Social Media Marketing 101

Social media platforms spread information, share life updates, foster discussions, and create community for people. In ways that were impossible just decades ago, social media provides an avenue for communication around the world. As this online communication grew in popularity since the 1990s, businesses began to see the possibility of using the platforms to create awareness of brands online. This was the start of social media marketing.

Social media marketing encompasses 7 main points including content, community, conversation, capital (social), culture, collaboration, and conversion. Let's look at each of the 7 pieces of social media marketing to focus on better return on investment for small businesses.

• Content

• Community

• Conversation

• Capital (social)

• Culture

• Collaboration

• Conversion

What is content?

Content is the information shared on social media. This piece of social media marketing is broad and encompasses anything a business or person chooses to share. Content can include a text update like as seen on Facebook or X, a photo, a graphic, a video, or a link to someone else’s content.

What is community?

Community refers to the social groups created when people with shared interests, beliefs, or talents are connected. These people generally share common goals, interests, and attitudes. A thriving community indicates a strong social media culture related to the particular person, interest, or brand connecting them. On Facebook, there are garden groups, athletic groups, thrifting groups, mom groups, dad groups, college groups, dorm groups, sourdough groups, and more.

What is a conversation?

Conversation is the back-and-forth engagement or discussion on platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, or others where comments generate responses and sometimes long discussions. There are many instances where the conversations devolve into unproductive arguments, but in a community culture, this can be managed and directed to be positive and engaging rather than argumentative.

What is social capital?

Social capital is sharing information with others to build connections, create new ideas, and build bridges (figurative not literal). When you see society breaking down in various locations, that indicates a lack of social capital. They are no longer building connections over shared information; they are devolving into chaos.

What is culture?

Think of a sports team that is loved by many. The players, coaches, fans, and everyone in the town know the name of the team, the colors, the slogans, the inside jokes, and the mascot. That is a social culture. Social culture is an intentionally crafted set of standards within a group of people to unite them in purpose, values, and meaning. Social culture applies to social media when a person or brand creates a community of people with similar values. As the conversations develop over time, this community adopts common ways of thinking, talking, acting, and even slogans or phrases that unite them. This is a process seen in churches, schools, colleges, work environments, businesses and more.

What is collaboration?

Social collaboration takes place when individuals unite on social media and work toward a common goal. This is seen in sharing “Go Fund Me” pages or “Caring Bridge” journals when people are ill. This is just one type of social collaboration. Social collaboration occurs when a question is asked on social media and different people work together to answer that question.

What is conversion?

Conversion is when a viewer becomes a follower, or when a follower becomes a customer. Through the content, a community is created with shared values and conversations. As collaboration takes place among followers, conversion generally occurs. The people are no longer bystanders; they are participants.

Each of these takes place to reach conversion, and conversion is where the return on investment is seen. The goal of social media marketing is ultimately to convert individuals into customers who support businesses by purchasing goods or services.

Why does this matter?

When working with a social media manager, it’s important to understand these pieces of the social media puzzle. Social media managers should create a strategy that is unique to each business that allows for the growth of community and culture which results in conversion. Sometimes it is as simple as posting on social media and a “viral” post is created. Viral means that it was widely shared within a short period. Viral posts are the exception, not the rule.

An important note about what is posted on social media is that it lives forever. Once it’s out there, there’s no taking it back. Someone took a screenshot of it, and there’s a good chance it exists forever in some form. As a result, always be thoughtful of content and consider the long-term effects of such posts.

Social media marketing is a great tool to market for small businesses. There is much available for free to spread the word about the goods and services offered.

At Flywheel Marketing, we take the guesswork out of social media content. We create, schedule, and post content that fits each business's marketing strategy and goals. Our content is tailored to meet the marketing strategy created after our initial consultation. Content is scheduled and monitored on an ongoing basis so that you are free to run your business. We would love to work with you. Click the button for a free quote today. We provide a consultation that considers all current social media platforms and a suggested strategy to move forward. It’s a complete package that is simple for you! Click the button today.