a B2B business that would like to connect to other businesses, LinkedIn is invaluable. But if you’re a clothing boutique with apparel geared toward teenage girls, TikTok is a solid choice. Remember, you can choose multiple social media platforms, as long as you post unique, relevant content on all of them.

5. Develop your content

Once you’ve done your research and chosen the social media platforms you’d like to use, it’s time to create a content strategy. Make sure all of the content you generate matches your brand voice or the personality you’d like to convey to your target audience. Also, develop a content calendar that outlines your posts for various platforms. In addition, you might want to schedule your content in advance to save time and hassle.

6. Report and adjust regularly

Your social media marketing strategy is not set in stone. It will likely change as you use analytics to identify what’s working and what’s not. Once you implement your initial social strategy, revisit on a regular basis. Make sure your content and engagement is helping you meet your business goals. If it’s not, tweak your original strategy.

To ensure your social media marketing strategy works, there are several best practices you’ll want to follow. These tried-and-true best practices have been used by the leading brands and can help your startup or small business thrive on social.

Diversify Your Content

Diverse content is just as important as regular content. If you’d like to keep your audience engaged, provide them with a variety of posts that help sell your products or services and position yourself as a leader in your industry. Consider a combination of how-tos and quick tips, polls, questions, contests, announcements and industry news. Also, make sure your content is in a variety of formats, such as images, videos, live streams and online stores.

Be Consistent

Each social media platform comes with its own voice and environment. However, your brand and identity must remain the same, regardless of where you post. If your brand is fun and trendy, for example, convey that message through your posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other platforms you utilize.

Engage in Conversations

Don’t overlook the importance of conversing with your audience. Pay close attention to the type of users that engage with your content and engage back through likes, comments and shares. To try to spark conversations and set up polls, live streams and live questions. You can also host contests and giveaways.

Take Advantage of Content Creation Tools

To hook your audience on social media and gain loyal followers, you’ll need to post photos, videos, infographics and other compelling visuals along with text. If you don’t have the luxury of an in-house graphic design team to create them, don’t worry. There are plenty of content creation tools, such as Canva and Freepik, with templates that make it a breeze to create visuals quickly and affordably.

Use Hashtags

A hashtag is a word or keyword that precedes the hash symbol and is used within social media posts to help users find topics that interest them. By using hashtags in your posts, you can increase visibility for your brand. Let’s say you sell accounting services. Several examples of hashtags you might add to your posts include #CPA, #taxseason and #accounting.

Repurpose and Recycle Content

If you already have some content that relates to your brand, there’s no need to start from scratch. You can and should repurpose content you already have. For example, take a customer review and highlight that customer on Facebook or Instagram. Another idea is to share articles from your website’s blog or press release section.

Use Analytics To Measure Success

You won’t be able to determine whether your social media strategy is successful unless you take advantage of analytics and track data. Each social media platform has its own analytics features but you may also invest in a social media analytics tool to track all platform data in one place. You’ll be able to track clicks, comments, reach, engagement rate, impressions, shares, saves, video views, follower growth over time, reactions and more.

Explore Paid Social

If you have room in your marketing budget, it’s worth your time to try paid social ads. You’ll be able to position your ads in front of users who may be specifically interested in the types of products and services that you offer. You can start with Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Instagram ads and Pinterest ads.

Results from social media marketing won’t happen overnight. But with patience and consistency, you’re bound to succeed. Just be sure to target the right audience, post intriguing content and converse with your followers on a regular basis.

What is the best social media management software?

The ideal social media management software depends on your budget, industry and unique goals. Those that are widely revered as the best in Zoho Social. Buffer, Hootsuite, Social Pilot and Sprout Social. For further insight and help determining which is best for you, read the complete breakdown of the best social media management software .

What’s the difference between a social media ad and a social media post?

A social media post features content you share with your followers organically. A paid social media post, which costs money, puts your brand in front of followers who match the demographics and interests of your target audience.

What is the best way to handle negative customer comments on social media?

You can respond to negative customer comments and try to regain trust. Another option is to use a content moderation platform, which is available on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

What are the top social media marketing platforms for business

There are several platforms that can help you leverage the power of social media marketing. These include Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and TikTok.

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Anna Baluch is a freelance writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She enjoys writing about a variety of health and personal finance topics. When she's away from her laptop, she can be found working out, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her family. Connect to her on LinkedIn.

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The Expert Guide to Creating a Social Media Plan [+Template]

Written by: Raja Mandal

But with so many social media platforms available, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. This is why having a solid social media plan is essential.

However, creating a social media plan from scratch can be time-consuming and frustrating. That’s why we’ve created a social media plan template to guide you through the process and make it easier for you to create an effective plan for your business.

Whether you’re a seasoned social media marketer or just starting, you’ll learn how to prioritize your efforts, create a content strategy and measure your success. We will also cover all the critical aspects of customizing your template.

Table of Contents

What is a social media plan template, why do you need a social media plan template, how to get the most out of your social media plan template, 3 tips to follow after launching your social media plan.

• A social media plan is a detailed blueprint for building and managing your company’s social media presence and achieving set goals.
• Using a social media plan template saves you hours of work and helps you stay consistent with your branding and other activities
• To make the most of your social media plan, you’ll need to set SMART goals, figure out your target audience profile, select the right social media channels and content type. Using a content calendar helps you automate your social media activities and keep things on track
• After launching your social media plan, measure key metrics and KPIs to see what’s working or not working.
• Conduct a competitor analysis to see what social networks they use, content types they post most frequently, how they engage with their audience, the keywords they rank for and more.
• Your social media plan should not be set in stone. Prioritize auditing and optimizing your own social media plan. Doing that will help you track your performance, identify areas for improvement and where to focus your efforts next.
• Visme has everything you need to supercharge your social media plan. You can create an effective social media plan, content calendar, competitive analysis as well as graphics for all of your social media channels.

A social media plan template is a document that guides you through the process of creating your own social media plan. It helps you to focus on your goals, identify the right audiences and set clear objectives for your marketing campaign .

The template provides pre-made sections to fill in with your own information. It also includes instructions on how to create a successful social media campaign.

A social media plan template can be used by anyone who wants to boost their brand awareness online through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social Media Plan vs Social Media Strategy

Though these two terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. A social media plan is a detailed document that lays out all of the steps you need to take to implement your social media strategy. It includes tasks, timelines and budgets for each step of the process.

For example, a social media plan might include tasks like creating a brand strategy , researching your target audience and developing content. It will also include timelines for when each task should be completed.

But the social media strategy will include how you will reach these targets. For example, the strategy will consist of how to create content that engages your audience and how you plan to measure success. It will also explain what type of content should be posted and when it should be published.

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Social media is a fast-moving environment, and getting caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page is easy. But with a plan, you may get the most out of your efforts.

And a social media plan template will ensure you have all the information you need to create an effective plan. Let's discuss further why you need a social media plan template.

Save Hours of Work

Social media can be a fun and creative way to engage with your audience. But when you're just starting, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page. Without a plan, you may end up spending hours working on social media — but not seeing any results.

A template will ensure you have all the information needed to create an effective plan. So, you can spend more time creating content and engaging with your audience than just figuring out what to do.

Set Clear Social Media Goals

A social media plan template is one of the best tools for setting clear goals for your social media presence . When you know what you want to achieve by creating a social media plan, you can set realistic goals that will help you measure the success of your efforts. Whether it's increasing brand awareness or growing sales through social media, clear goals will help you create content with intent.

Read this article about creating SMART goals to set and accomplish your goals faster. Additionally, you can use the infographic template below.

Stay Consistent with Your Activities

The best way to build your brand's social media presence is by staying consistent. If you post once a week, then do it every week. If you post twice per day, then stick with that schedule. Consistency will help establish trust with your followers and keep them coming back for more content from your business.

A social media plan template will help you stay on track by giving you a place to keep all your content ideas and the schedule for posting them. When you create a plan with your team, you'll know what to do and when to do it.

Keep Your Branding Consistent

Consistency is essential when it comes to branding. You should always use the same voice on social media, whether posting about products or services. When you create a social media plan, you'll have a place to keep all your brand guidelines and messaging so that your team can reference them whenever they need help staying consistent with your brand voice .

But creating content while keeping your branding assets in mind is not a skill everyone possesses—especially non-designers. Visme's brand design tool can help you deal with this.

Create and save all your branding materials, such as your logo , brand fonts , brand colors and everything else, in Visme. Whenever you or anyone from your team opens Visme to create anything, Visme's brand wizard will help you automatically apply these assets to your design.

Watch this video to learn how to set up your brand identity kit in Visme.

The social media plan template is a powerful tool to help you create and execute a strategy to achieve your goals. But to be effective, you need to know how to customize the template to align with your brand.

We will provide tips to help you get the most out of your social media plan template.

Define Your Social Media Goals

Starting social media without knowing your goals is like going on a trip without knowing the destination. You may end up lost in the middle of nowhere, wondering if your efforts are even worth it. Before creating your social media plan, define your primary goals and how these goals will help you achieve your overall business objective.

Look how specifically the social media goals are defined in the template below.

There are many ways to set goals for your social media presence, but one of the best ways is by creating a SMART goal. This stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound.

If you struggle to set and reach goals, use Visme's SMART goal-setting templates .

Here is an example template for you.

Create Target Audience Profile

Social media is not just a tool to get your message out there and hope it sticks. You need to know who you are targeting, where they hang out and what they enjoy to ensure your content is relevant to them.

The next step is to include the target audience in your social media plan.

A target audience profile is a description of who your ideal customer is. It includes demographic information about age, gender, income level and location and psychographic information about interests and personality traits.

Look at the target audience section of this social media plan template. It's well-researched and perfectly explained.

To create your own, edit the data widgets in this template and replace them with your own findings. Visme's comes with 30+ data visualization tools such as progress bars, redial gauges, population arrays and more. If you need to visualize more extensive data sets than this, you can use Visme's charts and graphs templates .

You can also use Visme's customer persona templates to capture these details and create an ideal customer persona for your business.

Below is a video about creating a user persona that you can watch to learn more.

Choose the Right Social Media Channels

Choosing the right social media channels for your business can make all the difference between success and failure. It's crucial to select the channels that are most relevant to your target audience. For example, if you're selling consumer goods, you will get little traction on LinkedIn or Twitter. But if you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn can be your ultimate game changer.

Here is an infographic template that you can use to compare each platform and decide which one works best for your business.

You can now use this section of the template to plan your social media channels and tactics.

Decide on Your Social Media Content Type

Engaging your target audience is the primary goal that brought you this far. And you may already know what will help you do that—creating content that will make the audience stop scrolling and engage with your posts.

So, what are the most common types of social media content ? Here's a list you can use as a guide:

• Social advertising (paid and organic)

However, creating content for social media can be challenging, especially if you're a small business owner or a busy marketer who only has a little time.

Keeping this in mind, Visme features hundreds of templates to create eye-catching social media content for every business type and size. With Visme, you can create infographics , Facebook posts , Instagram stories , LinkedIn posts and even videos like explainer videos , video testimonials , product videos and many more.

Create stunning social media graphics

• Present social media graphic dimensions
• Create and resize content quickly and easily
• Engage your audience through visuals

Below is a video guide that will provide tips for creating social media graphics.

Create a Social Media Content Calendar

Creating a social media content calendar is essential for any business that wants to establish itself as an authority in its industry. A content calendar lays out the themes and topics you plan on sharing over a month or quarter so you don't have to scramble at the last minute.

And, what can be better when you can create content, post schedule and publish from one place? With the Visme social media content calendar , you can create a customized calendar with all your posts planned out in advance. Each post can be scheduled for any date in the future and sent directly to your social media accounts.

This will save you time because you won't have to log into each platform separately to publish your content—they'll all be done from one place!

This video will show you how to automate your social media activities right inside the Visme editor.

Collaborate with Your Team to Optimize Your Social Media Plan

A social media plan template can be an excellent tool for keeping track of your goals, objectives and strategies for each channel. However, it's important to know that a template is different from a finished plan.

The key is to use the template as a starting point and then adjust it to meet your needs. So, if you have a social media team, it would be better to include everyone in the process of editing the template.

However, bringing everyone's thoughts and ideas together to create a social media plan is no easy feat. Visme's collaborative design features help you overcome these challenges and make collaboration easy and fun.

Invite your team members via email or by sharing a link generated from Visme. When one person makes a change on their end, it's automatically updated for everyone else as well.

Read this article to learn how to do collaborative design right in Visme, or watch the video below to see this in action.

Creating a social media plan is only half the job. Once you've created your plan and are ready to launch it into action, there are a few more things you should do.

Here are three tips you should follow after launching your social media plan.

1. Measure Your Social Media Progress

Once you've launched your social media plan, it's time to start measuring how well it's working. You can track various KPIs, such as total followers, likes and shares over time. This will help you see which posts are performing well and which need more work.

Here is an infographic showing the 15 KPIs you should track to measure your social media performance.

You can conduct a social media audit to understand your current social media presence. This will help you see where your brand is currently standing and what changes need to be made.

If you have an existing social media presence and want to create a new plan, you should measure how well it works.

Use this social media audit report template to record your findings and present the information to your team.

RELATED: How to Create a Social Media Report in 2023 (+ Templates)

2. Observe and Analyze Your Competitors

Social media is highly competitive. A recent study found that 91.9% of marketers in companies with more than 100 employees use social media. So paying attention to your competitors' actions is important. As you track and measure your own performance, keep an eye out for any changes in theirs.

You can also conduct competitor analysis by looking at their social media accounts and seeing what types of content they post most frequently. Here is a worksheet template that you can use to analyze multiple competitors.

3. Adjust the Social Media Plan Accordingly

Once you've audited your own social media and identified areas for improvement, it's time to make the necessary changes. For example, if your competitors post more frequently than you do, consider increasing the amount of content you publish on each channel.

You might also decide to change up the types of posts that get shared most often—this could be photos or videos, depending on what kind of content performs best for your brand.

Customize Your Next Social Media Plan Template with Visme

Creating a social media plan is a great way to stay on top of your brand's marketing efforts and see how they fit into your business goals. But if you're a business owner or a marketing professional, you may be pressed for time to create a detailed plan from scratch.

Instead of wasting hours researching and writing a plan that may not apply to your business, consider using Visme to create one in a few minutes. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize all of the elements of our social media plan template so that it fits your brand's unique needs—from goals and objectives to action steps and KPIs.

Sign-up for Visme to create your next social media plan and all the graphics you need to improve your brand's social media presence.

Put together effective social media plan and drive better engagement using Visme

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About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

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10 Steps To Build A Social Media Strategy For Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner in 2022, your dilemma likely comes from having too many options. With creator-focused tools being introduced every day across platforms, the task is to eliminate what you don’t need.

Running a small business means choosing which domains you can handle, considering time and resource boundaries. Creating a working social media strategy involves setting clear goals for measuring performance and focusing on goals, no matter how small.

“I’m a big fan of less is more. I would rather have a small business crush it with their email marketing and one social media channel rather than trying to be super-human and do it all (and constantly feel like you’re failing).” - Marie Forlo, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist.

Entrepreneur Marie Forleo, famously named "thought leader for the next generation" by Oprah, says that there are real upsides to social media. In the same breath, she highlights the importance of not succumbing to "comparison cycles”. What works for one business may not always work for another.

Here's an overview of the contents of this article:

• Quick Stats For Stressed Sapiens

10 Steps To Build A Social Media Strategy

• Choose Your Platforms Of Choice
• Create A Social Media Workflow

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.

Quick Stats for Stressed Sapiens

• More than two-thirds of small businesses, i.e., 67% , use social media tools.
• Users spend over 1/3 of their internet time on social media usage.
• 50% of Gen Z, 44% of Millennials, and 37% of Gen X use social media daily. If you’re curious, it’s 26% of Baby Boomers.
• The top 3 social media platforms used by Gen Z, according to a study by National Research Group are Snapchat (96%), TikTok (91%), Youtube (87%), and Instagram (83%).
• Visual content has 40x more shareability on social media.

There’s a lot more to where that came from. Don’t let the statistics spook you. Having a definite vision for your brand can help build a strategy that can translate to actionables.

We’ve listed 10 steps you need to build a social media strategy for your brand.

• Narrow Down Your Demographic
• Define Your Brand Voice
• Figure Out The Algorithm
• Repurpose Content
• Create A Focused Campaign
• Develop Engagement Strategies
• Evaluate And Review The Strategy

1. Narrow Down Your Demographic

Once you know the age group, income level, location, and other pertinent details of your target consumer base, analyze their purchasing behavior and to what extent social media influences it. You need to understand your demographic to figure out if you want to adopt niche marketing or need a broader marketing strategy.

That being said, remember that strategies are oftentimes like throwing a dart. You may not always hit your target, but you get better at it the more you practice. It is entirely possible for you to start with a hyperspecific market and add verticals further down the line.

At this stage, it’s good to know your competition and how consumer behavior pans out in your segment. This also involves monitoring conversations that happen and analyzing consumer sentiment.

Easylunchboxes, inspired by the Japanese Bento boxes, integrated traditional marketing strategy with their social media strategy. First off, they identified parents as the target audience of their compartmentalized lunchboxes.

Parents particularly benefit from the design because they can pack different food groups in their children’s school lunches. The brand sent free samples for people to use and post about on social media. Needless to say, Facebook did the rest of the work in generating leads for the company.

Image source: Jose Angelo Studios

Image source: EasyLunchBoxes

EasyLunchBoxes also posts light-hearted humor based on themes of parent-child interactions to maintain follower engagement and increase shareability.

The concept is not exactly revolutionary, and giving free samples is a strategy as old as time. But what matters is, integrating traditional and digital practices in approaching hyperspecific segments.

For instance, is your prospective customer’s motivation for purchase dependent on influencer marketing, cross-app promotion, promo codes, or offline integration marketing? It could very well be a combination of these.

2. Define Your Brand Voice

Brand voice is essentially your company's personality, intended to be perceived by your audience. Two brands in the same segment can have different personalities. Nike might come across as optimistic and inspiring, whereas Puma could be described as confident and brave.

Developing a unique brand voice helps customers form a degree of emotional attachment and association with your brand. This is especially true of online spaces where users interact with and tag brands to let their friends and followers know what they’re up to.

Every brand needs a narrative to be recognized and spoken about. It’s not enough if you offer users a better discount than your competitor. Consumers see lifestyle products and services as an extension of their own personalities. The key here is to build value that customers are happy to associate with.

There is a difference between voice and tone. Your brand's voice is usually consistent, but the tone of your message depends on the context of communication. Stephanie Shwab’s brand chart is a step in building a holistic social media brand voice.

Image source: Social Media Exp

3. Choose Your Platforms Of Choice

It is easy to make the mistake of entering platforms you can’t handle if you’re focused on being everywhere all at once. The primary step to get out of the way is to analyze what your competitors are doing and where your customers are hanging out.

Statusbrew’s infographic can give you an idea of the sequence of activities you need to carry out to choose the best social media platform for your business.

Operating in the existing marketplace of your target segment can help announce your presence in the domain. It also helps to understand what kind of content is high performing. From hereon, you can change gears and customize your content plan.

There are chances that you might find a lacuna in the value of the existing market that your brand can fulfill. The best platform for your business is one where you’ll get maximum engagement and lead generation. TikTok and Instagram , for instance, are popular with Gen Z and the Millenial audience.

LinkedIn is ideal if your B2B product/ service is dependent on creating a buzz amongst working professionals. If you’re a small business owner trying to make inroads into hyper-specific customer segments, Facebook groups are effective.

E-mail marketing helps spread brand awareness, alerts customers about unpurchased items in the cart, customer retention, and more. Event emails, new product announcements, and Welcome emails do well with users.

Here’s a fun fact from Mail Chimp:

Image source: Mail Chimp

Many small business owners don’t realize that setting up an account on a specific social media platform means making that account a center for customer interaction. This is important because running a business as an individual or a small team can be overwhelming if you have too many fingers in too many pies.

You don’t want a disgruntled customer leaving a bad review because you failed to address their concern on a platform you don’t have time to engage with.

If you want to explore this, read our in-depth article on ways to choose the best social media platform for your business.

4. Create A Social Media Workflow

If you’re a small biz owner or creator, make a structure for social media usage. Otherwise, it is very easy to get sucked into more than the healthy dose of online engagement. You don’t want your business to take a backseat. Figure out if it’s just you handling social media or if you’d rather set up a team.

Customer service is typically the first department that self-employed business owners delegate to an employee. You could hire specialists or build an in-house design and content team from scratch.

Statusbrew is equipped to handle team collaborations, comment moderation, audience engagement, and more.

For starters, a content calendar is the simplest scheduling activity to undertake whether you’re an individual or you have a team managing the brand’s social media.

5. Figure Out The Algorithm

73% of marketers believe that their marketing efforts on social media platforms are “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business.

One of the critical factors in ensuring that you achieve engagement is understanding how the algorithms rank content on platforms. The algorithm of the application determines the placement of your content on the audience’s feed.

Many apps like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok favor short-form content. Whereas YouTube and Spotify see a lot of takers for vlogs and long-form instructional content. Analyzing user behavior to schedule posts at the optimum time can ensure your content reaches the intended audience.

But here’s the thing. Platforms keep tweaking their algorithms. So you have to revisit your strategy, and monitor engagement.

6. Repurpose Content

Planning your social media content while keeping different platforms in mind can help you recycle the original content. For example, a podcast on Spotify can be transcribed into a blog. This way, the user gets to choose their preferred way of consuming information.

The original content can be made into infographics or posts to be shared on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. With a good enough video production budget, you could create a YouTube video for the content, and promote it as reels on Instagram to gain traction across platforms.

Shoot the video, keeping in mind the difference in aspect ratio across apps. This way, the output still retains usability. This strategy also effectively ensures you’re getting the most from your investment in content.

As discussed before, different algorithms favor different content. So, posting a story on Instagram can serve as a sneak peek at a longer YouTube video. Even user-generated content such as reviews can be recycled to post as content.

7. Create A Focused Campaign

It is of paramount importance to know what your short-term and long-term goals are for the brand. Maybe you want to announce your presence in the market, drive traffic to your site, generate leads, or increase social media engagement.

Now is the stage where you define the content you want to share with your demographic on specific platforms. For example, Millenials and Gen Z could be your brand's target audience in the days running up to Halloween. Alternatively, you may choose a broader demographic around New Year’s.

Make sure you schedule posts in advance and moderate engagement, so the campaign goes to plan.No matter how small the campaign, set Key Performance Indicators across platforms to measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Identifying metrics will help you focus on specifics and not be swayed by every number on your analytics report.

8. Develop Engagement Strategies

Now that you’ve created your campaign draft deciding how the brand will engage with customers is essential. For example, what communication channel do you want to establish if you’re hosting a product sale on your page? This has to be made clear to the user.

Some brands may not disclose the price on the post, which means that the customer has to DM (direct message) the brand’s page. This usually works on the bespoke, collectibles, or rare commodities market. Alternatively, a customer may comment on a post or message the brand with queries.

The social media manager needs to decide if there will be an automated reply, followed by the brand’s answer to the user’s question. The format and tone of the message have to reflect the brand voice.

If this task is delegated to an employee, they must be aware of the approval workflow and protocol to create content for the message.

It would be best if you also decided on what reciprocity tactics you can use to increase and retain customer engagement. Audience polls, for example, are great ways to achieve engagement and get real data about your audience. You also need to develop a crisis-handling protocol, should things go south. Preparedness is key.

Bonus Content: Social Media Automation: What It Is & Why Do You Need It

Identifying sister brands and complementary industry brands can help you network and possibly, scale up. Before you do that, it is essential to understand what value you can provide them. LinkedIn is a key market for professionals in the B2B segment who want to generate leads by tapping into known networks.

Here's where ‘social listening’ really opens up a lot of doors. Platforms like Quora, Reddit, and LinkedIn have people from varied backgrounds looking for information, recommendations, and the like. Identifying conversations to participate in, and crafting responses can put you or your brand in the spotlight.

Image Source: Brand24

For instance, brands in the food and gourmet industry can profit from networking, and coming together to create content that has mutual value.

10. Evaluate And Review Strategy

After you’ve set key metrics to monitor and analyze, see how they compare with the goals you’d set for the campaign. Depending on the analysis, you might have to rework your strategy and conduct A/B testing to see what works for your brand.

Your performance is a culmination of your campaign strategy and a lot of externalities, as well. It is crucial to evaluate the metrics, all things considered. If doing all that on your own seems daunting, using a social media management platform can help.

Try Statusbrew

You can customize your reports to review metrics that matter to you. You can also understand your audience engagement across your entire social media portfolio. We are, first and foremost, in the business of making data work for you.

Here’s the takeaway

Whether you’re self-employed or a small business owner with a team, streamlining your workflow is key to making sure your social media strategy is effective. You can look into automating part of the workflow, so you can focus on other key areas of marketing and business.

Everything from curating ideas, scheduling and monitoring posts to moderating comments, engaging with an audience, and reviewing strategy is better when you have an all-in-one platform to operate from. Statusbrew is designed for this and more. It just might be the right fit.

Book a free demo

Statusbrew is an all-in-one social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Google My Business.

Can I find customers on social media?

Yes. This is one of the key objectives of creating an online brand presence. Social media offers a more effective user engagement opportunity compared to website landing pages and e-mail marketing. The leads generated from social media can be converted into sales with good customer relations practices.

What social media platforms should I be on?

Instagram and TikTok are places where you’ll find millennial and Gen Z audiences. Facebook marketing is ideal if you want to target an older demographic; LinkedIn is a great platform to target working professionals. Twitter is, overall, a great platform to get people to talk about your brand and drive traffic to your website. YouTube and Spotify are great for long-form/ in-depth content.

What should small businesses post on social media?

It helps to study your competitor’s online presence and target audience. Researching the kind of conversations relevant to your business and identifying user pain points and sentiments can help craft a strategy. You can look at content and visual references of similar brands to decide your brand language.

Should I create a separate social media page for my small business?

Creating a separate page (not a profile) for your business on Facebook, for example, ensures that you comply with the app guidelines and avoid getting your business removed. Going beyond individual apps’ terms and conditions for businesses, creating a business page on social media platforms is ideal. It helps streamline communication and provides clarity to prospective customers. Most of all, it helps curate brand identity.

How often should I post on my business page?

The numbers differ depending on who you ask, but posting 2-3x a week is considered ideal. The key is consistency and quality. Not to scare anybody, but posting too often may drive away your audience.

Can I post the same content on all my social media platforms?

For the most part, yes. Repurpose and redesign content, so it's suitable for the social media platforms that your brand is on. Redesigning content according to the app improves user experience and engagement. Let’s say you shoot a horizontal YouTube video. You would need to create another video output to make it suitable for reels as they are vertical.

Should I hire a social media manager for my business?

If your brand’s social media page also serves as a customer point of contact, it is important to respond within 24 hours (within one hour is peak customer care). Strategising and executing online content may be time consuming. You can look into hiring a social media manager if managing it yourself decreases work productivity.

Working with social media managers is advantageous owing to their expertise in online platforms. Social media management tools like Statusbrew can help you with automation and collaborate with your team to manage your brand's social media accounts.

Roshni K is Writer and Social Media Content Creator, who studies brands across industries. When she's not writing, she can be found hanging out on social media pages of brands she's curious about.

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How to Create a Social Media Plan

There's No Point to Posting Without a Social Media Plan

• Small Business
• Online Business
• Home Business
• Entrepreneurship
• Operations & Success

Susan Ward has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

Every  business using social media needs a social media plan. Without one, your company is just wasting its time. Would you really hire someone to design and build a magnificent sign for your business and then stick it out on some random highway somewhere? That's what you're doing when you're scattershot posting on social media. Like any other media, using social media to connect with your customers and persuade them to take action requires a plan and the time and money to implement it.

Fortunately, you don’t need to know how to use fourteen different social media platforms to create a social media plan, or set aside several days. All you really need to do is make five decisions and then follow through on them. 

• What social media is the best fit with your business?
• What are your social media goals?
• How will you measure the success of your social media plan?
• What is the budget for your social media plan?
• Who is going to implement your small business’s social media plan?

Read on to learn how to apply these decisions to your own small business and create a social media plan that will accomplish your goals and reach your customers.

Which Social Media Is the Best Fit With Your Business?

One of the most best pieces of advice about using social media for business I've ever heard was from Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends . Small businesses, she said, don't have the capacity to use multiple social media for business well, so it's important to focus on using only one or two and learning to use them well. This is the first step of your social media plan.

Which One or Two Social Media Should You Pick?

That's easy. The ones your target market is using.

You see, different social media appeals to different audiences. LinkedIn, for instance, is the biggest network of business professionals and Linkedin is the leading social media channel for B2B marketers ( OmnicoreAgency.com ); Instagram is mostly used by young people aged 18 - 34 ( Statista ); Pinterest users are mainly women (accounting for 81% of users in 2018 ( OmnicoreAgency.com ). Both Facebook and Twitter have a much more equally divided gender base of users, although Twitter has a much higher percentage of college users and Twitter's users are generally younger ( Pixel Fish Digital Marketing Blog ).

So all you have to do to pick the "right" social media for your business is find out which ones your target market is using.

How to Find Out Which Social Media Your Customers Are Using

One way to find out which social media your customers and/or potential customers are using is to ask them. It's easy enough to create a little survey that you can use in your store and wherever your customers hang out to collect some data. If your website gets a fair bit of traffic, you can set one up online. SurveyMonkey is one tool you can use to create web-based surveys. Entice people to participate with a prize draw or other tangible benefit.

You can also search online. One of the fastest ways is to use a site such as PeekYou  if the person is in the U.S. ; enter a person's first name, last name and location (state) and PeekYou will compile a report of their online presence. You can see what social networks they use for free. Another way is to do a Google image search for the person; click on the person's image and then click through to the page. Usually it will be a social media profile shot that you can then use to track other social media that the person uses. Often, for instance, people use the same user name for all their accounts, so once you get the user name, it's easy to find them.

Step 1 of your social media plan: Once you know where they are, be ruthless: you're only going to use the top two. If the social media you've chosen is/are new to you, you should set aside time to play around with them and get to know them before you do anything further (ideally by setting up and using a personal account rather than whatever account you’re going to use for your business, so you don’t accidentally poison the well).

What Are Your Social Media Goals?

Now that you've decided which social media you're going to use, you need to decide what your purpose is for being there. For business, social media can be used for the same purposes as any other marketing channel; it's how the goal is pursued that’s different; not the goal itself. You can, for instance, use social media to:

• Increase your referrals or leads
• Build your word-of-mouth
• Increase product sales
• Become known as an expert or thought-leader
• Drive traffic to your website or blog
• Develop new products or services
• Provide customer service

In other words, you can use social media to pursue and achieve any traditional business goal you can think of. The trick, as you'll see in the next decision point, is to make sure you have chosen a goal that you can measure.

The other trick is to pick only one or two goals and make sure that they are complementary. Using social media to provide customer service, for instance, requires a very different implementation than using social media to drive traffic to a website or blog. Providing excellent customer service , though, may be a goal that dovetails nicely with developing a new product or service if you're able to develop that level of engagement from your users.

Remember, for now, one or two goals are enough. You need to be focused so you are able to consistently execute your social media plan. Other goals/good things may happen incidentally, but races are not won by people meandering around.

Social Media Goal Setting Tips

As always when goal setting, your social media goals need to be relevant, actionable and achievable.  

And lastly, don't set stupid social media goals. Your social media goals have to have a demonstrable relationship to your business strategy. I can't tell you how many businesses proudly regale me with their stories of social media success – and then reveal that their social media success is just... well... social. Getting 1,173,000 Facebook likes or 800,000 Twitter followers is nice but as a business goal, it's just silly. What's the value of a Facebook fan? Zero – unless you can prove that he or she is actually buying something.

Step 2 of your social media plan:  Think. Prioritize. Write down your social media goals. Make them as specific as possible. Not "Purple Duds will get new customers" but "Purple Duds will increase sales from new customers by 30% over the next six months."

See Goal Setting: Your Guide to Setting Goals for more help with setting goals.

How Will You Measure the Success of Your Social Media Plan?

This is a step that small business owners often leave out when they're trying to create a social media plan, but it's one of the most important.

Generally, social media success has to be measured by the same yardstick as any other marketing effort; cost and Return on Investment (ROI). That’s why it's so critical that you have chosen social media goals that you can measure.

To make measuring your social media ROI easier, your small business needs a website. (Having a business website also gives your social media followers a destination; in a sense, it operates as a portal for your business.)

Once you have a website (or sites), you can use Google Analytics , a free tool that lets you track and analyze various website, mobile and social media application data. Using the goals feature in Google Analytics makes it simple to see if and how your site engagement goals are being met, for instance. (Note that there are other tools that you could use.)

One thing you may want to do is use the information gathered to compare results across marketing channels. In other words, to see, if you’re using Facebook and YouTube to try to achieve the same marketing goal, which one is providing the best bang for the buck – just as you would do if you were measuring the ROI of marketing campaigns using traditional media, such as comparing the ROI of a campaign of ad spots on cable television with a series of newspaper ads.

What metrics are you using to measure your success? In a survey by The Manifest in 2018,  20% of business owners said engagement was the most important metric while 19 percent chose audience growth.  Other important metrics for small business owners and managers included clicks to website at 16%, leads or conversions at 15%, number of posts at 13% and reach at 12%.

Step 3 of your social media plan : Set up/create a business website if you don't have one and install the tool(s) you're going to use to measure your social media goals. Use them religiously once you start putting your social media plan into action. 

What Is the Budget for Your Social Media Plan?

Fifty percent of SMBs spend less than $300 per month on online marketing while 47% of small business owners handle marketing efforts on their own ( Blue Corona ).

Not that either of these things are a good idea. Make no mistake; there are no freebies when it comes to social media for business. Organic reach is steadily shrinking and if you’re going to develop a social media presence for your small business, you will spend money to have someone else do it or you will spend money to have you do it.

Even if you think you’re doing it for free because using Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest is free and there are all manner of free tools out there to make using social media easier and/or better, you're not, because your time is worth money, too.

So you need a social media budget. How much? Well hopefully, you already have a marketing budget for your small business so your budget for your social media plan will be a percentage of this.

I do not recommend that any small business use only social media to market itself. I'm emphasizing this point because small businesses have a tendency to latch onto anything labeled as "free" and there's been a lot of buzz about how social media marketing can be a low-cost alternative to traditional advertising.

Your small business marketing should always be comprised of a marketing mix because there's no single marketing channel that will reach all of your small business’s potential customers or clients.

One other part of your marketing mix that you need to include in your marketing budget is your business website because using social media to market your small business without having a website is like trying to run a horse in a race without a jockey.

What Else Should You Use to Market Your Small Business?

What the rest of the marketing mix is depends, in large part, on your target market. If, for instance, you are selling internet-based applications to young, savvy, live-on-the-'Net types, online advertising might be the bulk of your budget. If, on the other hand, you are selling fall prevention products to seniors and middle-aged people concerned about senior parents, some radio and TV spots might be your big marketing budget items.

My general advice? Choose the amount of money you're comfortable with spending on marketing – and then double it. I've yet to meet the small business owner that’s spending anywhere near what they should be spending on marketing!

Step 4 of your social media plan:  Review your marketing plan (and marketing budget) and integrate your social media plan into it.

Don't have a marketing plan? Writing the Marketing Plan will lead you through the process.

Who Is Going to Implement Your Small Business's Social Media Plan?

Before you tell me that you're going to implement your small business's social media plan yourself, tell me how many free hours you have in a week. Uh huh. Thought so.

In a presentation given at a Social Media Success Summit , Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends said that she spent 15 minutes a day Monday to Friday to monitor, comment on and update the social media she uses and another two hours once a week to update the company blog. That's three hours and 15 minutes per week.

Plus, she added, you should allow seven to ten hours for the initial learning curve phase of each social media platform you decide to work with and be aware that any social media campaigns you undertake will need additional bursts of time.

Even if you have or can free up those hours now, can you do it next week? Next month? All year long? Every social media platform is cluttered with abandoned profiles.

That's not to say that you can't use social media for business yourself and implement your own social media plan. It's just that if you are thinking of doing this, you need to be aware of the time and consistency demands.

There are an ever increasing number of tools that can be used to automate your social media posts but creating posts and setting them to drip still takes time. 

Some businesses get around this problem by assigning various staff to do their social media. If you do this, remember that the cost of staff doing social media is not only their salary or wages but the cost of whatever else they could have been doing in the time they’re now spending on monitoring, commenting and posting.

If you don't have staff to assign, it's easy to hire someone to put your social media plan into action and manage your small business's social media efforts. If you don’t have the time now or suspect you won’t later, this is the route to social media success you should take. Incomplete or amateur social media efforts can hurt your small business.

Step 5 of your social media plan:   Think seriously about your time commitments and decide whether or not you want to personally take on the task of putting your social media plan for your business into action. If the answer is "Yes," you’re going to be the one to do it, go back to your first decision about which social media you’re going to use, pick one, and start becoming familiar with how it works. Once you know this, you'll be ready to start figuring out how to use that social media to accomplish the goals you’ve set for your social media plan.

If the answer is "No", then it's time to get the search underway to find a person or company that will be able to effectively implement your social media plan for you.

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• Getting Started with a Social Media Plan
• Using Social Media for Small Business
• How to Create an Advertising Plan
• 10 Questions You Need to Answer to Create a Powerful Marketing Plan
• Why You Need a Facebook Page for Your Small Business
• 40 Low-Budget Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business
• Make Social Media Work for Your Food Business
• How to Develop a Public Relations Plan
• Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Business
• Building Customer Loyalty Through Customer Service
• Small Business Saturday and What It Means for You
• Understanding the Role of Social Media in Marketing
• How to Drive Traffic to Your Business Website
• How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan for Home Business
• How to Run a Successful Marketing Campaign

• Sample Business Plans
• IT, Staffing & Customer Service

Social Media Marketing Business Plan

If you are planning to start a new social media marketing or digital marketing company, the first thing you will need is a business plan. Use our sample social media marketing business plan created using Upmetrics business plan software to start writing your business plan in no time.

Before you start writing your business plan for your new social media marketing agency, spend as much time as you can reading through some examples of  advertising and marketing-related business plans.

Reading sample business plans will give you a good idea of what you’re aiming for, and also it will show you the different sections that different entrepreneurs include and the language they use to write about themselves and their business plans.

We have created this sample Social Media Marketing Business Plan for you to get a good idea about what a perfect social media marketing business plan should look like and what details you will need to include in your stunning business plan.

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Outline

This is the standard social media marketing business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• The Business
• 3 Year profit forecast
• Company Owner
• Why the business is being started?
• Startup cost
• Startup Requirements
• Products and services
• Market Trends
• Marketing Share
• Institutions & Organizations
• Media & Celebrities
• Business Target
• Product Pricing
• Competitive Analysis
• Sales Monthly
• Sales Yearly
• Sales Forecast
• Company Staff
• Average Salary of Employees
• Important Assumptions
• Brake-even Analysis
• Profit Yearly
• Gross Margin Yearly
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet
• Business Ratios

Say goodbye to boring templates

Build your business plan faster and easier with AI

Plans starting from $7/month

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and download your social media marketing business plan pdf or doc file. It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

Download a sample social media marketing business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go;  download our free social media marketing business plan pdf  to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your house-flipping business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

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About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How Social Media Management Can Transform a Small Business

Last Updated:  

July 11, 2024

Running a small business can be incredibly rewarding but also daunting, especially when it comes to managing a social media presence. Juggling multiple tasks, from inventory management to customer service, can make handling social media seem overwhelming. However, efficient social media management can transform a business. Here’s how it can be done.

Key Takeaways on The Transformative Power of Social Media Management

• Social Media's Importance : It’s a powerful tool for customer connection, relationship building, and driving engagement, beyond just posting updates.
• Right Tools for Management : Utilising social media management platforms saves time, automates tasks, and provides valuable insights.
• Audience Engagement : Effective management tools enable real-time interaction, fostering customer loyalty and community building.
• Consistency in Posting : Scheduling tools help maintain a regular posting schedule, ensuring continuous audience engagement and brand presence.
• Circleboom Publish : This platform offers an all-in-one solution for scheduling, analysing, and engaging on multiple social media accounts.
• Scheduling Efficiency : Circleboom allows for easy scheduling of multiple posts daily, content curation, and RSS feed integration.
• Business Growth : A well-managed social media presence boosts visibility, drives traffic, generates leads, and enhances credibility.

Discovering the Importance of Social Media

For many small business owners, social media might initially seem like just another chore on a never-ending to-do list. However, its potential extends far beyond posting pictures or updating statuses. Social media is a powerful tool for connecting with customers, building relationships, and driving engagement. Through strategic use of social media platforms, businesses can reach a wider audience, showcase their products or services, and create a brand presence that resonates with their target market.

Finding the Right Tools

The breakthrough in social media management often comes with finding the right tools. Manually managing social media can be time-consuming and inefficient, taking valuable time away from other critical business operations. By using social media management platforms, small business owners can schedule posts, analyse performance, and engage with their audience, all in one place. These tools can automate repetitive tasks, provide valuable insights, and help businesses stay organised and focused on their goals.

Engaging with the Audience

One of the most significant benefits of effective social media management is the ability to engage with the audience more effectively. These tools allow businesses to track interactions, respond to comments, and address customer concerns in real-time. This not only helps in building a loyal customer base but also in creating a community around the brand. Engaging with the audience on social media fosters a sense of connection and trust, encouraging customers to become repeat buyers and brand advocates.

Consistent Posting and Content Creation

Consistency is key in social media. Using scheduling tools it easier to maintain a regular posting schedule. By planning content ahead of time, businesses can ensure that their audience always has something new and interesting to look forward to. Additionally, analytics tools help understand what types of content resonate most with the audience, allowing for tailored posts that maximise engagement. Regular posting keeps the audience engaged and informed, reinforcing the brand's presence in their minds.

What is Circleboom Publish?

Circleboom Publish is a comprehensive social media management platform designed to help businesses and individuals effectively manage their social media presence. It offers a suite of tools that make scheduling, analysing, and engaging with audiences much more efficient. Circleboom Publish supports various social media platforms, providing an all-in-one solution for managing multiple accounts. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Circleboom Publish streamlines the social media management process, saving time and effort for small business owners.

How You Can Schedule Your Posts with Circleboom Publish

Let's see how you can schedule multiple social media posts a day by using Circleboom Publish:

Step #1: Create your account and log in.

Then you'll be asked to connect your social accounts.

Step #2: Once you add your social account, you'll see the "Create New Post" button on the dashboard.

Click "Create New Post" or pick any platform you'd like.

Step #3: Pick your social accounts, get through visuals with the design tools, and create your caption with built-in ChatGPT without leaving the platform.

Once these are done, you're actually ready to share or schedule your post. But there is more to help you increase your posting frequency and speed up your content processes.

Step #4: Let's create your calendar so that you don't even need to schedule every other post one by one.

Visit "Time and Queue Settings" to adjust your posting calendar or pick the best times to post with a single click. Then save your settings for each social account.

Step #5: You can also take advantage of the content curation feature by clicking on the "Discover Articles" button on the menu.

Here, you can define your article interest from thousands of categories and curated content among 10,000s hand-picked articles to be auto-posted.

Step #6: Last but not least, you can connect some RSS feeds, either from your own sites or outer sources, to make posting on social media as effortless as possible!

Pick your accounts, copy and paste your valid RSS feed URL, set up posting intervals, and enjoy the content flowing into your social timelines by itself!

As you can see, it's really easy to schedule more than 10 social media posts a day if you have a powerhouse like Circleboom at your service.

Once you've finished scheduling, you'll see the scheduled posts on the right side of your dashboard.

Growing the Business

Implementing a comprehensive social media management strategy can significantly increase a business’s visibility and customer engagement. An effective social media strategy can lead to more people visiting the website, making purchases, and recommending the business to others. With the right approach, social media can drive traffic to the business's website, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales. Moreover, a well-managed social media presence enhances the business's credibility and trustworthiness.

Overcoming Challenges

Balancing social media with other business responsibilities requires discipline and time management. However, with the right tools and strategies in place, these challenges can be handled effectively. Setting aside dedicated time for social media management, using scheduling tools to automate posts, and delegating tasks to team members can help maintain a consistent and impactful social media presence. Additionally, staying updated with the latest social media trends and best practices ensures that the business remains competitive and relevant.

Social media management might seem overwhelming at first, especially for small business owners wearing many hats. But with the right approach and tools like Circleboom, it can become a powerful ally in growing a business. Investing in the right tools, staying consistent, and engaging with the audience are all critical steps to achieving success in social media management. The results can be transformative, providing businesses with new opportunities for growth and engagement. By harnessing the power of social media, small businesses can reach new heights and achieve their goals.

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Breaking News

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for friday, july 12.

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• Senate committee to probe Supreme Court’s Trump immunity ruling (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)
• Supreme Court sidesteps major social media issues (Ella Lee, The Hill)
• From legal bribery to Trump’s immunity, a dark theme ran through the Supreme Court’s term (Leah Litman & Melissa Murray, Los Angeles Times)
• The Supreme Court Blows Up a Popular Small-Business Succession Plan (Laura Saunders, The Wall Street Journal)
• West Virginia, Idaho asking Supreme Court to review rulings allowing transgender athletes to compete (Leah Willingham, Associated Press via ABC)

Posted in Round-up

Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, The morning read for Friday, July 12 , SCOTUSblog (Jul. 12, 2024, 8:47 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/07/the-morning-read-for-friday-july-12/

Privacy Overview

Politics latest: 'Emergency' prisons plan revealed - as government urged to decriminalise drug possession

The new government is expanding the early release scheme to ease pressure on prisons amid a lack of spaces - amid calls to go further and decriminalise drug posession.

Sunday 14 July 2024 07:15, UK

• General Election 2024
• Justice secretary announces 'emergency measures' to tackle prison population 'crisis'
• Listen to Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts
• New data shows just 708 places left in adult male prison estate last week
• Decriminalise drug possession, government urged
• Starmer hits out at 'gross irresponsibility' of previous government
• Beth Rigby: A whirlwind of international diplomacy for the new PM - but it will only get harder from here
• Live reporting by Jennifer Scott and (earlier)  Ben Bloch

We are signing off now after a big week in Westminster that saw Labour making its first moves as the new government, and the Conservatives trying to work out what their future in opposition looks like.

But don't worry, we will be back on Sunday morning to cover all the political news from the weekend and bring you the latest with Trevor Phillips. 

See you then!

Friday marks the end of the first full week for hundreds of new MPs who came to Westminster after the general election.

But for some of the newbies, there was an even bigger task coming their way - being promoted to ministers.

Our political reporter Alix Culbertson takes at look at the new Labour politicians who have already found themselves on Sir Keir Starmer's frontbench.

Jess Phillips says there are "still things that I worry about" after the government confirmed it would be letting prisoners out of jail early to help with overcrowding. 

The Labour MP and now minister in the Home Office tells Sky News' Electoral Dysfunction podcast that "by no means is any of this perfect" and the situation was a "terrible, terrible thing". 

She adds: "It's still not something that you would ever want to be doing. And there are still things that I worry about."

But Ms Phillips defends the decision too, especially around the exclusion of domestic abusers and stalkers from the policy, saying it is "a shift from what it was... when the Tories were doing it".

She says: "You do what you can in the initial hours that you have to do it, and that isn't the end.

"We will now work on exactly how to make sure that as many possible safeguards can be put in place for potential victims whose perpetrators are being released."

The full episode of Electoral Dysfunction will be released here later this evening, so keep an eye on your feeds.

The victims' commissioner for England and Wales has welcomed the government's decision to exclude domestic abusers and stalkers from its new early release scheme for prisoners. 

Baroness Newlove called the move a "welcome and necessary step, reflecting the concerns raised by victims and those who advocate for them".

In a statement, she said there needs to be "clear communication with victims" during the process to ensure the government has their trust, including informing them if release dates are brought forward and allowing them to request protection measures. 

She demanded the probation service is "properly resourced to effectively manage licensing conditions and exclusion zones, which are vital for public safety and victim reassurance".

Baroness Newlove added: "Public safety must remain the top priority as these changes are implemented. 

"We must acknowledge these exclusions have limitations and cannot address every potential risk."

The chief inspector of prisons is warning the move by the government to tackle overcrowding in jails will "inevitably lead to the early release of some risky offenders". 

In a statement, Charlie Taylor welcomed the decision by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to release prisoners who had completed 40% of their sentences to free up space, saying the "recognition of the seriousness of the situation, and swift action to manage the prison populations to relieve the immediate strain many jails are under" was positive. 

However, he added: "This latest measure will inevitably lead to the early release of some risky offenders, and will add to the workload of already stretched prison OMUs (offender management units) and probation services.

"How these men are prepared for release and how prisons and probation are supported in managing them will be vital."

Mr Taylor said his organisation will be "watching this very closely - as well as any plans that are developed once the immediate pressure is relieved that seek to make prisons places of genuine purpose, help people to break the cycle of reoffending and protect the public from future harm".

Former home secretary and likely Conservative leadership contender Suella Braverman has blasted the government in a somewhat odd way - namely for "picking up Tory ideas".

As we have just reported, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to release prisoners who have served 40% of their sentences to help alleviate overcrowding in jails, subject to some exemptions. 

A similar plan was said to have been proposed by the now former justice secretary Alex Chalk last year, but was understood to have been blocked by Number 10 over fears of a backbench rebellion from Tory MPs. 

Tweeting after the government announcement was made, Ms Braverman said: "I opposed this, both inside & outside government.

"With 40 MPs, I tabled amendments to the Sentencing Bill to stop the early release of criminals and put public safety first.

"We managed to stop the government doing it."

She added: "Labour is picking up Tory ideas and putting the public at risk."

Ms Braverman also claimed "everyone and his mother should run to be leader" of her party when the contest kicks off. 

But she said all contenders have "got to start taking responsibility for what we did, and for the things we shamefully left undone - such as not building enough prisons".

The justice secretary has announced that the government will conduct a review into how the "crisis" in prisons was "allowed to happen".

Shabana Mahmood explained: "It will look at how and why necessary decisions were not taken at critical moments. And the lessons that must be learned by future governments, from the failures of the last."

She added: "The legacy of those who last occupied 10 Downing Street is prisons in crisis, moments from catastrophic disaster.

"Our legacy will be different.

"A prisons system brought under control. A probation service that keeps the public safe. Enough prison places to meet our needs. And prisons that break the cycle of reoffending - and create better citizens, not better criminals."

The justice secretary has set out what would happen if the government does not implement these "emergency measures" to reduce the prison population.

Shabana Mahmood said: "Soon, the courts would grind to a halt, unable to hold trials.

"The police would have to stop carrying out arrests. With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence.

"We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight.

"In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order."

She declared this "the legacy of the last Conservative government" and the consequences of their "failure" to address the issue.

The new justice secretary has placed the blame for the "crisis" in prisons firmly at the door of the previous government.

Shabana Mahmood said of the Conservative Party: "Time and again, they ducked the difficult decisions that could have addressed this challenge.

"Instead, they kept the public in the dark about the state they had left this country in. They were too weak to heed the warning signs that were flashing. They chose instead to put the country at risk."

There have been reports that her predecessor, Alex Chalk, tried to implement the emergency measures she is announcing today in order to ease the crisis, but former PM Rishi Sunak blocked it.

"But, instead of taking responsibility, she said, "Rishi Sunak called an election. He tried to hoodwink the electorate. And he was punished at the ballot box."

Echoing language used to describe the people who appeased the Nazis in the 1930s, Ms Mahmood said: "Those responsible – Sunak and his gang in No 10 – should go down in history as the guilty men.

"The guilty men who put their political careers ahead of the safety and security of our country. It was the most disgraceful dereliction of duty I have ever known."

By Mollie Malone, news correspondent

These measures from the justice secretary will be seen among the prison and probation sector as a proper attempt to reset and alleviate the immediate prisons crisis (see previous post).

But it doesn’t solve everything. Far from it.

The justice secretary admits today that the core announcement to lower the automatic release point from 50% to 40% is in itself an emergency measure.

At the moment, we are lurching from one emergency measure to the next.

There are safeguards in place that didn't exist under the previous controversial scheme launched by the Conservative government in October - allowing eligible offenders to be released up to 70 days before the end of their sentence.

Those safeguards might help offset some fears expressed by victims groups.

But it certainly doesn't offer a long term solution.

"Although it will be a law, it still does not resolve how we use prison in the long term," said one prison source.

"If we carry on with court backlogs and send more people to prison, we will be in the same position all over again," they said.

The government are committing to building more prison places.

But their prisons minister James Timpson fundamentally disagrees with that approach and thinks a third of people that are in prison shouldn't be there

There are lots of questions yet to answer about what meaningful reform looks like.

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