The Ultimate Guide To Dominating Social Media Marketing

Chapter 1: What is Social Media Marketing?

To begin with, let's define social media marketing. In simple terms, it is a digital marketing strategy that leverages social media platforms to reach out to your target audience, build your brand, boost sales, and drive traffic to your website. This involves creating high-quality content for your social media profiles, interacting with your followers, analysing your outcomes, and running ads on social media.

Your existing customers and prospects are already interacting with brands through social media, which means you have endless opportunities to market what you are selling. With that being said, let’s spin social media marketing more simply – social media marketing is the process of creating focused content based on the context of each platform and target audience. All you have to do is curate content that works well on each platform.

Social Media Marketing can help with various objectives such as:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your website
• Generate new leads
• Make a brand personality
• Boost brand engagement

We will be covering four main social platforms in Chapter 3:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Chapter 2: How Can Social Media Move Your Business Forward?

In this chapter, we will walk you through many ways social media can help you CONNECT, ENGAGE, and GROW your business.

1. Establish Brand Awareness

“Approx. 80% of global social media users learn about new products via Facebook.”

Brand awareness is the key! Thankfully social media can help you get recognised because it’s a platform with a ton of people in one place. Thus giving you the potential to be seen by more and more people.

Whether you are targeting current customers, or potential leads, or trying to reconnect with former ones, there are various strategies for engaging with your audience at every point of their journey with your brand. Nike, for example, leverages social media to cultivate a lifestyle image and generate fan awareness. With more than 286 million followers on Instagram, 9.7 million on Twitter, and 69 million followers on Facebook, the athletic apparel giant has seen significant growth in brand recognition.

Like Nike, with the right strategies and tools, you too can generate a wide audience for your business!

2. Increase Website Traffic

If you want your online business to be successful, attracting website traffic is crucial, regardless of what you’re promoting. Social media platforms offer a way to achieve this. For example, suppose you created a blog and are eager for leads to see your latest content. However, your blog has received only a few views and no comments in weeks, making you wonder why you bother creating good content. In such situations, social media accounts can be beneficial in driving traffic to your blog.

Top Tip: Sharing your blog posts or other content to your social channels is a great way to get readers as soon as you publish a new post

3. Generate Leads

As you know, lead generation is all about bringing people to your sales funnel. A lead can be an email, mobile number or address.

More than just a way to grow your brand and connect with your audience, social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are gold mines for leads. And the cherry on top is social media lead generation is cost-effective!

If you want to generate leads using social media, here are four ways to get started.

• Run a contest or giveaway
• Polls and surveys
• Special offers
• Paid social ads

To inspire you to acquire more leads through social media, you can look into how we helped one of the UK’s leading medical simulation products companies to drive leads for a landing page we’ve developed for them. We drove engagement from their target audience i.e medical students and practitioners through Facebook and Google ads. This marketing campaign helped us to generate leads with a low customer acquisition cost of £6.70 / lead with an 8% conversion rate which is a good number in the industry.

Top Tip: Facebook lead ads are a great way to get high-quality leads at a lower cost as quickly as possible. It allows marketers to collect users’ contact information, such as email addresses and phone numbers, without leaving the platform. If you need a step-by-step guide on how to set up Facebook lead ads, check out our Go-To Guide to Facebook ads manager before you begin.

4. Enhanced Customer Experience

Fun fact: 83% of customers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.

Through social media channels, you get to develop a direct connection with your audience. This allows you to deliver personalised messages which leads to more engagement on your page and your business.

Nowadays, customers prefer to contact businesses through social media platforms rather than customer service numbers or email. They expect quick responses to their queries and complaints, often messaging brands on Facebook, DMing them on Instagram, or tweeting at them. Therefore, offering social media as an option for customer communication is essential for businesses.

Let’s come back to Nike again:

We know they are not selling just shoes but an attitude, a lifestyle. Likewise, they are equally good at delivering customer support.

Apart from having a dedicated support account, Nike gives specific instructions to customers looking for help no matter how flooded they are with queries.

Key Takeaway: Be patient and make every customer feel valued, win customers' hearts with a creative and personalised service.

5. Improve Organic Visibility

Social media can increase search ranking and Google visibility! Though social media likes, favourites, shares, backlinks, etc. are not direct ranking signals, there is a correlation between social media activity and search engine rankings. People, brands, and webmasters/marketers may consider links published on your social media as credible backlinks and thus influence a page’s rank. However, we can’t assure 100% search ranking results in this case as we have a fifty-fifty chance.
But, your social media profile can influence the content of your web page if it is well-optimised and managed.

For example, take a look at how Mr Digital’s social media profiles ranked on the first page of Google.

Sometimes, if a social account shows up at the top of the brand search results, we are more likely to click on their Facebook or Instagram page as we feel they are more personal than web pages.

Top Tip: Make sure your social media has up to date information and engaging content.

To ensure that your social media business account is up to date and engaging enough, regularly post content that will be of interest to your audience. Share relevant and timely updates that highlight the values, vision, and mission of your business. Monitor conversations related to your brand or industry, and join in with thoughtful replies or comments. Utilising visuals such as graphics and videos can help draw attention to your posts, while using interactive content such as polls or quizzes can expand the reach of your message.

Chapter 3: 5 Social Media Platforms That Are Best for Your Business

It’s important to choose the right platform before jumping into marketing your business through social media. We have many social media platforms, of which a few such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest dominate the social media world. Of the thousands of platforms available out there, we are focusing on 4 prominent social media platforms that are best for marketing and business.

#1. Facebook Marketing

Facebook has been the dominant player in social media since it was created, with approximately 3 billion monthly active users. This makes it an excellent platform for engaging with your customers once you have their attention.
Let’s discuss how to make the most of Facebook Marketing.

The launch of Facebook Business pages made it easy for marketers to manage their brand presence with a limited budget. Your page lets you connect with your customers and nurture prospects by sharing content, responding to queries, interacting with the audience, collaborating with other brands and people and much more.

How To Create A Business Page:

Step 1: Create Your Page

Facebook Business pages are different from Facebook profiles or user accounts. They are managed by a personal account holder who is referred to as the Page administrator. It is possible for a Page to have multiple administrators, but we will discuss this later. To keep your personal and work lives separate, you have two options: use your current personal Facebook account or create a new one using your work email address. It's advisable to do this especially if you cannot recall the events from the previous year's holiday party.

To get started, log into your Facebook account and head to the Facebook page creation

You will be provided with two options:

Choose “Business" or "Brand’’ and click “Get started”

Step 2: Fill in the Basic Details

Once you choose what kind of page you want, fill out the basic information about your business, which includes your page name, category, and a page bio. For your page name, use your business name or the name people are most likely to search for when trying to find your product or service.

Once you’re done, click “Create Page”.

Step 3: Complete your Facebook Business Page Info

To provide additional information such as your business hours, website, or phone number, simply follow the instructions. Please note that filling in these fields is not mandatory. If you prefer not to advertise your phone number or address, feel free to leave those sections blank.

Step 4: Add a Profile Picture and Cover Photo

Use your business logo as your page’s profile photo. If you don’t have a professional logo, use a well-shot image of your signature offering. Once you’ve made your choice, click upload “Add upload picture”.

Now it’s time to pick your cover image, the most important part of your Facebook business page.

Top Tip: Social media image sizes occasionally change, but here’s what you need for 2023:

Profile picture:Square format, at least 170px x 170px
Cover photo:851px x 315px

Now it’s time to choose your cover image, the most prominent image on your Facebook business page. Your cover photo is often the first thing visitors see. Therefore, make sure the pictures you choose align with your brand and convey your unique value proposition.

Select the appropriate image and click “Add cover photo”.

Step 5: Add an Action Button

The main call to action on your Page is the action button located at the top. You can use it to link to your website, a special landing page or offer, or connect to business-specific services, such as online ordering for restaurants, and more.

Tap on “Add Action Button”

Here please select the type of promotion you would like to create: a link to a website or app, a request for people to contact you, or a call-to-action like purchasing tickets or booking an appointment.

Step 6: Optimise Your Facebook Page

In the left-hand menu, you will see the ‘About’ section where you can input information about your business such as your website, hours, and contact information.

You could stop here and start posting content on your new Page, but for the best results, take the time to do the following:

• Add your website URL and a brief description in the "About" section.
• Connect your Facebook page to WhatsApp Business so that customers can reach out to you directly.
• If you have a physical business location, add your address and opening hours in the "About" section.
• To build credibility with new visitors, consider activating the reviews feature on your Facebook Page. However, be cautious and monitor the reviews to avoid fake ones that could harm your reputation. It is important to respond promptly to any negative reviews and address customers' concerns. To activate this feature, go to Settings > Privacy > Page and tagging.
• You can customise your Page tabs by hiding specific sections such as Likes or Reviews, as well as sections that are not relevant to your Page like Music, Sports, Books, and others. To do this, go to your Page management dashboard and select "More," then "Manage sections."
• To make your Facebook Page look more authentic to customers and easier to share, create a custom URL. Go to "Settings -> General Page Settings" and click on "Edit" beside the "Username" field. This can also boost its legitimacy among viewers.
• Consider creating a pinned post to provide your Facebook Page followers with something special, such as a coupon. Alternatively, you can use it to direct them to your other promotions, profiles, and additional resources. This can serve as a brief but effective way to introduce your business and page to your potential customers.

Step 7: Start Posting Quality Content

Before you start promoting your Business Page, it’s better to add some useful content for new viewers to check out. Here are some of the ideas you may want to post on your page:

• Post business-related pictures
• Post short videos to engage users visually
• Share testimonials
• Link to your blog posts
• New product launch
• Link to articles related to your product or service
• Conduct polls
• Share industry-related news

Now that you have a Facebook page, you can create a group to get more personal with customers. The interesting thing is that like Facebook pages, they’re free with the potential for higher levels of engagement.

The first thing you need to fix is who your Facebook group is for.

For example, our own company, Mr Digital has a Facebook group called ‘Certified Digital Marketing Specialists’ which is dedicated to sharing tips, tools and news updates from the world of digital marketing.

How To Create a Facebook Group?

• Tap the bottom right menu in the bottom-right corner of Facebook and tap Groups. If you can't see "Groups", tap "See More".
• Tap in the top right and select "Create a Group".
• Enter your group name.
• Select a privacy option. If you select "private", choose whether to make your group visible or hidden and then choose a group size.
• Tap "Create Group".

You have got a group and target audience!

What’s next? Write something!

To post to Facebook groups:

• Click Groups in the left menu and select your group
• Click write something!
• From here, you can compose a post, share a photo or video, add a poll, create an event, and more.

Speaking generally, the Facebook group is a great thing. It shows your brand has a dedicated fan base that’s really into your product or service

Facebook Insights

A ‘set it and forget’ strategy won’t work in Facebook marketing. You have got to analyse the performance so you can discover what worked and what didn’t.

By using Facebook insights, you will be able to track the user interaction on your Facebook Business page.

How to access Facebook Insights?

Go to the left-hand side of your Facebook business page and click on ‘Insights’.

Now, you can see the overview, likes, reach, page views, page previews, actions on the page, posts, and events.

10 Key Data Points From Facebook Insights

Overview: Three sections of the page such as "Page Summary", "Your 5 Most Recent Posts", and "Pages to Watch" will let you know how your page is doing.
Likes: Rather than just showing the number of likes your page has, the like tab shows you "Total Page Likes as of Today", "Net Likes" and "Where Your Page Likes come from" in three respective sections.

Reach: You can see the reach of your Facebook page and the factors that affect the reach.

Sections include:

• Post Reach
• Reactions, Comments, and Shares
• Reactions
• Hide, Report as Spam, and Unlikes
• Total Reach

Pageviews: How many people are viewing your Page? Which sections are they looking at? The tab has 3 sections – "Total Views", "Total People Who Viewed" and "Top Sources".

Actions on Your Page: As the name suggests, you can discover what people did on your page i.e "Total Actions on the Page", "People Who Clicked Action Button", "People Who Clicked Get Directions", "People Who Clicked Phone Number" and "People Who Clicked Website".

Posts: The Posts tab contains all the information about your posts such as reach and engagement.

Sections contain:

• When Your Fans Are Online / Post Types / Top Posts from Pages You Watch
• All Posts Published

Events: You will be able to identify data such as the number of people who saw your event, the demographics of your audience, and the number of people who responded to your event.

Sections available are Events Stats (Awareness / Engagement / Tickets / Audience) for Upcoming / Past events.

Videos: Simply put, it’s all about how well your videos are performing. The tab shows the number of video views divided into "Organic" vs Paid", "Unique vs Repeat", and "Auto-Played vs Clicked-to-Play". Sections include "Video Views", "10-Second Views", and "Top Videos".

People: The People tab shows you who liked your page, saw your posts, or engaged with your page or posts. It has two sections – "Your Fans" and "People Reached / People Engaged".

Messages: The Messages tab shows you the performance metrics of your conversations with people on Messenger. You can see "Total Conversations", "Your Responsiveness", "Deleted Conversations", "Marked as Spam" and "Blocked Conversations".

#2. Instagram Marketing

Once just a photo and video-sharing app, Instagram has taken social media by storm! This has become not just a way for people to showcase their photo and videography talents, but a way for brands to market their business. But don’t take our word for it – take a look at Instagram stats. The platform now has 1.1 billion active users and 500 million daily active users. Of these, 500 million users checkout stories daily. More than 95 million photos are posted each day, and 4.2 billion daily “likes” are given.

Just because some businesses and influencers already have a lot of followers on Instagram, it doesn't mean you can't achieve the same thing. However, simply posting attractive pictures on your account won't necessarily attract clients ready to buy from you. To be successful in marketing on Instagram, you need to understand how it works. Here's what you need to know.

Before we get into Instagram marketing, it’s important to have a business profile.

How to Set up an Instagram Business Profile

When you open the Instagram app, you will see two options:

• Log in with the Facebook account
• Sign up by Phone or Email

If you're new to Instagram, it's important to sign up with a business email or switch to an Instagram business profile. This will allow you to include additional information, such as your industry, location, phone number, and email address as part of your Instagram bio. Choose a username and password, and fill in your profile information. We suggest selecting a recognisable and easy-to-find username.

Congratulations, you now have an Instagram account!

• Tap the profile icon to go to your profile.
• Tap the three lines icon at the top right of the screen, then tap Settings.
• Tap Switch to Business Profile, then Continue.

Let’s dive deeper into the details.

1. Create A Username For Your Profile

The first thing to do before you go on a posting spree is to actually come up with a unique username that will help you stand out. If it turns out that your business name is already taken, which is pretty common, then you need to look for different variations of your business name. Just as important is the username of your profile. Use proper capitalisation for your business name so that it’s easy for people to find you on Instagram.

Top Tip: For instance, if your name is ‘Shelby’s Cafe’ and the name ‘@shelbyscafe’ has been already taken by someone else, then you should consider adding the location title to the business name. Something along the lines of ‘@shelbycafeliverpool’ shows that your cafe is based in Liverpool. Brainstorming is the key!

2. Use Your Brand Image as Your Profile Picture

We cannot stress enough the key role brand image plays in helping users recognise your brand. In fact, your profile image is probably the first thing users see before landing on your page. So, you need to upload an image that is instantly recognisable for users. Imagine the impact a brand image could leave on your potential users. If your business brand has equally important sub-brands, you can use different brand elements that effectively represent your business.

Here at Mr Digital, we have used our company logo as an Instagram profile picture to help users recognise our account and keep our branding and messaging consistent across social media.

Top Tip: It’s highly recommended that you set your logo as your Instagram profile picture.

3. Write An Informative Profile

Nothing leaves a better impression on the imagination of Instagram users than a well-written bio. Any valuable information about your business you include in the bio can go a long way in earning the trust of users. Your job is to make your bio as memorable and as accessible as possible.

This is the place where you want to introduce your brand to your users. Add important business details like email address, history and phone number, and even website links. Remember, you’re doing this to familiarise your brand with users so make sure to do it with real clarity.

Top Tip: Since bios are just 150 characters you need to make critical decisions about what to include. Give the readers a good enough reason to follow your account.

4. Include a Trackable Link

It is possible to place a link on your Instagram profile. Businesses use this option to put a trackable link that can drive traffic to desired locations. You need not limit yourself to putting a single link on your Instagram, rather you can experiment with a variety of links, be it a blog post, a landing page for an upcoming event or a business group.

It’s completely up to you to decide what to do with this opportunity.
Since the URL is trackable, you will be able to identify the source of the traffic. It’s easy to generate your URL using Google Analytics. So place that link and start tracking the results.

Top Tip: To get the best results, make a point of changing the link regularly.

5. Capture and Publish High-Quality Pictures

To take great photos for your Instagram profile, you don't have to use the most expensive DSLR camera. Your smartphone is capable of producing high-quality pictures, similar to a DSLR. All you need is to know how to maximise your phone's camera capabilities with photography skills and photo-editing applications. By doing so, you can create stunning images for your Instagram profile.

Top Tip: Before clicking photographs, make sure to find a location that has good lighting. Yes, photography is part skills, part lighting. Choose an engaging subject which you can use to tell a visual story. Now click away.

6. Establishing a Consistent Theme for Your Posts

To improve your Instagram presence, it's important to establish a specific theme before posting any pictures. Including context in your posts can help your audience connect with your content more effectively.

To create a cohesive Instagram feed ensure that your photos are visually and contextually related to each other. For instance, if you're posting photos of your cafe, be sure to include close-ups of your various coffees and shots of people enjoying themselves at the cafe. Your goal is to tell a visual story with a consistent colour tone and all the brand elements in place.

7. Post Regularly

To keep your audience engaged, it is important to have a regular posting schedule. Posting too frequently can come across as spam, but posting too infrequently may cause your followers to forget about your brand. To strike a proper balance, aim to post 1 to 3 photos per day. Determine the most engaging posts and schedule them for a consistent time using social media automation tools on Instagram. Keeping a calendar will help ensure that you post on time and keep your followers engaged.

8. Using Proper Hashtags

Hashtags make your posts and stories visible to people searching for content related to your product, brand or service. It allows them to find your pictures through Instagram’s search and if they find your profile interesting, they’ll likely give you a follow. People tend to use all kinds of dubious hashtag hacks to increase their likes count. However, overused hashtags can sometimes cause your posts to get lost in the crowd. Instead of putting any hashtag of your choice to increase the Like count, you need to use hashtags that will help users to discover your business.

How do you do that? Well, you can start by typing in hashtags in the search bar and finalising the hashtags most relevant to your business.

Top Tip: Try to include a selection of low-volume, highly relevant hashtags in your posts. Using one or two highly relevant and targeted hashtags will help increase engagement and visibility for your posts.

9. Engage Your Followers on Instagram

Posting a lot on Instagram is not enough, it's also important to engage with your followers. Using relevant hashtags can help people find your content, but it's important to make sure your posts are interesting and engaging. You should use hashtags related to your business and try to attract relevant followers. Remember that Instagram relationships are two-way. If you like or leave positive comments on other users' posts, they are more likely to visit and follow your page.

10. Measuring The Right Metrics

After setting up your account, it is important to measure the performance of your Instagram activities. This will help you make informed decisions about your business. Analysing metrics is crucial in determining if your marketing strategy is effective. To evaluate what is working and what is not, you should utilise key analytic tools to track your progress and optimise your profile.

How to Increase Engagement on Instagram

1. Determine the Optimal Frequency and Time to Post on Instagram

Choose a realistic routine that fits your goals and business. You can post every day, once a week, every 2/3 days or on weekends. Also, make sure the audience sees your post. Additionally, check what is the best time to reach your followers, so your posts can benefit from a higher engagement rate.

2. Find the Right Balance with a Content Mix

Text-based content alone can get a little boring for your target audience, especially when it comes to a visual platform like Instagram. So you need to update your content strategy on Instagram. Post unique videos and content in a way that remains relevant and interesting.

3. Test Carousels vs. Video vs. Photos

To boost your audience engagement, you must find out what content format works best for your audience. That said, carousels, videos, and photos work differently for different businesses.

4. Repost User-Generated Content on the Platform

One best method to develop a strong influence on Instagram is to repost the content created by other users. Take advantage of UGC (user-generated content) by sharing the best and most relevant third-party content with your audience.

5. Optimise Your Photos with a Photo-Editing Tool

Impress your audience by creating artistic and compelling content. This is where you can make use of some photo editing tools. Photo editing apps like Snapseed, VSCO, and Layout take your Instagram post to the next level.

If you scroll through the Instagram feed, you’ve probably seen "Follow & Tag Two Friends", "Comment Your Favourite Beauty Product & Tag a Friend", and "Like, Follow, and Tag"... .sometimes with incredible prizes.

In one word – GIVEAWAYs.

A successful Instagram giveaway is one best method to sell your business without actually throwing a sales pitch.

So how do you make GIVEAWAYs super successful?

Well, we will show you how to run giveaways like a pro – so that you’re not just doing it for the sake of it but actually reaching your goals for your business success.

1. Set Clear Goals

Before jumping into the actual contest, understanding what you have to accomplish with it is the first step.

• Do you want to increase the follower count and user engagement?
• Get more reach?
• Spread brand message?
• Promote a new service or product?
• Get to know the opinion of others?
• Increase website traffic?

The answer to the above questions will help decide the goal of your giveaway contest and allow you to earn more results.

As always, make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

2. Pick A Giveaway Prize That Produces More Qualified Leads

“Let’s give away an iPhone!”
Wait…think over again!
Is an iPhone relevant to what your business does? Probably not.

An iPhone may be something people are looking for but still, it won’t attract the kind of people your business wants. So we would recommend you choose a prize that is relevant to your business and something that your customers really want.

For instance, suppose you want to spread awareness about your newly launched product, you will likely choose that particular product as your giveaway prize. Makes sense right?

This is easy for e-commerce brands that sell specific products. A software company or other services require some deep research which can be done through Instagram audience insights.

Alternatively, partnering up with other brands helps any business to gain the attention of a larger audience and drive action.

Instead of a specific product or service, you might try offering an experience like a weekend trip, a spa day, or the chance to dine with an eminent personality in your industry.

3. Define Contest Conditions or Criteria

Before you get started, it’s vital to determine the entry criteria for your contest.

To be in with a chance to win the contest, you might ask your followers to ‘like the comment’, ‘tag a friend in the comment’ and follow your account. Having your audience share a post in their Instagram stories as a form of entry can be a great way to spread the brand message.

Alternatively, you might post a photo on your Instagram feed and ask fans to post their caption in the comments. Another popular tactic is to ask people to follow your brand or a partner (or both) for the chance to win. Most of the influencers host collaborative giveaways like this to help their followers find new brands and bloggers.

4. Consider Partnering with Other Brands

To increase sales and raise awareness for your brand, collaborating with the right brands for a giveaway is crucial. A partnered campaign allows you to promote your products to not just your followers but also your partner's audience. To maximise the benefits, it's important to choose a well-established brand partner that aligns with your goals and is relevant to your target audience.

For instance, Starbucks partnered with Spotify to deliver a premium coffee shop experience powered by a one-of-a-kind music ecosystem. This co-branding partnership is mutually beneficial to seek the attention of a wider audience.

5. Choose Your Campaign Hashtags

To attract attention on social media, hashtags are crucial. They help users find the content they would be interested in and can help you gain more followers, participation in contests, and improve engagement. It's important to create an original and appealing hashtag that stands out. Avoid using a common one that other brands may use, as it may lead to confusion and you may miss out on entries.

6. Determining the Length of Your Contest

Timing matters! So the next step is establishing a time frame for the contest.
Competition time MEGA £150 GIVEAWAY!

YOU & YOUR BFFs can WIN £150! ENDs in the next 24 hours….

You are likely to get more entries and attention for these types of contests.

Running a contest for one or two weeks is sufficient time to keep it relevant and exciting on the platform. However, longer monthly contests require more effort to maintain their relevance and prevent them from being forgotten. To encourage followers to participate in monthly contests, it's important to create a sense of urgency and immediacy in signing up.

7. Launch Your Contest

So, you’ve set your goals, chosen the prize, defined the eligibility criteria, fixed the time frame and all other preparation works. Well, you’re ready to actually launch your Instagram giveaway!

One more thing to ponder on; remember to optimise your posting time for when the majority of your followers are online. Launch your Instagram contest, promote and update periodically so people know what’s going on. Talk about your giveaway on other social media platforms or you can even write a blog post about the contest.

Now, wait for your entries to roll in. When the contest ends, choose and announce the winners and thank everyone for participating.

#3. LinkedIn Marketing

Nowadays, LinkedIn is not limited to being just a professional network. While millions of professionals use it to grow their connections and advance their careers, marketers can also take advantage of the networking opportunities and connections offered by LinkedIn to build and promote their brands. If you're wondering how to leverage LinkedIn for success, keep reading. Creating a LinkedIn page for your business is just as crucial as having a website for your company.

This is a platform for your intended audience to interact with your company directly. It is designed to aid them in learning everything they need to know about your brand. To access it, you must first sign in to your LinkedIn account, and then click the “Work” icon in the upper right-hand corner.

Click on the “Create a Company Page+” button at the bottom of the window. You have the following choices for the type of page you want to create:

• Company
• Showcase page
• Educational institution

For this guide, we are using the “Company” option.

Add all of your company information such as company name, website, industry, company size, and company type.

Now check the verification box to confirm and select “Create Page.”

Your LinkedIn page is now ready. Take your LinkedIn Page from basic to the next level by filling in additional information. Click the pencil icon on your profile under your company name.

The ‘About’ section is where you tell a compelling summary of your brand or business, so use this as an opportunity to promote your product or service.

• Values – Who are we? How do we work?
• Products/Services – Here’s what we provide.
• Positioning – What makes our brand different?
• Vision – What future do we want to help create?
• Mission – How do we create that future?
• Tagline – Our brand is summed up in one line.

Top Tip: Google will display up to 156 characters of your page text in its search results, so we recommend including relevant keywords at the very beginning of your company tagline, helping the search engine and its users quickly understand what you’re about.

Five Tips to Conduct Effective Marketing on LinkedIn

1. Create a Professional Profile

On LinkedIn, you have an opportunity to showcase your brand identity to a large audience within your industry. To make the most of this, it's important to have a standout profile. Make sure to include a professional headshot and a compelling headline as they are the first things people see. Your summary is a valuable opportunity to share your professional story. Additionally, recommendations and endorsements from other members can help validate your skills and enhance your credibility.

Airbnb is the prime example of how to effectively use the ‘About' section to showcase their brand’s international reach, but also the personality and culture of those who work there.

2. Start Your Own Group or Page

One effective way to attract your desired audience is by creating a LinkedIn group or page. It is simpler to invite people to join your group than to request they view your business or opportunity. Your group or page's goal should align with your mission. You can ask questions, address concerns, and exchange ideas about your service or product. Additionally, ensure that you post timely, industry-specific news and encourage discussions.

Our LinkedIn group "certified digital marketing specialists" provides a place for digital marketing experts or those with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts

3. Post Engaging Content

On LinkedIn, using pushy or forceful language to promote your own products or services is not effective. Since LinkedIn is primarily used by business professionals, it is important to provide valuable content that addresses their needs. This can include content that helps solve business problems, answers questions or guides to improve their business operations.

4. Generate Leads

Once you have a group and interesting content, you should focus on generating leads. Spend 10-15 minutes daily searching for potential leads among your contacts. Don't just aim to generate more leads, but make sure you're generating the right kind of leads. You can use LinkedIn's search filters to find the most suitable leads for your business.

5. Connect With New People Daily

To make the most out of your connection requests, it's important to target people who have a potential interest in your product, service or business opportunity. Instead of randomly sending requests, optimise your profile and send personalised messages to each member requesting a connection. If you want to make new connections and build relationships on LinkedIn, cold messaging is a great way to do it.

Cold messaging refers to reaching out to leads you haven't interacted with before, and LinkedIn makes it easy to do so. All you have to do is be proactive and put yourself out there. People get hundreds of messages every day in which most of them are just the same. To stay unique, you need to stand out in the crowd.

Here are the top five tips for cold messaging on LinkedIn that really work:

1. Do Your Research in Advance

To gather important details about the person you are messaging, you can scan their LinkedIn profile. Look into their work experience, current job, education, interests, and other relevant information. It's helpful to search for similar traits between you and the potential lead, regardless of your industry or job role.

2. Get Introduced through a Mutual Connection

Using a mutual connection as an icebreaker can be a great way to start a relationship. If you have a friend in common, you can ask them to introduce you and then message the person directly. This not only provides context for your message but also helps to establish a smoother connection.

3. Make it Simple and to the Point

Don’t jump into too much detail about the opportunity, save the other information for later. Your first goal is to get the recipient to respond not to make sales. While writing the message, try to limit the length of characters between 200-500. Give a quick roundup of who you are, how you come across their profile and your common ground. Later you can narrate a clear idea about what problem you solve, what you stand for, how you are different and so on.

4. Don’t Be Too Pushy

This is one of the most important tips on this list, but for many, it’s the toughest.
I received a message on LinkedIn last week that said:

“Hi,

I hope you have a nice day. I’d like to set up a meeting with you to discuss our product.”

I logged in, open the message, and my immediate reaction was NO, NO, NO!
Trust me, this is not how you reach out to prospects. Pitching for sales straight away doesn’t make sense. You have to make a connection and then start a conversation rather than jumping into your product or service.

5. Effective Follow-up

We know first impressions are important, but for a salesperson, it can be the third or fourth that’s the most important. This is why it’s important to have an effective follow-up strategy if you want to stay in touch with your prospects. You may try to reach out to thousands of people in a day on LinkedIn. Some may reply immediately or after a few days while some don’t. So, needless to say, it’s better to keep the track of records you reach out to and follow up with them if they don’t respond right away.

#4. YouTube Marketing

The trend of using YouTube for marketing purposes is still on the rise and gaining more popularity. Therefore, if you're considering creating your own YouTube channel, now would be an ideal time.

The platform has 2 billion log-in monthly users, watching videos in more than 90 languages across 100 different countries. It has been steadily growing since its initial launch in 2005 and has become the most important video service on the web. As people upload 500 hours of video every minute, or 720,000 hours of content per day! In this sea of visual entertainment and information, you have to optimise your video to stand out and be noticed.

Just like making your site appear top on the SERPs, you want to get your videos high up on the YouTube SERPs, but how?

1. Find the Right Keywords for Videos

It is not wrong to say that YouTube is a video search engine. YouTube's SEO process starts with keyword research. This is the task of finding words and phrases that people use to search for video content online. When you carefully research and optimise your content around the right keywords, they have the opportunity to get more views, comments, likes, and subscribers.

Once the keyword is identified, carefully determine where to insert the same. Just search for the keyword you want to rank for on YouTube and analyse what the top 3–5 results are talking about. Similar to Google Suggest, YouTube Suggest gives you a list of relevant phrases that contain your keywords.

These suggested keywords are totally excellent. Why?

Because these are terms that people actually type into YouTube. So there’s no need to wonder if they’re great or not.

2. Keyword in the Video Title

What’s the first thing you notice when searching on YouTube? Is it the title or the wonderful piece of content inside? Of course, your answer would be the first one. Your keyword plays a big part in your video title, it also helps if the title closely matches what the viewer is searching for.

According to Brian Dean of Backlinko, saying your target keywords in your video can help YouTube better understand what your video is about. The YouTube Algorithm finds the exact keyword matches. So, Insert your keyword in the video title to increase your chances of discovery.

3. Optimise the Description

The description of your YouTube video is crucial because it provides information about your video and helps viewers decide whether to watch it. It can also improve your channel's ranking and increase subscriptions, view counts, and watch time, as well as help your videos appear in "suggested search" results. To optimise your YouTube video description, use language that is easy for your viewers to understand and include keywords naturally rather than making a list.

4. Use Relevant Tags

YouTube tags help you amplify your video’s reach. When searching for videos, viewers will type keywords into the search bar. Videos that are tagged with those keywords appear in the search results. You need to ensure that your tags precisely describe the topic and content of your video.

Pro Tip: It’s better to use the target keyword as the first tag. Let’s say you want to rank your video for the keyword “Network marketing tips for beginners”. You’d want to make your first YouTube tag that exact term.

5. Use Custom Design Thumbnails

Getting potential prospects to read your titles and descriptions is vital. Needless to say, YouTube thumbnails are what the viewers first notice in your video search results. It can make or break your video content.

A strong and impactful thumbnail will look great and convey the exact information about your YouTube videos. Adding a compelling title on a thumbnail is the icing on the cake. Remember to keep your thumbnails consistent with the same style fonts, colours, and a strong design. Uniformity across the channel plays a big role in the success of your videos.

Chapter 4: Best Social Media Post Length for Higher Engagement

Facebook

Studies have shown that Facebook posts that are shorter in length tend to receive more likes, comments, and shares than longer ones. The ideal length for a Facebook post is between 40 and 80 characters. Posts that have 40 characters or less have been found to get 86% more engagement. Therefore, it is recommended to keep your posts brief and to the point.

Instagram

Most users scroll through their Instagram feed quickly. So keep your captions clear and concise to maximise the engagement on your posts. The recommended length for Instagram captions is 125 characters so that the text doesn’t get truncated, and shows up fully on smaller screen sizes. Also, don’t stuff your content with hashtags – 5 to 9 per post at less than 24 characters each is plenty.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform many businesses rely on to gather valuable industry information. If your LinkedIn post is longer than 100 characters, the excess content gets cut off and users have to click ‘see more’ to read the full message. So it makes sense to keep your LinkedIn status updates under 100 characters or 25 words – this ensures that all of your full messages get seen as the audience skims through their feed.

YouTube

To ensure your content meets the platform's requirements, keep an eye on character limits. For YouTube videos, limit titles to 60 characters and descriptions to 250-300 words (roughly one to three sentences). For playlists, keep the title under 60 characters and use no more than 30 characters per tag. While you can use up to 500 characters for tags, using fewer will be more effective.

Chapter 5: 5 Social Media Trends To Watch Out for

Marketers need to stay up-to-date with ever-changing social media trends to succeed. Outdated social media marketing strategies can harm your chances of generating leads and growing your business. By keeping up with trends, you can plan effective marketing campaigns to drive success.

1. Keep the Trust of Your Followers

To gain and maintain the trust of your target audience, it's essential for brands to employ effective strategies. By engaging with your audience through direct messaging or comments, you can create a more personal connection. It's important to be accessible and encourage interaction with your audience rather than always requesting something from them. Invite conversation instead of just trying to make sales. Additionally, ensuring a dependable product or service while following through on your promises can help build trust.

2. The Rise of Influencer Marketing

In recent years, influencer marketing has become a successful method of promoting businesses. To ensure success, brands should seek out proven influencer agencies and authentic influencers. Simply using an influencer does not guarantee success. Authentic and genuine influencer marketing campaigns tend to receive the most attention. Influencer marketing appears to remain a top strategy throughout the year.

3. Video Content Will Dominate

Although video marketing is not a new concept, it is essential for marketers, brands, and businesses to have a video strategy. The majority of internet users prefer watching videos on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as they find them to be more engaging and productive than other forms of digital marketing. Facebook Live and interactive videos will continue to grow in popularity.

To ensure that your video reaches a wider audience, make sure it is visible on various social media platforms. It's still possible to come up with new video marketing strategies, so don't hesitate to try something new.

4. Messaging Apps Will Be a Hot Trend

Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat provide opportunities for businesses to manage their marketing interactions. They offer enhanced features to process digital payments, ask questions, and discover products. Chatbots will also continue to advance, providing benefits such as sharing promotions and creating targeted groups. Additionally, messaging apps allow for a personal touch and enable marketers to have hot flash sales. As a result, we expect an increase in the use of messaging apps for various digital marketing purposes.

5. Stories on Both Facebook and Instagram

Businesses will frequently update and enhance the features of their stories to better engage with their audience. To successfully reach customers on Instagram, brands must be innovative in how they use stories, utilising features like links and advertising. As stories become more integral to advertising, they have the potential to foster genuine and authentic relationships between brands and users.

Chapter 6: How To Create A Perfect Social Media Strategy – Step-By-Step Guide

In this chapter, we will explain how to create your social media strategy, step by step to make the most of your efforts.

1. Identify Your Goals

Having specific goals will allow you to plan your marketing campaign perfectly.

Goals can vary depending on the type of business:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating leads and sales
• Growing your audience
• Improving community engagement
• Increasing website traffic
• Growing revenue
• Building a community around your business

Pro Tip: Your goals should be challenging but realistic, so it’s important to employ the five characteristics of a SMART goal:

Specific: Set real numbers with real deadlines
Measurable: Make sure your goal is trackable
Attainable: Work towards a goal that is challenging but achievable
Relevant: It should make sense within the context of your marketing campaign
Time-bound: Give yourself a deadline

2. Know Your Target Audience

Not everyone is your target audience. Your task is to identify and understand what your audience prefers based on the services/ products you offer. The better you understand your target market, the more you are close to success.

So the key is to know exactly who would benefit from your business.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Where does your target market live?
• What do they do for a living?
• Are they male or female?
• Marital status?
• Age group?

What about their personal values, attitude, interests, and goals? Are they happy or frequently stressed? This is where you’ll focus on the demographics and psychographics of your target audience.

What’s important to keep in mind is to be specific and focus on a particular group of people who genuinely have an interest in your business.

3. Select the Right Social Media Platform Wisely

Now that your goals are defined and you know the target audience, It’s time to figure out where your target audience is hanging out. For example, older generations have increased their Facebook use in the past four years while young users are more active on Instagram. Being one of the fastest-growing platforms, Instagram works well for visual-based businesses, like art, food, retail, and beauty.

Top Tip: If a post works well on LinkedIn but not the other networks, you can switch accordingly.

4. Create Relevant and Informative Content

Yes, you can’t ignore the word ‘RELEVANCE’. More relevant your content is, the better it will perform. The only way to get to know what our customers find relevant is to get out and interact with them.

Discover what’s trending and what your audience loves. Don’t stop there…be enthusiastic about what the future has in store.

Content should be useful so that it can assist your potential prospects or clients to achieve their goals. As your content creates value and positive feelings among the audience, they may develop trust, loyalty and authority very soon.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are great means of sharing valuable, informative and useful content.

5. Determine the Optimal Frequency and Time to Post

This is a must! Not only can it help you save time and increase your productivity, but it can also help you better optimise your social content, drive more traffic, and grow your business faster.

Choose a realistic routine that fits your goals and business. You can post every day, once a week, every 2/3 days or on weekends. Also, make sure the audience sees your post. Track your unique best time to reach most of your followers, which would result in a higher engagement rate.

Using an effective tool like ContentStudio that lets you upload social media posts from your desktop will save you a ton of time.

6. Use Social Media Marketing Tools to Reinforce Your Strategy

If you want to make the most out of your social media marketing campaigns, consider using social media marketing tools. These tools can help simplify your work and improve your efficiency too.

There are different types of social media tools that can get to the next level:

• Social media scheduling tools
• Social media analytics tools
• Social media engagement tools
• Social media listening tools
• Social media monitoring tools
• Social media automation tools
• Facebook marketing tools
• Twitter marketing tools
• Instagram marketing tools

The whole point of using tools is to plan ahead of time while staying productive and saving time.

7. Analyse Your Impacts and Results

To optimise your social media marketing efforts, it's essential that you analyse the data you've collected from past campaigns. Keeping a record of all your posts will enable you to identify successful tactics and strategies, as well as those that aren't working. The following are some of the key social media metrics for marketers:
Engagements: This shows how audiences are interacting with your content.

This includes clicks, comments, likes, and replies on your social media posts. “Saved” posts on Instagram and “Pinned” posts on Pinterest are also false under this category.

• Reach: Denotes how many people have seen a post since it went live.
• Views: Show you the number of times people watched or engaged with your video.
• Followers: the number of people you have on your profile who have clicked your “Follow” button and see your content in their feeds regularly.
• Impressions: how many times a post shows up in someone’s timeline.
• Profile visits: the number of people who have opened your social media page.
• Mentions: the number of times your profile has been mentioned by others in their post.
• Shares: These are the posts your followers and audience take from your profile and share with their network.

Now It’s Your Turn...

Although the biggest and most important social media platforms have been mentioned here, it's important to note that social media marketing has limitless potential and isn't limited to just a few platforms. It's worth exploring other platforms, such as Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and others that could be relevant to your business.

Social media marketing is a demanding process that requires significant effort, time, and dedication, just like any other online marketing strategy. As you read through this guide, you may come to a point where you require professional assistance from a certified digital marketing agency to help take your business to the next level. Our team of experienced marketers can effectively manage your social media accounts and help you achieve your business objectives, so get in touch with us!