Top 6 Ways For a Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing

7 min.

A Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing

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Top 6 Ways For a Beginner to Kickstart his Social Media Marketing Journey

As a fresh new business, artist or public figure, you might ask yourself what the best option for you might be to grow your following and promote your business and ideas to new fans or customers. The future is now; with everyone glued to their screens going through tons of content each day, you have the opportunity to reach more people than ever before. According to We Are Social, in 2020, the average person in the US spent 2 hours and 24 minutes daily on social media. (1) Globally, nearly four billion people use social media, spending roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes per day. (2)

This means that social media has become the most active and successful marketplace ever, with just about anyone having a chance to share their content and promote their work. So, how do you get started? Just like any other skill, social media marketing will take some time to master. But before you begin, here are some helpful tips!

1. Choose the Network That is Best Suited For You

Before you do anything, try and decide who your target audience is. If you are an artist, who will view your work? If you are a business, who are your products directed at? Men, women or both? What age group? Where? With a little bit of research, you can find out which demographic uses which social media. With platforms such as Instagram, there are certain tools that you can use in order to find out who views you content the most. The most important thing is to analyse your own content and tweak it often in order to accommodate your new audience.

When choosing a platform, also decide how much time you will be able to devote to it. For beginners, it is reasonable to set aside an hour each day in order to build your following. Later on, things will speed up and it will get less demanding.

Most importantly, social media marketing requires high quality content. Do you have what it takes to make your own or will you need some help? Platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest require high quality visual materials, so make sure you have the right skills and tools to get started. (3)

2. Keep the Same Theme on Multiple Platforms

If you decide to use more than one platform, which is often the case, you need to come up with a brand for yourself in order to remain recognisable.

Try to keep the same tone and look to your posts. But more importantly, make sure that the cover images, profile photos and bios are in sync. Choose a profile picture that is unique and easy to edit and apply it to the rest of your accounts.

If your profile type allows, use a picture showing your face. Avoid using pictures of celebrities, animals, places, or anything that isn’t real. You will grow trust with your audience if they can see who you are.

A picture tells a thousand words, but plain old text is always a good way to show who you are. Your bio should be direct and concise, showing the things that you have accomplished so far, and the things that you are proud of. Present yourself as someone who does not only have accomplishments, but you ARE your accomplishments. Where possible, attach a link to your website, and don’t forget to add social media buttons on your website. Instagram has a special section for a web page that appears right below your bio. (4)

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3. Set the Voice and Tone of Your Internet Persona

As mentioned previously, an important aspect of running a successful social media campaign is consistency. Keeping up with the same aesthetic and style does not only apply to the visuals, but also the tone of your writing and the overall impression your audience will have.

Try and imagine your product, art, or whatever content you are producing as a person. What kind of relationship would they have with your fans and customers if they were a real person? Would they be like an old friend, parent, teacher, coach? Once you have your voice and tone set, you will want to start posting!

4. Go Out There And Start Posting!

But when is the right time to do so? The plain and simple answer is: It depends. Based off of your target audience, you might want to post things at a certain time of day. There is plenty of data to show you the busiest times that are best for creating a new post, but in most cases, it is pretty unique to every account. What works for you might not be the best option for me, and vice versa.

The best thing you can do is start posting and analyse your content interactions. Instagram offers an analytics tool that shows you how many likes, shares, views and content interactions overall your posts have had. It also shows you the time of day and week that most of your followers are active, which would be the best time to post. But the best advice for beginners would be, just start posting at random times each day and see what happens!

Don’t forget to keep revisiting the stats and stay up to date with the busiest times. This tool will also show you which demographic views your content the most, which will help later with choosing the demographic and location for your paid advertisement. (3)

5. How to Gain More Followers as a Beginner

Forget about all of those “pay-to-get-followers” tools! The first thing you should do with your new account is follow similar successful accounts. It is almost guaranteed they will not follow you back, due to you not having many followers, but this is important for multiple reasons! By following successful accounts in your niche, you can get ideas about what works and what does not when sharing your own content. Instagram’s algorithm will recommend your profile to people who follow the famous influencers and businesses in your niche. A pro-tip is to follow a specific successful account’s followers and like their content. Chances are, they will follow you back!

But don’t get too carried away with following too many people at once! Instagram has a strict algorithm that will suspend your account for a period of time if you like and follow too much. Another thing to keep in mind is maintaining a balance between your followings and followers. Your account might seem less trustworthy if you have way more followings than followers. Think of it this way, which account would you rather follow, one that has 500 followers, but follows 3.000 people, or one that has 500 followers, and 490 followings?

Most people concentrate on gaining new followers, but forget to follow back. Try and make it a habit of going through your new followings each day and following them as well. If you notice your follower number going down, it might be because you are not following back. (5)

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6. What to Post and How Often?

The foundation of any successful campaign, including social media, is high-quality content. What you post will depend heavily on your niche, but will likely be a combination of articles, motivational quotes, funny content, and research studies about your specific field. Don’t forget hashtags, as they will make you easier to discover to people with the same interests! Consider posting videos, as they have the highest interaction rate out of all other media combined. (3) No wonder TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020!

When it comes to how often you should post, there needs to be a balance. Try posting between three times a week and once or twice a day, but don’t overdo it! Try avoid disappearing for weeks at a time as well. This will involve some planning ahead, so make sure you have the next couple of posts ready at all times. (6)

One of the best features that Instagram has to offer is Stories. Make sure to post enough, but if you overdo it, chances are your fans will not commit to watching them through and will most likely skip them altogether. The optimal number of stories to post is ten within a 24-hour period. That way, you are keeping your audience engaged without overwhelming them with content. (7)

Conclusion

Every successful social media campaign consists of two distinct parts: the overall look of your profile and the way you use it. This is the one and only recipe to gain plenty of exposure and advertisement for your following.

First and foremost, you need to be involved with the networks more suited to your niche and make sure that all of your accounts on different platforms are in sync.

Once you have your ideal profile, you will need to make sure that you follow the right people, and are followed by the right people, as well as sharing engaging and interesting content

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