Quick Guide to Start with Social Media Marketing (Beginners)

In the world of marketing attention is the biggest asset, and social media is where you can get the attention of 5 billion global users online. Thus for you, social media can be a powerful tool for connecting with your audience and driving results for your business.

But It might be overwhelming and confusing to get started as a beginner, worry not! Whether you’re a small business owner, a budding entrepreneur, or just curious about the buzz, In this beginner’s guide I will take you by the hand and walk you through the basics of marketing your business on social media. But if you're short on time, you can consider leveraging Sovorun’s digital marketing services.

How Social Media Marketing is Beneficial?

Before we dive in, you should understand the benefits of Social Media Marketing

• Two-Way Communication

Social media offers two-way communication between brands and individuals. where brands can communicate their ideas, promote their products and services increase their engagement rate etc. Individuals can give feedback and genuine reviews which can help brands to improvise and individuals can make better purchase decisions.

• Cost-Effective

Social media is cost-effective for advertising, allowing us to reach a wide audience and enhance our visibility with minimal expenses compared to traditional advertising methods.

• Retarget Customers

Suppose you have a customer on your website but for some reason, they haven't completed their purchase and kept their items in the cart. Here you can grab the opportunity by retargeting them on social media platforms. There is a high probability that if you will remind them they will complete their purchase.
 

5 Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing

Strategy: Your efforts will go in vain without a proper strategy. Before you begin you must have a proper social media plan and (SMART) goal i.e. ( Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound). It will give you a sense of direction.

Content: Create engaging and relevant content. Do experiments, don't be afraid of it. Try new trends, and new methods to find out what's working and what's not working for you. Give importance to quality over quantity. Be consistence, Make a content calendar for proper planning. To learn more check our content marketing services.

Engagement: Social media is a platform where you can interact directly with your customers it's a plus point of social media here it gives an edge over other platforms.

Analytics: Once you are done with everything, track and analyze your performance. Most social media platforms offer in-built analytics tools you can use or you can go for other applications available for analytics like Sprout and Sendible. By analyzing your performance you can understand your strengths and weaknesses and improve your performance.

Advertising: Advertising is an important part of social media marketing if used effectively can boost your performance. Keep your organic foundation strong don't let paid ads replace your organic foundation. Have a proper balance between paid ads and organic reach. 
 

Social Media Marketing Maturity

Social media marketing maturity is about how good an organization is at using social media for marketing. It shows how advanced and effective their social media efforts are.

It has 3 phases which are:

• The Trial Phase

In the trial phase, businesses do not have any sort of guidelines for their social media strategy. Platforms are set up without any plan.

• The Transition Phase 

It's a phase where a large amount of businesses fall in this phase social media activities are performed randomly. But they have some ideas about what they have to do like a company wants to increase social media reach and starts posting at abnormal intervals of time.

• The Strategic Phase

This phase has the highest social media maturity. In this phase, tasks are performed routinely and everything is done in an organized way. Few amount of businesses have reached this stage.

Thus you have to go through all the phases and your goal should be to reach at strategic phase as it has a competitive advantage.
 

How to Create a Good Social Media Marketing Strategy?

1. Know Your Goal

Before you get started with your social media marketing you must have a complete idea about what are your goals and objectives. Your goals must be SMART i.e. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound)

For example, If you have to sell your products or services then your goal must be click-through rate but if you need more Social media followers or subscribers you should focus on increasing engagement rates.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Create a user persona It's important to know who your target audience is and creating a user persona will help you to make an effective Marketing strategy. By targeting the audience's interests and preferences, you can frame a better marketing strategy.

For example, A luxury skincare brand can target high-income professionals and if you have to attract an audience for the gym then you may target individuals between the age group of 18 to 50.

3. Know Your Competitors

Understanding your competitors will help you find gaps in their approach and opportunities to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Read more about creating good brand identity.

For example, if you run a vegan food brand and your competitors post recipes and product promotions. You might find an opportunity to differentiate yourself by focusing on educational content about vegan nutrition or featuring user-generated content from satisfied customers.

4. Find Inspiration

Find out what trending and what can improve your performance through analytics or tools like Google Trends. It will help you to make a compelling social media strategy.

For example, if you're managing social media for a tech startup, looking at innovative campaigns from major tech companies or even from unrelated industries like fashion or food can help you get creative ideas.

5. Create Compelling Content

Creating compelling content is at the heart of a successful social media marketing strategy. To capture and retain your audience’s attention, your content needs to be both engaging and relevant.

For example, if you’re marketing eco-friendly cleaning products, you might create content that not only shows the products but also provides practical tips on reducing household waste or highlights the benefits of sustainable living.

6. Create a Social Media Calendar

A social media calendar will save you time. It will help you to organise your work and allow you to be timely, increase your credibility, keep you relevant and grow your social media traffic. To create a social media calendar you can use online applications like Hootsuite and Google Calendar.

7. Do Social Media Audit

By conducting a social audit you will get to know how well your social media strategies are working. Evaluate your current efforts. Ask yourself questions like:

-What's working?

-What not working?

Once you get the answers to your questions you will get a good starting point for planning your social media strategy.
 

Top 5 Social Media Marketing Platforms for Beginners

Lots of social media platforms are available out there, claiming to be the best. You must be confused between all of them. But in the beginning, you should select those social media platforms which are easy to start with and most suitable for you.

So make sure you are using the right platforms in the beginning. I've examined and found the top 5 best platforms which could be a good start for you.

1. Facebook

Facebook have around 2.9 billion monthly active users. Most Facebook users fall between the ages of 25 to 35 and among all the Facebook users men than women.

Facebook offers comprehensive tools to help its users achieve their objectives. Facebook Manager helps you to integrate all your activities in one place and gives you the option to share access with your team and marketing partners. It also boosts your marketing efforts. Which stands out Facebook from other social media platforms.

2. Instagram

Instagram is owned by Facebook. It has 1.4 billion monthly active users in 2024 which is estimated to increase upto 1.44 billion in 2025.

It is a visual platform where you can attract more audience by sharing quality pictures and reels. 
Instagram hashtags and lives and stories are yet other options to reach a wider audience
Around 71% of Insta users are between the age of 19-29. It means you can attract mostly younger audiences on Instagram.

3. X (Twitter)

X also known as Twitter has over 500 million monthly active users in the year 2024. It is mostly used by a wide range of users to get information.

Twitter is a powerful social media marketing tool that helps businesses connect with their audience in real-time. With features like hashtags to increase visibility and Twitter Ads to target specific demographics, it’s a great platform for building brand awareness and driving traffic. Plus, Twitter's analytics tools offer valuable insights into how your tweets are performing, helping you refine your strategy and reach more people effectively.

4. YouTube

If you can make content, YouTube could be a good start. Youtube has over 2.70 billion active users as of the year 2024. India has the largest base of YouTube audience of 462 million worldwide.

YouTube is an incredibly effective social media marketing tool for reaching and engaging with a large audience through video content.

It allows businesses to show their products, share tutorials, and connect with viewers on a personal level. With features like targeted ads, video analytics, and the ability to create a branded channel, YouTube helps to drive traffic to their platform.

5. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a top-notch social media marketing tool for connecting with other professionals and businesses. On LinkedIn 65.64 companies are registered in 2024

LinkedIn is ideal for B2B marketing, as it helps you show your company’s expertise, network with industry leaders, and share valuable content. With features like LinkedIn Ads for targeted promotion, company pages for brand building, and analytics to track your performance, LinkedIn is perfect for growing your professional presence and generating high-quality leads. 

Conclusion
In this article, you’ve learned why social media marketing is so beneficial and explored the three phases of social media maturity. You’ve also discovered where you stand and how to advance to the third phase.

Then we saw the core pillars of social media marketing, which are essential to its success and I provided a comprehensive strategy to help you excel in social media marketing, finally, we looked at the top five social media platforms to start with. 

Bonus tip - There is no secret mantra but to win the race in social media marketing be creative, consistent, analytical, adaptable, strategic and communicative.

If you need good social media marketing results in optimal time then you can trust us with your goal, and we can take your business to the next level. Visit our website to learn more about us at Sovorun.