How to Become a Successful Social Media Marketer

Social media marketing is very popular these days. Even teenagers and children are getting involved in it. Does it simply take being savvy about social media and business? Or does it require a college degree? By most accounts, social media marketing can be self-taught through practical experience, experimentation, and deep reading. However, what are the exact steps one needs to take in order to become successful in this endeavor? Here are some pieces of advice you can use to achieve what you desire in social media.

Make a plan

Creating an overall strategy, schedule, and focus for your social media activity is not a small deal. It requires a lot of effort to put this plan of action together. Namely, it entails: 1) Setting goals 2) doing a social media audit 3) setting up accounts and fleshing out existing ones 4) gaining inspiration 5) making a social media calendar 6) and testing, evaluating, and adapting your strategy (“10 Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing”).

Find what platforms are to your liking

There are so many to choose from, and each one connects with different types of people. The main ones are Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest. It is good to learn about the aforementioned platforms and know which ones complement your strategy and target audience the most.

Research your target group

If you have not figured out who you are trying to sell to, it is very important to determine this. Once you have found it out, conduct deep research on this target group. With ample data on this audience, you can write a report about them to consolidate your information.

Market and sell intelligently

When posting on your accounts, a large part of it will not be for marketing or selling, coincidentally. That is because your audience will not be interested in nonstop advertisements and content related to products. Instead, you will be posting stuff that is interesting to your target audience and giving advice as a knowledgeable person. At maximum, one in 10 posts will directly relate to your business. In essence, you need to connect your strategy with your audience, create the right content in the ideal number per day, build a network, and link this network to your business (Fusco, Steve).

Use visuals

Visual material on social media usually attracts more attention to it. In our modern world of flashy advertisements and entertainment, plain text can be almost ignored. That is why is key to use as many graphs, pictures, videos, and other visual content as you can (Highfield, Tim, and Tama Leaver).

Quality over quantity

If you are filling your accounts with tons of content that is not worth your target audience’s time, you will not get far. Instead, concentrate on making each post special, effectively timed, and geared towards the interests of your followers. Posting a significant post once a day is better than putting up 10 unsubstantial things daily.

Employ the best tools

Each social media marketer needs a set of tools to get the job done. Highly recommended resources are eClincher, Buffer, Sprout Social, HootSuite, Sendible, Social Pilot, AgoraPulse, CoSchedule, Crowdfire, and Edgar. Each of these, and a combination of them, will aid you in planning and creating effective social media marketing campaigns.

Interact with your audience

Letting your target clients know you are human is a valuable thing. Just posting on your accounts does not cut it. Communicating with them based on responses, comments, questions, and so on helps a great deal to make a bridge between your product and your future customers.

Social media marketing is now a profession that is in great demand. Many people are learning through courses. However, the fundamentals of social media marketing are making a plan, finding what platforms you connect with, researching your target group, marketing and selling intelligently, using visuals, having quality over quantity, employing the best tools, and interacting with your audience.

Works Cited
“10 Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing.” Gist, 21 May 2019, getgist.com/successful-social-media-marketing/.
Fusco, Steve. “4 Ways to Use Social Media to Sell Your Products.” Entrepreneur, 11 Nov. 2015, Highfield, Tim, and Tama Leaver. “Instagrammatics and Digital Methods: Studying Visual Social Media, from Selfies and GIFs to Memes and Emoji.” Communication Research and Practice, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 47–62., doi:10.1080/22041451.2016.1155332. www.entrepreneur.com/article/252733.
Highfield, Tim, and Tama Leaver. “Instagrammatics and Digital Methods: Studying Visual Social Media, from Selfies and GIFs to Memes and Emoji.” Communication Research and Practice, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 47–62., doi:10.1080/22041451.2016.1155332.