How to use social networks as a marketing tool? Step by step guide

Social networks constitute an important information window not only to communicate a message, but also to publicize your company or brand. For this reason, marketing uses them to reach a large number of people.

Today, most people have a presence on at least one social network, which means that it is an excellent way to reach a wide audience and communicate a message to them. Added to that, compared to traditional advertising, in social networks can promote products or services at low costs.

So we will teach you how to use social media as a marketing tool, so you can get the most out of them.

Why should I include social media in my marketing plan?

This is a question asked by many people, especially adults, who are starting their business and do not understand the importance of having a presence on networks. As we mentioned earlier, These platforms are perfect for reaching a large number of potential clients. The reason is that currently practically all Internet users have an account created on at least one social network. It does not matter if they have mobiles or not, because they can access them even through the Internet.

Through these platforms, users interact with others around the world making it an ideal place to promote your brand or product. The greater the presence of people within a network, greater possibilities to publicize your company. In this sense, previously made studies regarding the use that individuals give to networks come into relevance. For example, there is a very interesting one that indicates that 70% of women consult the social networks of a company before making the purchase decision.

This means that they consider the profile of a company within a network as a reliable window to check whether the place they are going to buy is really safe and recognized. So, if you create a professional profile on your company's networks, you can attract the attention of potential customers. However, that alone is not enough. It is also necessary to implement another series of Digital Marketing strategies that will allow you to make yourself known, and even promote your services or products in a more effective way.

Benefits of social networks for companies What do they contribute to my strategy?

Establishing a social media marketing plan is a solution that has practically no loss of money, because to create an account on any social network you only need an email along with a password. Expenses begin to occur only when you decide invest in ads. Since it is not strictly necessary, you can start promoting your company at no cost. There are many others Important benefits of social networks for companies.

We detail them in the following list:

Improve visibility online of your brand.
Increase reputation of your business or brand.
They establish a communication link between client – company.
Attract traffic to your website or blog (If you have).
Break geographic and temporal barriers, because you can reach people from all over the world.
They help identification and study of competition.
Allow know the needs of your customers.
They serve to build customer loyalty.
They are the perfect platform to serve as a speaker for benefits of products or services that you offer.

Learn how to include social media in your marketing strategy.

You don't need to be an expert in marketing to apply a network plan for your business. It is only enough to take into account certain aspects, adjust them to your needs and voila.

Therefore, below we will teach you how to include social networks within the marketing strategy of your brand:

Create company profiles

The first step to start in the world of social networks is create the different users of your company in the networks. Currently, there is the option to configure your user as a company profile, which is very beneficial for you because it gives you a series of extra features that will be very useful for you. For example, yes you create a user under these characteristics, you have access to metrics and all kinds of statistics regarding your profile.

That way, you can know exactly what your type of audience is, what are the best times to post and other details. Is a essential tool that must be configured in any profile business, so you can't ignore it. So don't forget to create your user under the company profile settings.

You can do this on practically all networks. Make a study about which are the best networks according to your niche and create your profiles in each of them from that information. Remember that the public of Facebook, is not the same as that of Instagram or LinkedIn.

Analyze the metrics

Once you have created the different business profiles on each network, you have to get the most out of metrics. They will be your best allies for know and study your followers in depth and thus identify exactly what they like the most, the age range of those who follow you, sex and much more. With this information, you can organize a whole network plan focused on the needs of your followers. This will increase interactions, which inevitably improves your reliability.

We recommend that in order to start analyzing your metrics, make a few posts first. Then, in each of them, review different details such as types of people who liked, shared or interacted with them. Definitely, metrics are a great help to study the performance of your company profile, as well as the scope of your campaigns.

Share valuable content

Another of the most important points in any digital marketing strategy is the content. It is essential that you publish content that really serves your followers or interested people in your services, because by helping to satisfy a need, you will be rewarded in greater followers and potential clients.

If you want to know in depth about what content to publish, how to do it and other tips, take a look at our post about Content Marketing. Keep in mind that when we refer to "content", it is not just about texts. He content includes photos, videos, graphics, infographics or any other type of resource that you use to transmit a message or promote your services and products.

Create audiences

Once you have created your profile, you have studied the metrics and even know very well what are the contents that you are going to share, it is time to create audiences. This refers to establishment of a database where you classify your followers according to various categories.

For example, you can do it according to their age, sex, interests, and many other details. Likewise, the creation of audiences is also based on find the followers who can really connect with your company and the content you share. That way, you will have your audience segmented and you can take advantage of your networks adjusted to the needs of your audience.

Channels, FanPages and Groups as part of your funnel

When you are clear about your audience and what they need, it is time to establish a strong link between them and your brand. One of the most effective ways is through creation of channels, fanpages or groups, where you share personalized information for those who join your community. Thanks to this method, you can always be in contact with your followers and offer them promotions, contests and much more.

This will make them always stay linked to you, regardless of whether they have only bought one of your products or have contracted your services at a single opportunity. Added to that, you can integrate channels, fanpages and groups as part of your funnel.

He funnel is a term used in Online Marketing in which the different steps or phases that a user goes through to meet an objective within your company, such as a purchase, registration and more, are defined. With the help of this integration, you can detect elements to improve to increase the conversion rate of a common user to a potential client. Finally, based on these data, develop new strategies.

Create events

Another very interesting way of integrating social networks into your market strategy is with the help of the creating events. Live broadcasts through different networks make it possible for users anywhere in the world to connect with your company and interact. You can create events for product launches, to give feedback to your customers and much more. With this, you make them feel part of the brand and stay linked to it.

Add social media buttons within your website

Finally, a resource that you can implement is add social media buttons within your website. Most companies today have a website showing their products or services. The ideal is to merge both platforms adding social media buttons inside it. In this way, those who come to the page can also visit your networks and be closer to the brand.

What are the best social networks for companies? The 5 most important

Over the years, every day add new interesting social networks. However, the best option is to ensure that you have a presence in the best known, used and consolidated in the world.

We will talk to you about the 5 most important worldwide:

Facebook

Facebook is the social network that leads the list of the most important worldwide, because it is the most famous and used by people. Virtually anyone has access to Facebook, regardless of whether you have a mobile or not. It is a platform perfect to promote any brand or company, since its scope is wide. In addition, it offers users the possibility of create paid ads to promote and expand.

In summary, some benefits of having a Facebook for your company are:

Generate traffic to your website or other networks you have.
Earn loyalty to your customers.
Improve online reputation of your brand or company.
It is a channel of direct communication with customers.

Instagram

Instagram is another of the recognized networks worldwide. It has become famous for the possibility of sharing audiovisual content with many users. Despite the fact that in the beginning its focus seemed to be towards the youth audience, today it is perfect for users of any age. As with Facebook, in this network you can create ads and spread them around the world. You can also segment your ads according to the target audience you want to reach.

Some advantages of using Instagram for your company are:

Increase the engagement.
Improves the traffic to your blog or website.
Establish a closeness between your followers and your brand.
You can know the user behavior.
Provides the possibility of share all kinds of audiovisual content.

Twitter

When it comes to Twitter, you should know that has a much more specific audience. Despite being one of the most used in the world, it does not necessarily share the same type of users that it frequents Instagram, for example. It is ideal for share quality content and make the most of hashtags to reach more people.

Among its main advantages can be named:

Help to build your brand image.
Create segmented campaigns according to your type of target audience.
Can create geolocated tweets to reach the people that suit you best.
With the hashtags, you can spread your content and promote your brand in a more organized way.

WhatsApp is a messaging application, which adds more and more interesting new functions so that companies can contact their users. For example, with the launch of Whatsapp Business You can establish a professional communication channel. Other than that, With the Business version, business owners can have a communication channel in which they separate their personal messages from work messages..

Some benefits that should be highlighted from WhatsApp Business for your company are:

It allows create welcome messages It will be sent to any user who writes to you for the first time.
Provides the possibility of create automatic responses to certain questions that they make you clients or followers.
Can write an absence message, so that the people who write to you know when you are out of business hours and do not wait for your answer for a long time.
It offers the possibility to analyze your profile, check statistics, add business hours and much more.

Last but not least, you will find LinkedIn. This is one of the most professional platforms on the Internet. The audience that lives in it is very specific, and it is professionals or companies that want to offer their products or services. If you have a presence on this platform, your business opportunities may grow, because it allows you to contact companies in your sector.

For its part, some benefits of having LinkedIn for your brand are:

Can recommend to your contacts or be recommended.
It allows you find customers, employees and even suppliers.
Help to promote your services or products.
There is an exchange of opinions, offer participation in forums and debates in your sector.
You will have direct contact with other professionals or leaders of your sector.