Social media platforms are potentially some of the most powerful marketing tools available. However, to get the best results from your social media marketing strategies, you need to use these platforms properly. There are several factors to consider when developing strategies for the various platforms out there, so it's essential to understand each’s requirements to inform your campaigns and drive success.
The following are some social media marketing tips to guide you on using the various platforms and ensuring your marketing budget doesn't go to waste.
Instagram remains one of the best social media platforms to use if you want to share more visual content, with around one billion monthly active users. Images and videos are popular on this platform and offer plenty of opportunities for businesses of all types.
The best sizes for Instagram images and videos are:
For videos, keep in mind that the maximum length is 60 seconds for a feed post. The maximum frame rate is 30 fps, with a max file size of 4 GB.
The best times to post to Instagram on Mondays through Thursdays is any time outside of the 3 PM to 4 PM hour.
Many types of content are great for businesses to post, including video and image content such as:
When posting on Instagram, it's essential to focus on a single subject for each post, whether it's a simple image or for Instagram Stories. Having too much going on can confuse rather than engage your audience.
For Instagram Stories that only appear for 24 hours, create fun and raw content such as footage from live events or quick snapshots of the office and employees. Save more carefully curated content for your main feed.
Another popular platform that's only becoming more popular is Facebook, which now has over 1.56 billion active daily users.
For Facebook photo posts, dimensions are:
For Page Ads:
For Like Ads:
Keep in mind that image ads can't contain more than 20% text.
The best time to post on Facebook can vary greatly depending on your campaigns and audience. Generally, posting between 1 PM and 4 PM on weekday afternoons and from 12 PM to 1 PM on weekends is the best way to reach audiences.
Many types of content perform well on Facebook, including engaging image posts, videos, and ads, as long as it offers value to audiences and grabs their attention with plenty of visuals and information.
When launching Facebook marketing campaigns, always engage with audiences. Respond to comments and show that you care about your audience's input.
You should also use Facebook's Ad Manager to measure the results of your marketing efforts regularly. This tool gives you plenty of ways to analyze your campaigns’ performance, including insight into website metrics such as clicks, impressions, and click-through rates along with actions based on an objective you set, frequency of views for ads, and cost per action.
TikTok is a video platform that's relatively new but has developed an enormous following that continues to grow. Today, the platform has over 100 million monthly active users. It may not be for every brand, but if you're targeting younger audiences, TikTok is excellent to use.
The dimensions of TikTok videos should be 1080px by 1920px. When it comes to the aspect ratio, set it to that of standard smartphones at 9:16.
The best times to post on TikTok can vary from campaign to campaign, but Influencer Marketing Hub found that the best times to post are in the morning and late evening hours throughout the week. The best times on the weekends were 11 AM and 7 PM to 8 PM on Saturdays, and 7 AM to 8 AM or 4 PM on Sundays.
Videos that feature plenty of humor tend to do best. People enjoy entertaining and humorous bite-sized content on this platform, much like the now-defunct Vine.
Influencer marketing is great as many micro-influencers and more famous influencers use the site. Creating videos with influencers can be a great way to connect with their audiences.
Hashtags are still important, and they're used very frequently on TikTok. Hashtags can make it easy for people to find your content and start challenges or contests to inspire user-generated content.
Collaboration is also vital. Make sure you connect with other TikTokers with a large or relevant audience, which can help you integrate into the TikTok community and increase exposure to your target audiences.
Snapchat is another great platform to use if you want to connect with audiences through visual content, including images and videos. Today, there are over 218 million daily active users on Snapchat, and that number keeps growing.
You can use full-screen ads that show up between Snapchat Stories, either in the form of videos or images.
The dimensions for videos and images are 1080px by 1920px, with an aspect ratio of 9:16. You can use up to 25 characters for brands, including spaces, and you can use up to 34 characters with spaces for headlines.
Typically, the best time of day to post on Snapchat is anytime after 10 PM, as audiences are most active late at night. Any day of the week is ideal for posting as users are often active daily.
Some types of content that perform very well on this platform include:
When marketing with Snapchat, try to keep up to date with the latest updates to the platform. Snapchat is always adding new features, with the ability to incorporate different effects to liven your posts and ads.
Also, make sure your contact information is evident on all Snapchat ads, as users can simply swipe up in the app to view and call a phone number or visit a website.
Whether you want to increase brand awareness, conversions, or sales, Twitter is an effective platform for many businesses, making it easy to engage audiences. There are around 326 million average monthly users on the platform today, giving you plenty of opportunities to reach audiences all over the world.
Twitter text posts have been and remain limited to 140 characters. Other dimensions to keep in mind include:
The best time to post on Twitter falls around 9 AM on Wednesday and 9 AM or 8 PM on Thursday. However, the mornings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are also ideal for attracting more engagement.
Promoted tweets can put your tweets at the top of search results within Twitter or appear in people's streams. They're great for drawing more traffic to a webpage, at the cost of a monthly fee.
Twitter Moments can also engage audiences via collections of tweets about a particular event or topic. In addition to having Moments publicly featured in popular sections such as "News" and "Entertainment," you can create your own Moments section on your profile highlighting your favorite topics or live or online events.
When advertising via Twitter, use promoted tweets in daily campaigns along with Twitter Ads that can achieve different goals. With Ads, you can use ads to increase video views, conversions, or app installs, as well as general brand awareness efforts.
You should also know where to place links to bring more people to your website. You can do so by adding a URL beneath your Twitter bio, adding links to tweets, embedding tweets on your site using a Twitter Timeline, and retweeting any tweets from others that link back to your website.
If you know how to approach each of these social media marketing strategies, you'll be able to get the best results from each platform. While you may not want to use all of these platforms, having just one or two well-optimized campaigns can drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and increase sales. A highly developed social media marketing campaign can effectively supplement the rest of your digital marketing efforts and maximize exposure.