This is an introduction to social media marketing tactics for all the marketers out there who know they want to work with social media but need some help navigating the social media jungle.
Prefer to listen? Tune in to our podcast episode about social media marketing tactics together with Emily Sun, Campaign Manager at Cure Media!
Today, when a social media presence is a need-to-have rather than nice-to-have, marketers are increasingly turning to social media channels as one of the most valuable ways to reach out to their audience. So why is it important for brands to have a social media strategy today?
Back in 2011, people spent an average of 1.5 hours on social media. Now, 10 years on, people spend an average of 3.26 hours on social media. That’s an increase of 128%, and it also means that if you want to meet today’s consumer where they’re spending their time, you need to be leveraging social media channels.
Social media has become the platform where we reach out and connect with other people, it’s where we fulfil our innate need to build relationships and it’s the prime place for brands to be when the people in those relationships are ready to explore or purchase products and services. This has, of course, gone further due to the increased social media usage during Covid.
On a fundamental level, there are two main classes of social media tactics and for the most part, you can group them under organic or paid media. First off, organic media encompasses everything that uses non-paid-for social media tools to share content and stories between users, brands and companies. Working with organic media is a great way for brands to outline who they are and what they’re about, to establish their voice, and build relationships with a loyal audience.
Paid social media, on the other hand, covers everything that has spend behind it. It is an avenue for brands to promote their content and communications through a variety of paid approaches, including everything from sponsored posts, display ads, retargeting and more. This is a gateway to expand reach and awareness and win more earned media, and this approach has become increasingly appealing to modern brands for its effectiveness in generating and engaging leads as users become more comfortable with the idea of buying directly from their feeds.
In practice, however, these paid and organic tactics complement each other really well and often work best when applied in tandem. Where the strong suit of organic media