What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing uses social platforms to build awareness, communicate with audiences, distribute content, generate engagement and support business objectives.

Start With the Objective

A social media strategy should begin with a measurable objective. Depending on the business, the objective might be awareness, website traffic, leads, sales, community growth or customer support.

Know the Difference Between Reach and Impressions

Reach refers to the number of unique accounts that saw content. Impressions refer to the number of times content was displayed. One person can generate multiple impressions.

Build a Content Mix

A useful content plan can combine educational posts, problem-solving content, product or service information, proof such as testimonials and case studies, behind-the-scenes content and timely formats appropriate to the platform.

Organic and Paid Social

Organic social relies on unpaid distribution and community interaction. Paid social uses advertising budgets to reach selected audiences or achieve specific campaign objectives. Many businesses use both.

How to Measure Social Media

Useful metrics include reach, impressions, engagement rate, video views, link clicks, profile visits, leads and conversions. Choose metrics that connect to the original objective instead of treating every metric as equally important.

Common Mistake

Posting frequently without a defined audience, content purpose or measurement framework can create activity without meaningful business learning. A smaller number of useful, consistent posts can be easier to manage and evaluate.