Introduction to Social Media Marketing

Does Social Media Marketing Really Work?

Short answer. Yes! Today, much of what fuels consumer buying decisions and behaviours is happening on social media. They are shaping your customers’ lives and playing a major role in how they spend their time and how they make purchasing decisions and get influenced. One of your top objectives as a business is to play a part in that influencing process.

93 percent of all marketers use social media for business and social media marketing budgets consistently increase every single year.

If your business isn’t already active on social media, you don’t want to sit around waiting much longer.

Using Social Media Well

However, if you don’t have direction and a solid content strategy, social media marketing can take up a lot of your time for nothing.

That’s why some business owners hire people to handle their social media marketing, someone who can put a strategy together and manage the day-to-day of social posting, while they focus on other aspects of their business.

How Best to Spend Your Money on Social Media?

While it isn’t necessary to spend anything on marketing through social media, there are a few times that it may make sense to invest a little money.

You might decide that you want to try some targeted campaigns (paid ads aimed at specific demographics) through social media. Also if you come to a point where your business is growing and you simply can’t juggle running your business and managing all of your social media channels effectively and consistently, or you'd just rather not, you can look into hiring a social media manager.

Who Should You Hire to Do Your Social Media Marketing?

You hire people to do your taxes and build your website, so when it comes to your social media marketing, you might also want to have someone handle the planning and the day-to-day stuff.

Social media marketing is a tool for having conversations with your audience, and if someone is going to be interfacing with them on a daily basis, it should be someone who knows them and your business. Be sure to hire someone who takes time to ask about you and your business goals.

What Metrics Should You Concentrate On?

That depends on your goals! If you’re just trying to funnel traffic to your website, you can use Google Analytics to track how much of your site traffic is coming from social media.

If your ultimate goal is to build brand recognition, on the other hand, you may want to focus on more specific data, like where your social media followers come from, what times your posts get the most attention, and which types of posts get shared the most – tools like Facebook Insights can help you out in that department!

What you shouldn’t really worry about is the amount of likes your page and posts get. Is your bottom line getting sales or looking popular?