(Leveraging social media for business growth) 10 Ways to Leverage Social Media to Drive Results for Your Business

Brands that leverage social media successfully have the luxury of always being a part of the online conversation. Not only do they have a direct line to consumers, but they also have the opportunity to establish themselves as industry experts through helpful and informative content.

 

But developing an effective social media strategy is easier said than done. Brands can’t simply take a “pay and spray” approach where they buy multiple ads and hope the spots end up in front of the right eyeballs. Lucrative social media strategies take time and research. Marketers must collect enough data to ensure they engage the right audience and spend resources on the avenues that drive the highest ROI.

 

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Social media marketing uses one or more social media platforms to build brand awareness, drive sales, increase website traffic, or promote a product or service to a target audience. 

Two women looking at a phone, an example of an audience brand can use to leverage social media

Social media marketing is an excellent way for companies to tell their brand story, engage their fans, and educate consumers on new products or industry trends. This form of word-of-mouth marketing also allows brands to empower customers to post user-generated content (UGC)—e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.—which engages audiences far more effectively than brand-produced ad copy.

DOES MY BUSINESS NEED SOCIAL MEDIA?     Yes.

There are currently 3.96 billion active social media users. That’s more than half the world’s population. And of those 3.96 billion people, each one spends more than 30 minutes per day scrolling feeds, online shopping, and engaging with their favorite content creators. 

With so much attention paid to social media, it doesn’t matter if you’re a B2-B (business to business) firm targeting top executives or a B2C (business to customers) brand chasing Gen Z consumers—your audience is online.

But for the ultimate competitive advantage, brands must effectively leverage social media content marketing. Optimized content marketing paired with a strategic social media approach is a powerful combination—one that will maximize your digital marketing ROI.  

WHAT IS THE BEST SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN FOR MY BUSINESS?

Each social media platform has the potential to help your brand in various ways. Before choosing one, do some research to determine on which platforms your target audience lives. Then you can pick the ones with the tools best suited for your campaign goals.

HERE IS A CLOSER LOOK AT EACH. 

Instagram

Instagram has roughly 130 million users in the U.S., and more than half of them are millennials. Researchers expect the total number of Instagram users to grow to 136 million by 2025.

YouTube

Google runs YouTube Ads, giving brands access to vast buyer data and analytics fed by the leading search engine in the world. Because you’re advertising on a strictly video platform, you don’t have quite as many ad design options as you do with Facebook and Instagram. But considering the volume of active YouTube users, the lack of ad design options is hardly a setback. 

Facebook

Facebook is by far the most popular social media channel in the U.S., with 302.28 million users in 2021. But as social media’s “elder statesman,” the platform has lost some of its allure over the last decade.

 Twitter

For better or worse, Twitter is perhaps the platform best known for starting conversations online. It also has a campaign creator tool that allows users to target audiences and build ads using different content styles and CTAs.

TikTok

TikTok might be the newest player on the list, but it is also the fastest-growing, with more than 1 billion active users worldwide. Businesses using TikTok can also sign up for an ads manager account and enjoy features similar to Facebook Ads Manager.