Social Media Marketing for Business: Best Practices & Key Metrics

Posted on November 7, 2024November 10, 2024 by user_himelkhan

Social Media Marketing for Business

Social Media Marketing for Business: Best Practices & Key

Metrics

There’s no longer any question that social media is a necessary marketing channel for any business that wants to be visible and relevant online. But getting started can be difficult and even something as simple as choosing a social platform can be more complicated than you think. There are many social media platforms for business out there and choosing the right ones and creating a strategy can be daunting. The good news is that there are ways to figure out which platforms work best for a brand. You can now also make the most of AI in social media by leveraging it to optimize social media content and campaigns.

Why Social Media Important?

As you probably know, there are social media platforms out there for everything and everyone, including ones to connect people with shared interests, similar hobbies, comparable demographics and much more.

The point is that there are way too many for you to be active on them all, particularly if you are a small or medium-sized business with limited resources and money. Plus, your time would be better spent focusing on the sites that help reach your goals.

86% of marketers say that social media has helped increase exposure followed by increasing traffic at 73% and lead generation at 64%, according to Statista. This means that if you’re not using social media effectively, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity.

The use of social media has continued to grow over time. It’s now so popular as a channel that over 5 billion people spend an average of 2 hours and 20 minutes per day scrolling or engaging. People also go between platforms – an average of 6.7 each month, according to DIGITAL 2024: Global Overview Report.

Of all the social media networks, the top ones in terms of monthly active users ranked by an ‘active user index’ are YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

Social Media App User

Let’s look at 4 effective ways to pick the right channels for your business.

1. Define Your Social Media Goals

There are many benefits to using social media, but it’s important to have specific goals before you move forward. That way you can create a successful social media strategy for your business.

For one, your objectives will help determine not only the social platform you choose, but the content you create and the audience you target.

When it comes to figuring out the best social media platform, the first step is to prioritize what’s important to you. Do you want to:

Expand your reach
Generate more leads
Boost brand awareness
Drive website traffic
Engage customers
Provide customer support
Get insights about your industry or market
Build a community
Improve search engine rankings
Boost your brand’s reputation

All these goals are possible using social media networks, it’s about prioritizing your goals and choosing the right platform or platforms to achieve them.

For example, is your business visual so it lends itself to platforms like Instagram or TikTok? Is it focused on real-time events and would work well on X? Or is your audience diverse and so needs a combination of platforms such as YouTube and LinkedIn?

2. Determine What Channels Your Audience Uses

The entire point of successful social media marketing is to connect you with your most receptive audience. So, it’s not advisable to choose a platform where your audience isn’t active.

Unfortunately, there’s no ‘Field of Dreams’ opportunity here where your prospects will start using the social platform of your choice. Instead, analyze which platforms your audience prefers and be active on those network/s.

A key thing to do when starting this process is to conduct some audience research to define a buyer persona. That way you know your target audience/s and can narrow down the platforms that they use by gender, demographics, interests, values, etc.

There are a few different ways you can go about finding where your audience hangs out online.

One of the most straightforward is a simple customer survey. Email marketing may be the best channel if you don’t have a captive audience on social media or connect with brand advocates or loyal customers through WhatsApp if that’s an option.

Ask questions like what social sites they use, where they get their information online, and which influencers they listen to.

Another way to get information about your audience is through paid ads on social media.

By using paid advertising, you can tell platforms like Facebook about your ideal customers, and they will find the right audience based on demographics like location, age or gender. You can then narrow it down further through detailed targeting such as relationship status, education or income or even interests and lifestyle.

Another channel is your website. Use analytics like Google Analytics 4 to find out what social channels people are coming from to your site. Even if you don’t post regularly, you may be surprised how people found you.

3. Review Your Content

Different work better with certain social media platforms, so it’s key that you consider carefully the types of content you like to create that will work best for your business.

The type of content you create will depend on several things, including your industry, your business and your target audience.

Uses of different social media platforms and successful content:

Blog posts – Blogs are a great way to inform and drive traffic to a website or landing page. They also help with SEO as you can write blogs based on keywords or key phrases that people search for and want answers to. Check out this guide to SEO writing to see how to do it effectively.
Podcasts – Collaborate with industry leaders to tap into their audience on social networks and use hashtags when sharing to increase reach. Here are some podcast tools and templates to help.
Testimonials – Your customers are your most important asset, so make sure to use their opinions and experiences to promote your brand.
User-generated content – This is the holy grail of content as it’s not you creating it but your brand advocates. Get inspiration from some great UGC campaigns.
Webinars and live streams – Live video is great for audience engagement and learning more about your buyers, particularly through a Q&A session at the end.
Ebooks – This type of long-form content can provide huge value to potential customers and is great for data capture and lead generation.
Whitepapers – The perfect content to demonstrate industry knowledge, show thought leadership and generate leads through downloads.
Videos – The ultimate in content, videos can expand your reach widely if something you create goes viral. Check out these 9 ideas for social media videos to get you started.
Photographs – Using photos to showcase the inner workings of your business, your team or even something humorous can help drive engagement and traffic.

It’s also important to think about what type of content you already make. Don’t try to start from scratch. Look at what you already have to see if it would work on social media or if it can be repurposed.

4. Match Your Goals, Audience & Content with the Right Platform

Once you’ve decided on your social media goals, determined where your audience is, and decided what type of content works best, you can compare the different social media platforms to see which one/s will meet your needs.

To help you decide, here’s a rundown of the top platforms by audience size, what they’re good for and what a typical user looks like:

Facebook for Business

Currently the largest social media platform, with over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is great for lead generation, and its advertising platform can be highly customized to target specific audiences.

Facebook is also a good platform for building relationships, showing the human side of your business, and turning leads into loyal followers and customers. Facebook groups are popular and can provide insights into what customers want and enable you to connect with prospects and customers.

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Many different content types do well on Facebook, but video content (and live video if you have the capacity) to show off products, how-to tutorials, provide industry or company news or host live Q&As), behind the scenes content and user-generated content tend to do well.

YouTube for Business

The ubiquitous video platform has over 2.5 billion active users and is the second-most visited website after Google so has huge potential for reaching your audience.

Obviously, the content you want to create to be successful on YouTube is video!

Some of the many types of videos that perform well on YouTube are:

How-to or tutorial videos
Product reviews
Unboxing or reveals
Interviews
Behind the scenes videos
Testimonials
Q&A videos
Podcasts
Influencer content

YouTube Shorts has also gained popularity since its launch in 2021 to compete with TikTok’s popular short-form videos. These videos have collectively earned over 5 trillion views.

Here’s an example from beauty brand Glossier using a short video to promote a product.

It’s worth noting that in February 2024, YouTube videos appeared on search engine results pages (SERPs) for over 791 million search queries in America alone the United States alone reported SemRush. YouTube is also streamed more often than Netflix on TVs according to Nielsen data.

Top tip: YouTube also has a popular advertising platform (with ads that can reach 30% of the world’s population according to DataReportal) so it’s worth thinking about if your company creates a lot of video content.

WhatsApp for Business

Hot on the heels of Facebook and YouTube, WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users globally. With such reach, it’s a great platform to gain traction for your brand.

But what the platform is great for is customer service and you can set up a business profile that also acts as a virtual storefront.

WhatsApp Lucky Shrub profile

Through its WhatsApp Business option, small businesses can reply and chat to customers and its ‘Catalog’ feature allows the showcasing of products and in-app browsing.

You can also use ‘quick Replies’ to answer the most commonly asked questions and set an away notice so people know you are on holiday and not able to respond.

People can also search for businesses through WhatsApp and using ‘Discover’ or a QR code. Shopping is also possible using the ‘Shop’ icon as people can add products to a cart and then discuss payment options in-app (some countries do offer payment through Meta but not many yet).

Top tip: Use the ‘Broadcast’ feature to announce promotions, special offers and new inventory to multiple customers at the same time.

Instagram for Business

There are 2 billion users on Instagram and 85% of them are younger than 45. So if that’s your demographic, Instagram could be a platform to look at.

Originally a photo-sharing app, Instagram has evolved to expand into video and has a number of formats. Like Facebook, live video has become very popular on Instagram along with its Stories (posts that only last 24 hours) and Reels (short-video content) features.

Instagram Shopping makes it easier for brands to promote products and make money on the platform. People can purchase in the app rather than being directed to a landing page or website.

On your Instagram Shop, you can include:

Collections based on a theme (e.g. new arrivals, colors etc.)
Product Detail Pages (includes pricing and descriptions and content where the product is tagged)
Product Tags and Product Ad Tags (highlight items from your catalog in images and videos and product mentions in your profile bio or feed copy)
Checkout for payment

This example from Droosh featured on Instagram’s ‘Shop’ page for emerging brands has a link to its website in the bio section along with a brief description to inform and engage.

Droosh on Instagram

Many influencers made their name on Instagram. And it’s still a platform that many influencers and content creators use to promote themselves and partner with brands. More businesses are partnering with micro-influencers on Instagram to connect with their target audience, raise brand awareness and drive website traffic.

Pinterest for Business

Pinterest is a visual discovery network that allows people to post ‘Pins’ and create ‘Boards’ on themes. With nearly 500 million monthly users and around 60% of those female, it’s a platform that can work well for small businesses.

With a Pinterest Business account, you can drive traffic by linking back to your website. By posting ‘Pins’ you can promote products and create ‘catalogs’ that link to your feed and can upload shoppable items or travel listings.

So what you should put on your Pins to boost your brand? Your Pins can contain an image or a video. The types of posts that are best for promoting a business, selling products or services and driving traffic to a website include:

Products
How To’s and Product Tutorials
Recipes
Blogs
Infographics
Promotions

You can also create ads in different formats such as a vertical or square image, video, carousel quiz or collection. Targeting and analytics help you select a target audience and craft content that engages.

Become a Social Media Master

Social media provides marketers with opportunities to connect with audiences from all demographics on a global scale. But there’s an art to using social media channels effectively for your audience. DMI’s Professional Diploma in Social Media covers everything you need to know to be effective across all networks. You will learn about social research, social content, social commerce and affiliate marketing, social customer service and social strategy. You will also explore the ins and outs of all the key platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, X and WhatsApp. Enroll today to get started!

Best SEO Tools for 2024: Improve Rankings and Boost Traffic

Posted on November 7, 2024November 8, 2024 by user_himelkhan

Best SEO Tools for 2024

Best SEO Tools for 2024: Improve Rankings and Boost Traffic

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most essential marketing skills that you can master. If you know how to do SEO analysis and report on performance, you can show the value of your content marketing efforts to your manager or CEO and develop campaigns or strategies to boost your brand’s search engine rankings for relevant keywords or terms. In this blog, we’ll look at what SEO is, how it works, its benefits and the best Search Engine Optimization tools 2024.

What Are The Benefits of SEO Reporting?

Through SEO analysis, you can gain a deeper insight into your company’s current organic traffic sources and find out exactly how consumers are arriving to and interacting with your website.

By understanding the needs and behaviors of your prospects and customers, you can create and tailor content that’s relevant. This will put your time and money where it’s likely to see a good return on investment and provide SEO optimized content that’s valuable and useful (and indexable by Google).

If you fail to analyze and report on your SEO efforts you’re likely to see your content and brand slip down the rankings.

SEO reporting tools will be your eyes in the dark, serving up the insights, information and data you need to continually evolve your SEO strategy across every channel or touchpoint (from blogs and landing pages to social networks and beyond).

In our hyper-connected tech-driven age, a mix of accessible SEO analysis tools exist that shed detailed light into where your on-page and off-page SEO methods work and the areas that might need improvement.

Let’s look at some great tools to help you track, analyze and tweak your SEO efforts.

1. Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Google Analytics

As the primary go-to tool for digital marketers, Google Analytics or GA4 is a trusted platform that offers a wealth of information concerning your customers demographics, preferences, engagement activities, and browsing behaviors (among other important insights).

The best thing about GA4 is that there are plenty of practical how-to guides on how to use as well as navigate the platform, starting with the Digital Marketing Institute library. Have a look at our GA4 Essentials (with Neil Patel Brands) or our guide to GA4.

For SEO analysis, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are tools that will help you measure a wealth of relevant metrics based on your specific search-based goals and benchmarks.

Here are the main GA4 and Search Console SEO metrics you should focus on to spot trends, identify any issues or weaknesses and track your ongoing performance.

Google Search Console:

Impressions
Clicks
Average positions
Click-through rate

GA4:

Organic sessions
Organic conversions
Average session duration
Bounce rate
Engagement rate
Sessions per user
Engaged sessions
Scrolled users

Other metrics are domain authority, SERP features, backlinks and referring domains are tracked in tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs.

You can also use Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) to convert data into customizable, informative reports and dashboards that can be shared company-wide.

2. KWFinder

KW Finder

If you’re looking to conduct keyword SEO analysis and share your discoveries or suggestions with your manager or CEO, KWFinder’s interface is accessible, logical and visually-digestible.

A crafty creation from Mangools, KWFinder offers the option to conduct domain-based keyword searches and see which terms your competitors are using.

By punching a keyword discovery search into the platform, you can gain instant access to an invaluable mix of easy-to-understand information that will help you curate lists of impactful keywords for specific SEO campaigns, content or activities. This insightful information includes:

A chart-based keyword difficulty visualization that tells you how much overall traffic competition there is for a specific keyword or term.
A keyword popularity and trend chart that shows search volumes over a particular time frame
A detailed list of relevant keywords with metrics on search volumes, difficulties, and pay-per-click (PPC) costs: a helpful metric for any paid marketing analysis or reporting activities.
A keyword questions tab that will show you the most popular or relevant questions people are asking based around a specific keyword. Moreover, This is particularly effective if you’re analyzing existing content and you’re looking to update or optimize it to better match a searcher’s intent or gain rankings for rich snippets.

Armed with this information, you can conduct detailed analysis on fresh keywords for optimizing existing content as well as the terms you believe will prove most valuable for new or emerging search-based campaigns.

Afterward, Once you’ve gathered your information, you can export your prospect lists and discoveries into a CSV-based report.

3. PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights

In addition to the quality and shareability of your content, your domain authority, and your UX offerings, your page speed performance will have an impact on your company’s overall SEO performance.

Additionally, PageSpeed Insights is a powerful free tool that is easy to pick up and it returns detailed Core Web Vitals assessments as well as a breakdown of your page’s speed and loading performance. The visuals are easy to understand and with one simple search, you will get a comprehensive list of recommendations that will help you improve your pages’ performance.

Furthermore, You can dig deeper into the platform’s recommendations (based on either mobile or desktop analysis) or cherry pick what you feel is most relevant or valuable and report these concrete findings to senior stakeholders within the business. This is a simple tool that will add an extra layer of intelligence to your ongoing SEO reporting efforts and strategy.

Other SEO Reporting Tools to Consider

The six SEO reporting and analysis tools above will give you a well-rounded view of your brand’s search engine optimization-based activities and performance.

Additionally, using these essential tools will also give you guidance on what to do to improve your strategy while offering concrete metrics that will validate your initiatives or suggestions. Here are some other handy tools you might want to check out:

1. SEMRush

A powerful keyword suggestion and research tool with workflow optimization capabilities and a highly-interactive visual interface.

2. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic uses autosuggest (also known as autocomplete) data to power its searches. That means that you can get an array of phrases organized by search volume to see what people are searching for on a particular topic. This can help you create content that your audience are looking for.

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

An excellent SEO tool for website or on-page optimization and evaluation, this neat platform is perfect for technical and UX-based activities or initiatives.

4. Ahrefs

A cohesive all-in-one SEO tool that allows you to perform site audits, keyword research, content comparisons and rank tracking from the same interface.

5. Moz

Another versatile and industry-renowned SEO platform that is particularly good for rank tracking and backlink analysis.

Conclusion

The best search engine optimization tools 2024 offer powerful capabilities to enhance website visibility, improve rankings, and drive organic traffic. From comprehensive platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs, which provide in-depth keyword research and competitor analysis, to specialized tools like Surfer SEO for content optimization and Screaming Frog for technical audits, each tool serves a unique purpose in building a robust SEO strategy. Choosing the right tools and using them effectively can make a significant difference in reaching SEO goals, improving user experience and maximizing digital marketing results. Contact us guide you through the complexities of SEO and craft a strategy that ensures long-term growth for your business.