Social media marketing services have become a cornerstone for audience engagement. It’s the perfect place to reach new people, show your brand personality, and cement a market image.

In short, social media is a place where businesses can have two-sided, real-time interactions and build relationships. This makes it one of the most powerful marketing tools available today.

But, how to wield all this power properly? For starters, you need to be doing more than just posting: a ‘set it and forget it’ mindset won’t be effective on such dynamic platforms. To make the most of these platforms, there are a number of social media marketing services you should be employing.

In this blog, we walk you through the fundamental actions and processes that your social media team (or agency) should be performing in order to get results.

1. Market research
2. Social media strategy
3. Channel development
4. Channel management
5. Community engagement
6. PPC and paid campaigns
7. Influencer marketing
8. Brand monitoring
9. Data analysis
10. Optimisation and more planning

1. Market research

Knowing your landscape is fundamental to any social media marketing strategy.

The first action you should perform is research: on your competitors, your target audience, your market, and different social media platforms. This will allow you to shape your strategy accordingly.

Which social media channels attract your target demographic? What kind of content performs well with your competitors? What kind of questions are your ideal prospects asking? Answering these questions will help you build a strategy that speaks to your target audience, and therefore generates better engagement and results.

For example, a professional or technical audience will likely be drawn to LinkedIn. If you’re targeting a younger or B2C audience, Instagram or TikTok could be more suitable. However, these rules can always be broken. Take Monzo for example – they thrive on LinkedIn as much as they do on platforms traditionally reserved for B2C.

This is because their irreverent and human personality, which succeeds because it cuts through the corporate tone on LinkedIn.

Use tools like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and Instagram Insights to gather data on your social media users. This information can help you tailor your content to meet their preferences, needs, and behaviours.

Want a free LinkedIn audit to get you started? Book one in today with our digital expert Tom.

2. Social media strategy

You’ve got the data, now it’s time to create the strategy. The most important thing is that this shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. A social media strategy should be integrated with your wider digital marketing strategy. Align it with your commercial goals; make sure the work you have planned is adding fuel to this fire.

Plus, it ensures you’re marketing activity and brand messaging is consistent across touchpoints. In doing so, you’re delivering a cohesive, seamless brand experience.

Example ‘brand awareness’ social media strategy:

If you’re a startup or scaleup, brand awareness may be the biggest thing on your mind. Social media marketing services can support this by driving new audiences to your door. For example, a thought leadership approach will build credibility in your market, and promote your authentic USPs.

An outreach approach will actively spread your brand name (and boost new followers). For example, engaging with community forums or using InMail to reach out to decision makers.

Taking this further, using paid media, like LinkedIn Ads, not only puts your content in front of new audiences, but can be used to generate leads. For example, by promoting a webinar on new industry trends or an eBook report or guide.

All of this activity drives more awareness of your brand as a reputable thought leader, and paves the way for further engagement and conversion.

Want to learn more? Here are 8 tips for managing B2B social media management

3. Channel development

Like a blog, or a brand, your social media page needs to be curated.

High-quality social media content is your way of presenting your brand to the world. So, what do you want to be known for? What do you want people to take away from your page, and how can you achieve that?

From your brand strategy, we first recommend creating communication pillars. These will be the guide rope for all your activity, ensuring your content is consistent, aligned with your brand, and goal oriented.

For example, these pillars could be: Education, Inspiration, and Authenticity.

These then become categories to help you plan your social media content calendar. Education would represent valuable, informative content that isn’t necessarily brand related, but which fosters engagement and awareness.

Inspiration represents brand-building content that showcases your mission and incites action. Authenticity would be culture content or more personal posts, to show people your values and attract the right type of prospects.

You can add more pillars, or break them down further into more detail, like types of posts.

Similarly, creating rules for the design – the look and feel – of your posts will ensure that each one is visually appealing and on brand.

All in all, the aim is to curate a social media plan that is strategic, provides value to your audience, and creates a trusted, engaging page that people want to return to.

4. Channel management

Consistency is key in social media marketing. You want to ensure that you’re continually reaching your audience with a regular posting schedule, even during busy times.

Scheduled posts also allow you to strategically plan your content around key dates and events relevant to your audience. Use scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social to plan and automate your posts.

What’s more, many scheduling tools come with analytics features that can help you track the performance of your posts and make data-driven decisions. We share more on this later!

Nevertheless, it’s important to be reactive around your planned calendar. Social media management therefore also means reviewing trending posts, hopping on relevant news items, and adjusting along with the company strategy – so make sure you’ve scheduled time to do this.

Set up your LinkedIn page using these best practices today, here’s a guide to help.

5. Community engagement

Social media is a two-way street. Engagement builds a community around your brand and fosters loyalty among your followers.

Engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and mentions. Show appreciation for positive feedback and address any concerns or negative comments professionally (and quickly). Engagement goes beyond just replying to comments; it involves actively participating in conversations. So, ask for feedback and show that you value your audience’s opinions.

This can help you build a community of loyal followers who feel connected to your brand. It’s also a useful way to get real insight into your audience’s behaviours and interests.

6. PPC and paid campaigns

Paid social media is another way to use social media to reach your more commercial goals. Target new or specific audience segments, generate leads, and achieve trackable results.

Ultimately, paid media – such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising – can help you grow your followers and your sales.

Paid campaigns and PPC should be considered alongside your organic activity. If you’re promoting a webinar on upcoming regulation for example, make sure your organic activity reflects this. People may visit your company page before or after signing up and you want to show you can provide valuable information on the topic.

Plan your paid campaigns into your social calendar, and around important dates in your company diary.

Read this blog for more about using paid media to grow your business.

7. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing can amplify your reach and credibility. Essentially, you’re taking advantage of their potentially untapped following to promote your brand. People love people, and having a relevant person endorse your brand will go a long way.

Influencer partnerships can take many forms, from sponsored posts and product reviews to giveaways. Or, you could opt for something less sales-oriented, like a partnered webinar.

It’s important to collaborate with people who align with, and will benefit, your brand. It’s not just about follower count. How relevant are they to your niche? What are the demographics of their followers? What is their engagement rate?

8. Brand monitoring

Reputation management is a critical part of maintaining a positive image online. Therefore, it’s a key social media marketing service to integrate into your practices.

Monitor your brand mentions across all social media platforms using tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Brandwatch. This allows you to respond promptly to any issues that arise (such as misinformation being spread about your brand). It also means you’re ready to jump on opportunities where your voice can add value. For example, you might spot the chance to answer a direct question about your service.

A quick reaction can prevent small issues from escalating into bigger problems. Or it can be a way to start a conversation with a new prospect.

Additionally, understanding what people are saying about your brand can show you ways to improve your products or services.

9. Data analysis

Data-driven decisions help ensure that your efforts are more confident, more engaging, and more effective.

Analytics can provide insights into a number of factors that support your social media efforts:

• Which types of content resonate most with your audience
• The best times to post
• How your campaigns are performing
• Which demographics are the most engaged
• And more

By regularly reviewing social media data, you can make informed decisions that enhance your social media strategy and improve your results. Social media platforms like LinkedIn supply their own analytics. But, you can also glean additional insights from tools like Google Analytics. For example, you can see how much of your website traffic is driven by social.

Tracking and reporting on performance is a key part of social media services. This will inform your team, or agency, about future actions and optimisations.

The trick here is to monitor behavioural metrics, not just vanity metrics like followers. Measuring engagement rates, reach, impressions, and conversion rates is a good place to start.

Get a free LinkedIn audit from our Digital Guru Tom Sinkinson

Set up a 30 min call where Tom will talk you through an evaluation of your page, with some quick wins to take forward.

10. Optimisation and more planning

Social media is constantly evolving, and so should your strategy.

Stay updated with the latest trends and changes in social media algorithms. Be open to experimenting with new content formats and platforms. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on both the performance data and the changing preferences of your audience.

What works today might not work tomorrow, so it’s important to stay flexible and be willing to try new things.

What are some successful social media campaigns?

To illustrate the power of social media marketing, let’s look at a few case studies of successful social media marketing campaigns:

Becoming a trusted voice in a new market

We drove traffic to OSL’s site using LinkedIn as a platform for thought leadership. Our activity focused on providing clarity on an evolving threat that the audience was worried about: drones. The three prongs of our campaigns focused on building trust with case study promotion, market education, and timely news commentary.

The results:

• Website traffic increased by 192%
• Organic social traffic increased by 484%

Read the OSL case study

Generating leads on a budget

For Trailight, we used organic social media campaigns to drive leads. The team were on a budget, so we clasped onto recent regulatory updates to gain attention rather than using a big paid ad spend.

We created a full buyer journey on social media, starting by educating the audience and ending with a strong solution guide to gain leads. The result:

• 90 MQLs
• 5 meetings with target clients
• Anecdotal increase in brand awareness

Read the Trailight case study

Creating a disruptive, recognisable brand

As a new player in the market, RezKit wanted to build awareness. More specifically, they wanted to stand out from their very ‘B2B SaaS’ competitors. Our vibrant rebrand helped them realise this vision, and was supported by consistent and powerful social media implementation. Their presence on social media was designed to be experiential, inspiring, and supportive.

This LinkedIn strategy resulted in:

• 348% increase in LinkedIn followers
• 87% rise in website views
• 18 new leads

Read the RezKit case study

Effective digital marketing efforts start today

Effective social media marketing services are multifaceted. Brands need to deliver multiple content types, engage with different audiences, and keep up activity to see consistent results. Also, what works for you, may not work for others.

A strategic approach is essential. Brands need to combine their understand of their audience and provide unique content (that says something about them) to engage. If you follow these best practices, you’ll be sure to turn your social media marketing efforts into a valuable tool for brand growth.

Our social media marketing services are designed to give your brand the voice it deserves in an ever-changing social landscape. Find out why we’re trusted by innovative enterprises worldwide today with a free social media audit.