Everything You Should Know About Social Media Marketing in 2024

How long have you been hearing the “social media marketing” buzzword in marketing videos and articles?

The majority of the readers may know a little bit about how it works, but we reckon some of you are a tad confused about where to begin in the social media marketing campaign.

Well, this buzzword is used for social media activities to build and showcase a brand persona across different social media platforms.

We’ll walk you through different aspects, steps, and tools to establish and manage your social media marketing campaign in 2024.

So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a multi-dimensional online marketing strategy that pursues brand identity, audience engagement, and customer acquisition across different social media platforms with the intention to spread the word about a company or personal brand.

Simply put, it’s an online marketing campaign run on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram through putting out social media content for organic reach and social media ads for paid promotion.

Different brands run social media marketing campaigns for different reasons. However, every brand or individual has a specific goal in mind before getting started, for instance, they might want to:

• Spread the word about their products
• Gain followers on social media platforms
• Get an edge over their competitors
• Engage the lookalike audience
• Meet new prospective customers
• Increase their product sales
• Generate more leads through paid ads

So, the reason for establishing a social media marketing campaign may vary from brand to brand.

Related Read: How to Build a B2C Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your Business?

Here’s an example:

Adbutler is a new ad network in town, and this company is using X (formerly Twitter) to serve ads. The ad shows that they’re trying to reach out to the web publisher/bloggers and bring them on board.

Well, it does look like a good plan since paid ads on social media platforms are an essential source of attention and a smart way to skyrocket your website traffic within days.

Importance of social media marketing

The majority of the mainstream social media platforms have been active for over a decade. Brands, entrepreneurs, publishers, and influencers figuring out social media marketing and trying to make the most of their chosen social media platforms.

The keys to success on social media are choosing the right platform and putting out valuable content consistently for a long time regardless of the platform.

So, here some some of the simple yet effective points to help understand the importance of social media:

i. Grasp the giant numbers across multiple social media platforms

Most social media gurus and influencers teach and preach that one should focus on the quality of content and not worry about social media numbers, such as followers, likes, comments, etc.

On the contrary, they keep an eye on their social media analysis to see what’s working for them and how they can put out even better content.

While “social media numbers” are an important element of social media marketing, it’s not the only thing you should be focusing on when running a social media marketing campaign.

Let us give you a quick rundown – here’s what you should also focus on:

• Click-through rate
• Posts’ engagement
• Posts’ reach
• Views/impressions
• Retweets/Shares

However, make sure that your strategies, content, and engagement are translating into mesmerizing social media statistics. If you have been putting in a lot of work but all you hear is crickets, then you should fix your social media content strategy and then see how it turns out for you.

Statista predicts that the social media users would reach 5.17 billion by the end of 2024. 

Social media numbers do matter as they showcase the authority, trustworthiness, and effectiveness of your content and overall brand.

ii. Social media opens new untapped marketing doors for businesses

The social media realm is full of untapped opportunities – people get jobs, companies recruit people, freelancers find clients, and whatnot!

One of the reasons why social media marketing is crucial to your business is that it opens new marketing opportunities for brands, organizations, and small businesses.

Besides organic reach through putting out great content and engaging with followers, social media paid ads are a fantastic way to bring new eyeballs around. Entrepreneurs, e-commerce businesses, and social media experts are banking on social media paid ads and its yielding benefits for them.

Here’s an example:

Dun & Bradstreet Pakistan is running a LinkedIn ad campaign to reach its target audience and to engage potential customers.

Similarly, influencer marketing is yet another way for businesses to market their products or services. In some cases, influencer marketing turns out to be more cheaper, effective, and faster way to generate sales or get attention on social media.

Since influencers have a loyal audience that trusts them and brands utilize their fan base to sell their products. So, don’t shy away from trying new, untapped marketing opportunities whether it’s on social media or otherwise.

Take a look at this tweet:

Influencer marketing is real. The above-mentioned example should give you some perspective on social media monetization. 

iii. Social media followers base gives you a competitive edge over the competition

Social media platforms use algorithms to observe what content is getting more engagement, and then they push that content to other users. When a good, useful, or entertaining piece of content keeps getting recommended to more and more people, it works as a snowball effect.

As a result, social media users gain more followers regardless of the platform. The benefit of gaining social media followers is that it puts your brand on a pedestal. The perks are unbelievably lucrative, for instance:

• You can monetize your content through different programs
• Attract sponsorship and brand promotion opportunities
• Receive collaboration offers from brands and influencers
• Customers are likely to trust your brand more than others

Undoubtedly, businesses that don’t pay close attention to social media marketing techniques eventually realize it at some point when they’re far too behind their competition.

Take a look at this example:

JazzCash is a popular mobile wallet in Pakistan. It has crossed 44 million users. Even though the president and chairman of MMBL says that he doesn’t want to discuss numbers, he still manages to slip in the giant number. 

Therefore, it’s important to understand the power of social media marketing and plan an effective social media marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

iv. Smartphones have made social media accessible to everyone

Smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. Who doesn’t scroll through a social media feed at least a couple of times a day? Perhaps, we are all guilty of spending some time going through Facebook or YouTube at some point every day.

Gary Vee is an entrepreneur, social media expert, speaker, and author who has emphasized that the mobile phone is the new computer and social media is the new TV.

Gary has been raving about the importance of smartphones, and he considers social media is the new middleman between a creator and the audience. 

One of the things that smartphones have done is that they have made social media platforms accessible to everyone. A lot of social media users neither have any idea about content creation, nor they’re interested in content creation. However, they use social media just for fun.

v. Social media ads work unbelievably well if done right

Social media is a diverse space. While most users sign up on social media platforms to watch funny memes or helpful videos, some users just sign up out of curiosity or FOMO.

Let’s not miss out on the portions of social media users who want to build an audience for personal brands or gain followers for their business accounts.

One of the reasons why social media marketing is crucial to a business is that it allows brands, influencers, and entrepreneurs to run social media ads. Almost all top-tier social media platforms have ad options for advertisers to run social media ads.

Take a look at this Facebook ad:

It’s a true testament to the idea of honing in on running social media ads before going all-in.  

This strategy works quite well when it’s done right. Therefore, it’s essential to learn, adapt, and test out the social media advertising option before spending a lot of money on social media ads. It sure is an important aspect of social media marketing.

Building a social media marketing strategy in 2024

Social media marketing is no joke. You have to come up with a plan to make an impact regardless of the platform. Brands and influencers that dominate social media platforms always plan, execute, and analyze their social media content strategy to avoid going off the rails.

Here are a few essentials that are required to build a powerful social media marketing strategy:

i. Create your customer persona

Identifying the target audience is vital to any marketing campaign, whether it’s a social media content creation or paid promotion through ads.

A customer persona is a symbolic representation of the customers who share common goals, needs, actions, and expectations. Brands and companies identify their customer persona to create offers, market their products, design advertisements, and publish content.

The reason why it’s important to have a clear customer persona in mind is that no brand would like to spend resources on a vague target audience. Often social media ads with no clear expectation, goals, and motives go in vain.

For instance, if you’re a content writing service company, you should be looking out for brands and individuals who already know the importance of content marketing and SEO. You should be targeting those customers and helping them understand how you can assist them further instead of educating the beginners on content and SEO.

So, customer persona is all about figuring out who is the ideal customer to target. Once it’s clear to you, the social media marketing strategy becomes easier to make.

NetInfluencer is an influencer marketing email newsletter. They know their customer persona. Take a look at their email newsletter opt-in popup:

ii. Set a social media marketing objective

The social media marketing elements are manifold. One of these elements is setting up the right objective for the campaign. Any marketing campaign without a clear and to-the-point objective won’t take off.

A social media marketing objective is a goal defined by brands or influencers either for a certain period or any specific social media platform.

For instance, many companies create a social media marketing campaign for Christmas – they set a budget for social media ads, content creation, content publishing, and influencer marketing campaigns.

Some YouTube creators set subscriber milestones as their yearly objectives. For example, they set a target of getting the first 1,000 subscribers in a year. This way, they have a clear goal to pursue.

Here’s an example:

Meet Ian Nuttall, a coder, website builder, and SEO expert. His Twitter bio says it all. Ian’s social media marketing strategy revolves around his objective of building niche websites and solutions for SEO users globally.

When establishing a social media strategy, users can choose any objective they want, such as converting one follower into a paid customer every month or driving at least 100 visitors to their website through social media.

So, go ahead and create your social media marketing objective.

iii. Design a social media content plan

Social media content refers to any form of content, such as text, images, videos, podcasts, checklists, downloadable freebies, and courses you put out on social media platforms to engage, attract, and convert the audience.

One of the major steps in creating a social media strategy is creating a social media content plan. This plan outlines what to cover in the social media content, how to create that content, and where to distribute it.

Take a look at the screenshot:

ContentStudio tweeted about the importance of a social media content calendar. If you haven’t had a chance to learn about a ready-made calendar that includes 400+ social media posts for 365 days, you should check it out.  

Let us walk you through the steps of designing a comprehensive social media content plan that any business owner can use to take their social media content publishing to the next level. Here are the essential steps of making a social media content plan:

• Prepare your marketing toolkit

Before diving into social media content planning, it’s crucial to assemble a comprehensive marketing toolkit that helps your content stand out from the crowd. This toolkit should encompass different types of marketing tools, such as image & video editors, social media schedulers, and social media analytics checkers.

Make sure that your team is well-equipped with the necessary online tools & SAAS products, resources, and skills to craft compelling content and analyze its impact. A well-prepared marketing arsenal is the foundation for a successful social media content plan and a stepping stone to a solid foundation in an ever-evolving and growing digital marketing landscape.

• Choose the social media platforms

Building a social media strategy doesn’t mean hopping in on a million social media platforms. One of the key aspects of designing a social media content plan is that you’re crystal clear about the social media platforms you’re going to use for social media marketing.

Undoubtedly, selecting the right social media platforms is a strategic decision that makes or breaks your social media marketing campaign. Don’t choose your social media platforms on a whim. Instead, understand your target audience and align it with your brand’s objectives.

Social media influencers and experts believe that each social media platform has its unique user taste, demographics, features, and engagement dynamics. The key is to choose the right social platforms and tailor your content plan to those that resonate with your audience.

• Opt for the suitable type of content to create

Crafting an effective social media content plan involves several steps. One of these steps is surely opting for the content type/format. Social media gurus recommend testing all types of formats/content types, such as articles, videos, podcasts, and images.

Integrating engaging visuals, informative videos, thought-provoking articles, and educational podcasts into a content mix could be a killer social media content strategy, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

The reason why experts recommend testing out a variety of content formats is that it allows brands or individuals to cater to different audiences and leverage each content format on a different platform. This way, the user could find out what’s working for them and they can go all-in on that content format/type.

• Select the content categories and topics

Defining clear content categories and topics steer your social media content team in the right direction. A lot of brands choose their content categories right at the beginning and stick with them. It helps them align these categories with the topics that they cover in the future.

By mapping out content categories and topics, you establish a content roadmap that gives direction to the content creators and helps build a narrative around your brand. It also assists in fostering a deeper connection with your audience and reinforcing your brand identity across all social media platforms.

• Plan content repurposing for more distribution

Content repurposing means using an existing piece of content to create a new one but for a different social media platform. Most brands and influencers convert articles into videos and vice versa. Social media is a great place to publish repurposed content. Don’t understand the power of the following social media platforms:

a. Medium – for repurposing articles

b. YouTube – for repurposing videos

c. Instagram – for repurposing images

d. TikTok/Reel – for repurposing vertical videos

e. Pinterest – for repurposing infographics

There is no doubt that content repurposing extends the reach, impressions, and CTR no matter what social media platform you choose to post on.

To begin content repurposing, identify evergreen pieces that can be repackaged into different formats, such as turning a blog post into a video or a series of social media posts or transforming a video into a podcast.

Channel your inner creativity to maximize the value of your content and cater to varied audience preferences across different social media channels.

iv. Schedule social media content in bulk

The majority of social media users who don’t succeed have a common reason: they are unable to consistently publish. This is where bulk scheduling comes in. It’s the easiest way to scale your social media content publishing without any hassle.

Several social media scheduling tools are available on the market. Users handpick these social scheduling tools based on their budget, requirements, and tool capabilities.

ContentStudio is an all-in-one social media dashboard for small businesses, agencies, bloggers, influencers, and entrepreneurs. The key features include social media automation, social content calendar, social media analytics, approval workflow, blog publishing, content curation, AI writing, content discovery, and more.

Not only does it help you schedule social media posts, but it also provides insights into social media content analytics quite efficiently. It’s a go-to social media scheduling tool for thousands of bloggers, influencers, and social media experts across the globe.

So, you must have a social media scheduling tool to publish, schedule, and analyze content at scale. No one wants to log in to multiple social media platforms two to three times a day to post content on each platform.

v. Analyze high-performing content to rinse and repeat

Keeping track of your social media content performance is as important as publishing high-quality, effective content across all social media platforms.

You can do this the hard way by going to each social media platform and looking out for the analytics or simply using the analytics section of your social media management tool.

ContentStudio has a full-fledged social media analytics section that gives you an in-depth view of the social media content performance across all social platforms.

It’s vital to keep track of your social media content so that you can handpick the best-performing content or topics and create relevant content around them. This will surely give your social media engagement and reach a real boost.

All in all, that’s how you can build a social media marketing strategy in 2024.

Expected trends in social media marketing 2024

Social media trends are a great way to stay ahead of the competition. Finding an up-and-coming social media marketing trend could ignite your social media growth without spending a dime on social media ads.

The only downside of social media trends is that they don’t last forever and eventually diminish over time. The best way to capitalize on social media trends is to keep an eye on the newest ones and utilize them before they go viral on social media.

Here are some of the expected trends in social media marketing in 2024:

i. Social media users would continue to look into social media monetization

Ever since the advent of social media, it’s believed to be a space where people interact, build connections, and connect with loved ones.

It’s safe to say that social media has become an ever-changing realm. New platforms keep popping up, and the older ones are trying to stay relevant – it has become a rat race of social media platforms.

One of the expected trends in social media marketing in 2024 is that social media platforms will continue to focus on attracting users through content monetization features. Who wouldn’t like to use social media platforms and get paid?

YouTube has a YouTube Partner Program (YPP) that allows users to make money from videos, Facebook lets users monetize their Facebook pages, Medium pays writers to publish articles, TikTok has a creator fund program for creators to get paid, and now X (formerly Twitter) rolled out a monetization method for a select number of countries.

ii. The faceless YouTube channels trend is likely to grow this year

The Faceless YouTube channels trend is on the rise, and it will only get more popular from here. YouTubers, bloggers, and SEOs are stepping into this style of YouTube content creation, where they don’t have to show their face and still out videos like a champ.

The reason why someone would opt for creating a faceless YouTube channel is that this person either doesn’t want to show the face or hires someone to create videos for the faceless channel.

Outsourcing videos to creators and freelancers is one of the aspects and/or a key reason why it’s suddenly gaining popularity.

Bloggers, SEOs, and niche website builders openly talk about their faceless YouTube channels on social media and in email newsletters.

iii. Driving traffic to blogs and websites through social media channels

Google algorithms have made digital marketers, bloggers, and niche website builders rethink their SEO strategy. Instead of relying solely on Google, now bloggers and SEO experts are looking for other alternative sources of website traffic.

One alternative source of website traffic is search engines other than Google. You can check Bing, You.com, DuckDuckGo.com, Yandex, Brave, and more.

Another powerful yet less known source of website traffic is the social media platform. Many users drive traffic from Facebook, and they utilize a mix of tactics to make the most of this area. Publishers and bloggers look out for organic reach, publishing ads, Groups, and page publishing to drive website traffic to their sites.

It’s expected that this strategy will continue to grow, and more publishers will turn to social media platforms where they believe their website will drive and become huge.

iv. AI content generators are likely to dominate the space

AI content creation is here to stay, and brands, marketers, and influencers are figuring out how to use AI content generators to create lots of content without putting out fluff.

With advanced AI versions and updated algorithms, most of these AI tools can generate high-quality and effective content, saving brands and marketers time, money, and resources.

AI continues to evolve, marketers and businesses can leverage AI technology to create engaging and relevant content that resonates with their target audience. It’s safe to say that AI content generation is only going to get bigger and better.

As Elon Musk said, “AI is far more dangerous than nukes.” It’s important to understand both sides of the equation.

v. Social commerce might continue to grow and go mainstream

Social commerce refers to social media marketing that involves the e-commerce side of things. Social commerce is continuously growing, and content creators and social media influencers have already jumped on the bandwagon.

It’s expected that social commerce will go mainstream in 2024, and almost every major social media platform will support it, helping creators make money while doing what they love.

YouTube seems to be ahead in this game after rolling out the “Shopping” feature, which allows creators to sell affiliated products to the audience. Other social media competitors like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram might join the party soon.

These are some of the expected social media marketing trends for 2024.

Top 5 social media marketing tools for businesses

Here are five of the best social media marketing for businesses to try in 2024 and beyond:

1. ContentStudio

ContentStudio is an all-in-one social media management dashboard that gives users access to a complete social media marketing suite. It helps brands, bloggers, influencers, and agencies publish, schedule, discover, plan, approve, and analyze content. Avail the 14-day free trial offer!

Top Features:

• Social media scheduling
• Content insights
• Content calendar
• Influencer discovery
• Approval workflow
• AI assistant (For captions, images, and hashtags)

Pricing: 

The plans start at $25 per month and go up to $299 per month.

2. Replug

Replug is a powerful and easy-to-use URL shortener that is equipped with a wide range of link management features to take your link strategy to the next level. It’s an excellent URL management tool for URL shortening, tracking, and analysis. Try the 14-day free trial!

Top Features:

• Deep linking
• Bio links
• QR codes
• UTM parameters
• Retargeting
• A/B testing

Pricing:

Replug plans start at $19 per month and go up to $79 per month

3. SocialInsider

SocialInsider is a social media marketing tool for keeping track of your content performance, spying on competitors, and analyzing data-backed social media reporting. It’s useful for social media listening – start your 14-day free trial!

Top Features:

• Social media analytics
• Competitor analytics
• Social media listening
• Content performance reporting

Pricing:

The plans start at $99 per month and go up to $239 per month. However, you can also get a quote for a custom plan.

4. Restream

Restream is a live streaming software that lets social media users live stream across multiple social media channels without having to set up multiple live streaming sessions. Its cutting-edge live-streaming technology could elevate your social media marketing strategy. Ready to live stream on various social media platforms at once? Check out this tool!

Top Features:

• Studio dashboard
• Upload to live stream
• Multiple stream destinations
• Live stream chats

Pricing:

Restream has a free plan. However, the paid plans start at $16 per month and go up to $249 per month.

5. Murf AI

Murf AI is a powerful AI voice generator platform that creates AI-powered, human voices that resonate with the audience. Unlike many other AI voice tools that sound robotic, this one does seem better. It can be used for several types of presentations and explainer videos for social media marketing.

Top Features:

• Powerful text-to-speech platform
• AI voice generator for videos, ads, podcasts, and voiceovers
• AI dubbing and translation

Price: 

Murf has a free plan. However, the paid plans start at $29 per month and go up to $75 per month

Ramp up your social media marketing today

Social media is a crowded space. To get the attention of the audience, make your brand presentable by showcasing authority and authenticity, put out helpful content with no strings attached, and hop on the right social media platforms.

It’s better to climb up the ladder of social media success slowly by surely rather than looking for a shortcut to get viral for a few days – a lot of people won’t agree with this approach. No wonder everyone doesn’t make it to the top on social media.

Learn from experts and influencers by observing their patterns, content strategies, and publishing styles and eliciting their secret sauces. You’ll surely be moving in the right direction.

FAQs

Let’s take a look at some of the commonly asked questions about social media marketing:

What is the expected future of social media marketing in 2028?

It’s safe to say that social media marketing is going to get bigger and bigger every year. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in the next four to six years in the world of social media. However, you would regret not starting to put effort into building a powerful social media brand.

How to start a social media marketing agency?

Start with honing in on social media tactics, audience building, brand awareness, social media growth, gaining followers, building engagement, and creating helpful social media content.

Once you learn the basics, you’ll be able to grow at least a couple of your social media properties. Then, go toward offering your social media marketing service to the clients and help them steer their social media campaigns.

After several successful projects, go for launching your social media marketing agency with a proper team in place.

How much does it cost to start social media marketing?

Anyone can start a social media marketing campaign with a $50 to $200 per month budget. All you need is to set up your social media marketing arsenal that includes a social media management tool, social media image maker, video editor, and virtual assistant. You can cut down on spending or spend as much as you want, but it all depends on your financial position.