How To Start Social Media Marketing As A Beginner - STEP BY STEP

Over the past few years, Social Media Marketing has become almost synonymous with digital marketing. As a marketer, you really can't think of one without the other. And no digital marketing strategy would be complete without a solid focus and emphasis on at least one and maybe even more different social media channels, platforms, or networks. After all, social media can be used to get attention, build awareness, and drive traffic to your business. It can be used to deepen relationships, engage and nurture your audience, and to build trust and value with that target market.

And it can be used to engage in sales conversations, to continue to nurture interested customers, and some platforms even allow you to make sales directly on the platform, not to mention using social media for customer service, by responding to questions and market research, by seeing what other people are talking about and interested in, and even competitor analysis by looking at what others both inside and outside your industry, are doing. What I find really interesting about social media, though, is that regardless of what platform or channel we're talking about, well, they all seem to be governed by a different social media algorithm, an algorithm that decides what kind of content gets shown in a viewer's feed and what gets hidden.

But with more than 1000 variables that influence the algorithm, your goal should never be to try to hack the system, but rather to understand the two simple things that all the social media networks want, so you can give it to them first. They want people to use the platform so whatever you can do to get people there is a really good thing. Next, they want to keep people on their platforms for as long as possible.

 See, most social media networks make their money by running ads, and the longer a user spends on the platform, the more ads they're going to see and the more money the network will make. But there are other factors that come to social media and marketing your business on social media that make it interesting and a little more complicated, too. Like the decision to use an organic or paid or hybrid social media marketing strategy. Organic social media is any content that you create and publish for free. Paid social media is any time you run ads like a Facebook ad or an Instagram ad, and a hybrid strategy is, well, a combination of both paid and organic.

Another interesting factor about social media is how it's always changing now. As of right now, video content is a winning strategy, doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. So is the push to create more and higher quality pieces of content as this helps the network with their primary goals of again getting someone to the platform and then keeping them on the platform as long as possible. But with social media constantly changing and shifting and evolving, well, my goal with this video is to give you a high level 10,000 foot overview of some of the most popular social media platforms available to you today, so you can decide what platforms you may want to look into more seriously and implement into your marketing strategy moving forward.

So let me show you how it's done.

Starting with Facebook when it comes to social media, Facebook is the clear and dominant platform. If you're just getting started in marketing and you're not sure where to start first, Facebook is probably your best bet with almost 3 billion users. It almost doesn't matter what business or market or industry you're in, you should be able to find your target audience here. All that said, it does tend to be favored more by those 25 years and older and is definitely the preferred platform by most in the Gen X as well as baby Boomer generations.

 The thing with Facebook, like pretty much every other social media platform out there, is to remember that a user isn't typically there to buy something.

They're there to connect with friends and family, engage with content, and be entertained by whatever the algorithm has in store for them. That day. Where things start to get a little messy, though, is that Facebook owns and offers over 61 different services, everything from their main Facebook pages and profiles to groups to ads to virtual reality services like Oculus, and even the fact that Facebook owns Instagram. They also changed their name to Meta in 2021. So the name Facebook really just refers to their primary platform and social media network.

 If you're just getting started, though, you really can't go too wrong by setting up the following few elements. First, a Facebook business page, which is where you can list your business information, contact details, and any other relevant information. Next, you want a Facebook Ads account. You want to do this even if you're not planning on running Facebook ads, because setting it up now will allow you to start tracking and collecting data, which will make your campaigns way more effective in the future. And while you can set these up separately, ideally, they would be housed under something called a Facebook Business Manager account, which is a central location for you to manage your business page or pages if you have more than one as well as your ad account.

 Or again, ad accounts if you have a few of them too. From there, you also want to set up and optimize your personal profile. How you use your Facebook personal profile is going to be dependent on your business's policy and rules, but making sure you're present and engaged is a pretty useful strategy. And of course, joining or starting a Facebook group around your business topic can also be a useful sales and marketing research and networking activity. Ok, next up, let's talk about Instagram.

 Instagram is another powerful social media platform with over 1 billion active users with a slightly younger demographic profile than Facebook. Instagram is made up mostly of those aged 35 and under. Now, this doesn't mean that if your target market is over 35, that they can't be found on Instagram just that this is where the bulk.

 Of people fall. Now, there are a couple of things that make Instagram an interesting social media platform to look at for your marketing. First, they're owned by Facebook. So a lot of the strategies and content and the way that the algorithm works is pretty similar. Not to mention the way that you run Instagram ads is through the Facebook ads and management manager.

 So even if you have no desire to do anything with Facebook, if you want to run Instagram ads, you're still going to need a Facebook account. The next thing to note is how Instagram has moved from a photo-sharing app to more of a video-based app that prioritizes and shares video content. Now more than ever. This means if you decide that Instagram is a good fit for your business, then your strategy is going to need to be heavily video-focused. Now, as of right now, the primary ways to create Instagram content are through the feed, which is where you can create posts, stories that are vertical, short-form content pieces and reels, which are slightly longer vertical videos.

 

If you're going to make video content a priority, though, and you definitely should well, there's simply no better platform in the world right now than YouTube. So I'll cover that next. Youtube has more than 2 billion users and is the dominant video social media platform in the world. The fact is, if you're going to be creating video content, you should be seriously looking at YouTube. The beauty of YouTube, though, isn't just its user base and the opportunity to potentially reach 2 billion people, but rather how it's structured and designed and optimized for you as a business to reach more people.

 Not only is YouTube the second largest search engine in the world and is owned by Google, who clearly knows a thing or two about search engines, but it also has one of the most powerful discovery algorithms baked right into it as well. What this means is that you, as a marketer, have multiple different strategies and opportunities to get your videos directly in front of your target audience. For example, you could create a series of videos that were optimized for someone searching for a specific keyword phrase or question.

 Then, by following YouTube best practices by creating interesting and engaging videos, YouTube would then start to share and suggest your videos with other people who they think might also be interested in your topic. The algorithm then watches and measures who is consuming what kinds of content and continually tests and puts more and different kinds of videos in front of them, giving you even more opportunities to reach a bigger audience.

 And while the keys to success on YouTube are a much bigger, deeper subject, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success right from the start. The first thing is to understand that YouTube's goals are the same as every other social media channel to get people to the platform and then keep them on the platform as long as possible. So anything you can do to start and keep a viewing session going is going to help next, your video title and thumbnail are two of the most important elements to your success.

 After all, it doesn't matter how good your video is if nobody clicks on it to check it out in the first place. And finally, YouTube is more of a long game.

While you can create quick success on the platform by sharing and leveraging your videos through your website or emails, well, it's the real long term results that come on the platform by creating a library of video assets that will continue to bring you new leads and new customers and new sales for weeks, months and even years to come. But whether you want to diversify your traffic and marketing sources start creating more evergreen content that will continue to grow your business for years to come or establish your brand as the Goto authority.

 Well, video marketing on YouTube can help. I mean, it's no secret that video marketing works. You probably already know that next to face-to-face in-person communication, there's simply no better way to build trust and rapport and generate customers and clients and sales for your business.

 But for your video marketing to work, it needs to have a few things going for it. First, your video needs to be structured in a very specific, very strategic way that allows you to attract perfect fit viewers and turn them into perfect fit customers and clients. That's why the focus needs to be on marketing first and making sure your videos communicate the right message to your audience. Next, like I've already said, your video needs to be discovered. It's one thing to create an amazing video that helps people, builds, trust and converts viewers into customers and clients.

 It's another thing entirely to get that video directly in front of your ideal target market. After all, people can't buy from you if they don't know you exist. And lastly, your video needs to continue to bring in new leads and new customers and new clients and new sales for days, for weeks, for months, and for years to come. The reality is that there are people out there right now who need your help. They just need a better way to find you so they can hire you and buy from you.

 And on that topic, I want to take just a minute to share with you the seven strategic and sequential steps inside my YouTube Marketing course, the Video Brand Builder The strategies inside of the Video Brand Builder are the result of ten years of in the trenches marketing execution six years on YouTube and have proven their effectiveness across multiple businesses, markets, and industries. Having generated millions of dollars for myself, my clients, and my students, the secret and the success of the Video Brand Builder course are in its seven strategic and sequential steps.

 So let me cover those now in step one, you'll get the technology sorted quickly and easily so you can hit the ground running. The whole process of getting things set up takes less than 20 minutes. And if you're able to log into social media, you've got all the skills you need here.

You'll also make sure to optimize your channel the right way and set yourself up for success right from the start. The goal here is to put the foundational pieces in place to allow for rapid growth. Next, you'll discover how to harness the power of video marketing to grow your business.

and you'll start to see why youtube is the best place to do it you'll learn the strategies that allow you to turn a small channel into big profits and get the youtube algorithm to work in your

favor by giving it the only two things it cares about you'll see why sadly 99% of channels fail and the simple way you can join the one percent to succeed I'll also cover the most profitable monetization strategies that allow you

youtube marketing to pay for itself and start to bring you a healthy and passive income next up i'll show you how to

uncover your ideal target market's biggest pains and problems so you can create videos that solve them specifically positioning you as the go-to authority on the subject i'll go

over the five levels of targeting and you'll learn why traditional marketing approaches often fail here here's where

you're also going to start ethically copying your competitors best performing videos so you can hit the ground running

with proven winners and you'll learn how to decide which videos will succeed and which ones will fail before you even

press record this is going to save you a ton of time from creating videos that nobody wants to watch this next module

is my absolute favorite because it's here that you're going to get access to the exact script and template that i use

personally as well as with every single client and student to help them attract viewers and turn them into customers and

clients you'll discover the eight key components that every high performing youtube video has in common and more

importantly the exact order to present them in so you make buying from you the best option and logical next step you'll

learn the three most important elements that determine your video's success and fun fact all three factors happen before

someone even watches a single second of your video and you'll learn the power of proving you can help people by actually helping them by using the four types of authority amplifier content as well as how to create thumbnails that trigger your viewer's psychology to stop the scroll and get clicked here in this module is where I'll show you how to

choose the perfect camera and microphone set up for your budget whether you're working with no budget low medium or

high budget there's a right piece of equipment for you you'll learn the single most important factor that determines your youtube video's quality and viewability and bit of a spoiler but

it's not actually the camera and you'll learn youtube film secrets like framing background and lighting and more

importantly be able to master the basics in just 15 minutes your goal here isn't creating a Hollywood level production

but rather to create videos that convert in module 6 i'll show you how to edit your videos quickly easily and

painlessly as well as some of the top editing hacks that keep viewers engaged watching and primed to take action if

you don't want to do any video editing yourself i'll give you my exact outsourcing strategy that will allow you to find a level editors for every budget and i'll give you the exact job

the description that we use to hire editors and have them lining up out the door to work with you lastly i'll show you how

to upload and optimize your videos so youtube will put them directly in front of your most perfect customers clients and audience you'll learn how to take advantage of the tools youtube gives you to get more views more subscribers and more sales and we'll cover how to navigate your youtube analytics to find your best performing videos so you can

make more of them as well as how to split test your titles and thumbnails to find winning combinations that get

clicked every time essentially the video brand builder program covers absolutely everything you need to begin immediately creating high converting youtube videos that grow your business your authority your sales and help you become the go-to leader in your market so if you feel that you or your business would benefit from a strategic video marketing

approach on youtube and all of the customer's clients sales and authority that go along with it.

let's move on to the next channel LinkedIn is known as the b2b or business to business social media platform first launched back in 2003 Linkedin was designed for networking

building careers and sharing ideas but like all things, it evolved and soon people realized they could use this platform just like any other for sales and marketing and business development and so today Linkedin has found itself atop the business social media world and touting higher lead gen rates better conversions and better access to key decision-makers and personnel but these benefits aren't without a cost as the

basic principles of supply and demand apply here and seeing as everyone knows that LinkedIn is the business side it's

become competitive saturated and harder to stand out than ever before but fortunately for you many people are still doing a lot of things wrong on Linkedin that are bordering on spammy sleazy and irritating behavior which makes it easy for you to separate yourself from the pack simply by doing a 

few things right first you want to make sure to completely fill out your profile both business and personal this includes a high-quality headshot and descriptive bio and company profile this rule and the next one well they apply equally to all social media platforms as well the reality is is people do judge a book by

it's cover so you want to make sure you're putting out the message that you want people to receive next one of the

The fastest and most effective ways to build authority in your market is through content marketing and linkedin has a

great way to help you get your message across through posts and articles linkedin posts are like posts on any other social media network and are a great way to share insights and ideas

and inspiration anything else you can think that your audience would benefit from linkedin articles well they're similar but longer in length and are a chance to create more authority through publishing or long-form content now if you're just getting started then here's the order to do things first create and complete your profile then create posts then articles and share your articles through your posts once all that's done

watch and measure what's working what's not so you can do more of what's working and less of what's not next let's talk about another powerful social media platform that's also great for both b2b and b2c twitter almost 40 percent of twitter users are between the ages of 25 and 34 with the second largest group being between 35 to 49. twitter is most often used to

connect with others through the sharing of short and quick and often frequent messages known as tweets it can also be used to share photos videos links and text many companies use twitter for customer service as well as engaging in

conversations with customers but can also be used for networking and market and competitive research and staying up to date on current news and trends but twitter can also be used as a powerful platform to spread your message and

engage in important conversations especially in real-time all that said if the history of twitter has taught us anything it's that often a little bit of planning and maybe some self-censoring

can go a long way as we've seen countless brands and businesses and celebrities get into trouble by posting sometimes questionable and often offensive content that once published can never be unseen the key here is to have a set of brand guidelines and principles and rules and to review your

tweets for anything that could be taken out of context for a few examples of businesses that seem to be using Twitter really well right now check out Starbucks PlayStation whole foods and for a service-based business JetBlue airways has almost 2 million twitter followers and does a pretty good job of mixing up their media and engaging with their followers next uptick tock there is perhaps no more controversial or at least polarizing social media network out there right now than tick tock tick tock was created in 2016 but it was only in 2017 when it acquired its competitor musically and ported over its 200 million users that the network really started to gain steam tiktok as the newest kid on the block is really the perfect case study of how social media networks typically start and appeal to a younger demographic and then age up to older demographics as their popularity and acceptance increases only around 10 percent of tick tock's audience is over 50 years old with the bulk of its users falling between 10 years old and 30 years old like instagram stories or reels tick tocks or short vertical videos where instagram and facebook have a feed and youtube has a homepage well

tiktok has a for you page where videos are shown based on their algorithm and what they determine will keep a user active and engaged on the platform the biggest categories of videos and influencers on tick tock right now are entertainment dance pranks and fitness but like i mentioned before in the section on instagram just because your target audience may fall outside of their average user it doesn't mean they're not there can't be found or won't be there in the future the thing with tick-tock and this applies to any other new platform that comes on the market in the next few years is that they all have the same goals and seem to follow the same initial path essentially

like i've already covered their goal is to get people to the platform and then keep them there as long as possible so

this means to succeed on the platforms you need to focus on creating good quality content that your market wants to consume next every new platform typically starts in the same way with a certain set of features and often going after a younger audience but sooner than later and faster than ever these days well those features evolve and the user base ages up this is why as important as social media networks are as valuable marketing tools it's always the underlying strategy behind them that truly matters and that's why if you're interested in growing your business your brand and your authority with youtube .

Conclusion

That'll really help you become a better digital marketer is to understand the differences between strategy and tactics

and when to use their strategy is all the big picture stuff this is really where you.