7 Social Media Marketing Tips to Help Your Business Grow in 2021

By Olivia Rahim | April 13, 2021

With the growing use of the internet, social media has become a popular tool for communication and networking. Social media is an effective way for businesses to grow their brands through marketing, communication, and public relations. Social media is now a business necessity for managing customer interaction, generating new leads, and supporting the sales force. With the following social media marketing tips, you can grow your business in 2021.

Determine the metrics and KPIs that matter

Before running reports, determine the metrics and KPIs that matter. Vanity metrics such as likes and followers are tempting to obsess over, but they don’t help in decision-making, value judgment, taking action, and overall business growth. Some of the metrics you should focus on are:

• Engagement: It’s the number of social interactions versus impressions. Use this to determine your audience’s perception of your brand and their willingness to interact.
• Reach: It’s the number of users who view your posts. Use it to determine how far your content reaches the user’s feeds.
• Sentiment: This is the type of reaction from your users towards your brand, hashtag, or content.
• Hashtag performance: Shape your content according to the most-used hashtags and those that associate with your brand.
• Clicks: Track the number of clicks you get per campaign to understand the content that drives curiosity or inspires people to buy.

Perform social media audits

Social media audit the systematic process of analyzing current happenings and evaluating your brand’s social media presence. With a social media audit, you can determine what’s not working and make efforts towards improvement. Some of the minor issues you might discover are ineffective content, improper hashtag use, untimely posting, and poor engagement rates. Use the following easy steps to make social media audit.

• Analyze your business pages and profiles on social media sites.
• Analyze competition and influencers.

When you have performed a primary analysis, create a comprehensive action plan to guide your improvements.

Curate engaging content

Social media marketing depends on the kind of content you release. Based on your brand identity and goals, you should know what type of content to publish and the networks to cover. In 2021, some of the trending content includes short video reels on Instagram and TikTok, more personal stories, time-sensitive posts, and individual posts that show your human side. 

Be timely with your social presence

Timeliness is a crucial factor in social media marketing. You are expected to post regularly and at a time when your target audience is active on the platform. Determine the times when your brand can communicate with clients and start posting. Your social media managers should be ready to respond to product questions and concerns when you post or tweet. Post during the best times to engage with your audience, give speedy responses, and regularly create meaningful conversations.

Optimize mobile phone content

Almost all social media users log on to these platforms using their mobile phones. More than half of all web traffic is from mobile phones; adopt a mobile-first approach in social media marketing. You are likely to reduce your target audience pool if those who visit your page using smartphones aren’t impressed. Test content before posting to ensure it aligns properly with tablets, PCs, and mobile phones. If you find issues, rectify them to optimize the user-navigation experience.

Avoid the hard-sell approach

Traditional marketing tactics have long ceased in popularity. It is intrusive, and bruiting your way into the industry with force won’t work. Instead, focus on building connections and relationships with people. This way, you establish trust, and when people trust your brand, they are more open to buying your products and services.

Consumers scan through your page fast, and if they find your content off-putting with too many promotions, it will lose value to them. Prioritize honest communication instead of the hard-sell approach.

Take advantage of social media influencers

Influencer marketing is at its epitome, and their engagement on social media is expected to grow even more in 2021. Collaborate with influencers to be discovered by new audiences and remain relevant. However, if your brand can’t afford established mega influencers, collaborate with mid-tier, nano, and micro-influencers in your niche. Such influencers have a more genuine and closer relationship with their following and can make your marketing more effective.

Bottom line

The use of the internet is growing daily; take advantage of this to grow your business in 2021. Social media gives your business a competitive advantage, but you have to strategize to grow. Use social media influencers, perform regular audits, be timely with your content, and avoid the hard-sell approach. Determine the metrics that matter and use them to curate engaging content for your audience.