Social Media Marketing: Strategy and Tips for Success | TechSmith

Hardly any company or organization can do without today Social-Media-Marketing out And that has a simple reason: Whether on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn or Pinterest – a majority of the German population is regularly on social media. But what exactly is social media marketing, how can you use it for your business success and how do you develop a sustainable social media strategy? We have summarized that and how you can cleverly use the special features of the individual social media channels here.

Current studies prove the obvious: more and more people are using the internet and social media more and more often, and for longer: According to the ARD/ZDF online study, it was 2022 at least 50 percent of the German population more than 14 years on social media. And: the younger, the more active the social media users were. Among the 14 to 29 year olds, 88 percent used social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. It was still 69 percent among 30 to 49 year olds and 33 percent among 50 to 69 year olds. Of course, it is worth taking a close look at the user groups of the individual channels: Instagram, for example, was used by 74 percent of the 14 to 29 age group in 2022, but by just 3 percent of the over 70 year olds. Facebook was more popular among 30-49 year olds with 47 percent users than among 14-29 year olds with 42 percent users. The latter, on the other hand, was 47 percent on TikTok and 44 percent on Snapchat, a platform that was almost irrelevant in all other age groups.

Goals of social media marketing

Social media marketing offers companies the opportunity to:

• on the social media platforms specifically Content developed for their target group to share
• to communicate with users and thus increase their reach
• strengthen the brand loyalty of existing customers
• Acquiring new customers and establishing contact with potential customers
• Use feedback and comments for corporate strategy, e.g. B. to improve and further develop products
• to maintain customer relationships, e.g. B. to react faster to complaints

Social media marketing and changing purchasing and search behavior

Social media marketing promotes and at the same time reacts to a changed Buying and search behavior of consumers. Because that has changed significantly in recent years: It is now standard to look for the ideal product and reviews on the Internet before making a purchase. Comments and recommendations are read before a customer decides on a product. If a company and its products cannot be found online or if there are no reviews, they simply do not exist for many potential buyers. Active social media company profiles demonstrate relevance and can create trust: the company proves that it can be contacted: customers can contact them directly and easily and find contact persons.

In order to be successful on social media, it is unfortunately not enough to simply have a Facebook or Instagram presence and sales will increase. You need a plan and strategy for your social media marketing. You should note these points:

Select the social media channels on which your target group moves: Do not blindly base your strategy on general statements such as “Facebook is dead”, “Instagram is only for models” or “TikTok is for kids”. It’s worth taking a closer look. According to the ARD/ZDF online study, Facebook was able to For example, the number of users has recently increased again from 28 percent in 2021 to 35 percent in 2022 and was used by 42 percent of 14 to 29 year olds last year. Instagram has hardly been able to improve its user numbers compared to the previous year: 31 percent of Germans over 14 were there in 2022, including 74 percent of 14 to 29 year olds and 39 percent of 30 to 49 year olds. Although platforms such as Twitter, TikTok or Snapchat only accounted for 8 to 15 percent of the total German population, they were used by almost half of the 14 to 29 year olds.

Develop creative content specific to each channel: Produce once and then post the same thing on all channels? That only works to a limited extent. Be active on your target channel and find out how it communicates there and what content is successful.

Work with strong visual content: Social media lives from photos, GIFs, memes and increasingly from short videos. Expand your knowledge of creating and editing creative visual content. You will soon reach your limits with pure text posts.

Put your users first: The first thing to think about when posting is your target group: what appeals to your users and followers? How can you get attention?

Develop a long-term editorial plan: Just post something on Insta? That might be enough at the beginning. But after the initial euphoria, many social media projects come to nothing because content is not delivered consistently. Therefore, make an editorial plan: Set times when you will post and develop content and creative ideas in advance.

Don’t overestimate your sales growth goals: Many companies expect social media marketing to have an immediate impact on sales. Be realistic about your goals. More brand awareness or customer satisfaction can also be legitimate goals.

Regularly evaluate your social media strategy: How many followers did you gain? Which posts get the most reactions? How is your social media marketing reflected in higher sales? Use your insights to constantly improve your social media strategy.

Keep in mind that your followers are mostly on social media both professionally and privately: Cooperation and new company contacts (B2B marketing) are also initiated in social media. Cover this area with your content as well.

Videos beim Social-Media-Marketing

Video content is becoming increasingly important across all social media channels. Video content can now be posted and viewed on Facebook as well as Insta and Twitter. For many, it may seem difficult at first to create videos for social media themselves. But today it doesn’t have to be that anymore. With intuitive video editing programs like Camtasia, you too can produce professional-looking videos and clips with little effort.

To do this, first familiarize yourself with the typical video formats on platforms such as Facebook and Insta. If you already have longer videos that have already been produced, you can use excerpts from them for your channels. Add intros and outros to reinforce your company branding. You can also easily create screen videos yourself. Read more tips for successful video marketing.

When it comes to specific content, each platform has its own rules. This is how Facebook and Instagram differ in terms of image and media sizes. Instagram, originally designed for photo sharing, offers far more options for image formats and videos. You can read about what this looks like in detail in the following articles:

Social ads and their role in social media marketing

Social ads are advertisements on social media and are an important part of social media marketing. Now you might be wondering why you should run an ad when posting content is free. The truth is: The natural rangethat you as a company can reach with your social media presence has been increasingly restricted by the platform operators.

That’s why hardly any company can do without social ads today. The advantage of social ads: You can use them to address specific target groups in a targeted manner and with clear limitations. Compared to classic advertising media such as newspaper ads, flyers or commercials, the Waste coverage with social ads is therefore significantly lower. And: With social ads, you can not only reach new target groups and win new customers. You can also address and retain existing followers of your social media pages with additional social ads.

Use influencer marketing in the social media strategy?

Influencer marketing is such an important area of ​​social media marketing today that entire agencies have specialized in it. With influencer marketing, you as a company use the reach and community by individuals who have a strong social media presence have. Influencers influence the purchasing and consumption behavior of their followers. If an influencer speaks positively about your product or service, this can have a positive effect on your brand reputation and, ideally, on your sales.

When choosing an influencer, it is crucial to analyze the composition of the followers in advance. The greatest possible intersection with your target group is ideal. Also check out the interaction rate the follower: If there are many followers in number, but hardly any reactions to the content of the influencer, this is not a good sign. Of course, mutual sympathy also plays a role and whether your product goes well with the influencer’s other content.