Do you remember those milk cartons and cereal boxes with advertisements on them? How about the posters marketing some product or service found on every street post across town? Better yet, do you even remember what a newspaper feels like in your hands or what a prime spot in the ads section looked like before social media and the internet?

Sarcasm aside, back in the day, marketing was a simple as word-of-mouth, paying for an ad in the local paper, and canvassing your community from time to time. With this alone, you could successfully run a thriving local business.

Although some business owners still stuck in the past recall these times fondly, the vast majority of modern marketers recognize that the past is not where you want your present company to be.

Still, it can be hard to determine how to escape this old school marketing loop and create engaging ad campaigns that actually return your investment nowadays. So, how do you rid your brand of outdated marketing tactics and appeal to a wider demographic in today’s day and age? Well the answer is simple: social media.

Social Media Marketing

Through social media marketing, companies have been able to create audiences far larger than ever before. This has led to many companies seeing an increase in profits and online ranking.

However, just like any successful marketing strategy, social media marketing requires consistency, an understanding of the various social media platforms, and dedication to truly stand out.

Although you can absolutely create ad campaigns for every one of these platforms and start blasting them out today, you won’t see the results you are looking for in doing so. You may see results, but they won’t come even close to the kinds you can acquire through clever marketing techniques.

That’s why I’ve compiled a list of the key factors associated with quality social media marketing to help you get started on the right path from day one. Sure, many of my colleagues might think that giving away this information defeats the purpose of our jobs, but they’re wrong.

The truth is I don’t care if you hire me or not. I want you and your business to succeed either way because it adds value to the industry I know and love. Because of this, I will always give you the tools you need to succeed and, if you still need help after that, I’m just one click away.

Create Engaging Social Media Content

I want you to think about the social media posts that have stood out to you most throughout the years. Think about what made them so special in your mind. Was it their honesty and down-to-earth mentality? Did they make you laugh or truly think about something in a new way? Was the company informative and personable at the same time?

These are the things that separate a good ad from a truly great one. What stood out to you is what made this ad engaging and kept you remembering it years after you may have seen it. The key to this is not only creating content that is unique but also knowing what content does best for what platform.

Through this, you can create content that will automatically do better than other businesses’ and engage your desired demographics in a way that actually resonates with them deeply.

The Most Popular Content Formats for Each Social Media Platform:

Every social media platform has a content format in which it flourishes. By analyzing this and sticking to these formats primarily on these platforms, you can engage more of this platform’s most consistent users and benefit in doing so.

Facebook: Memes and Videos

Facebook is known for its relevant use of memes in marketing. For a great example of this, check out my very own Facebook account. However, in recent years, video content has started to become more and more prevalent. Try using both to create an engaged Facebook audience.

Instagram: High-Res Photos and Video Stories

Instagram has thousands of visually appealing videos and photos constantly being uploaded by its users. That’s why it’s important that you showcase your photography skills from the start on there. Furthermore, to stand out from the hundreds of others posting images, try posting a video to Instagram Stories from time to time.

Twitter: News, Business Updates, and Shortform Content

Unlike some of the other platforms on this list, Twitter is less about actual content and more about tangible engagement. If you engage with likeminded individuals frequently, you are sure to gain followers. Use your actual Tweets for news, business updates, and societal opinions that coincide with your brand image.

YouTube: Viral Content, How To’s, and Brand Information

YouTube is one of the most inclusive social media platforms out there. However, if done wrong, you will likely have little to no views on your videos whatsoever. The best thing to do is ‘piggyback’ on trending topics and content so you can get noticed by more unique viewers.

LinkedIn: Business Updates, Longform Posts, and Industry Tips

LinkedIn is the perfect place to make tangible business connections and to expand your workforce. Do so by showcasing your qualifications through longform industry posts and tips.

Snapchat: Short Videos, Images, and Personal Information

Once perceived as a teen’s platform, Snapchat now helps thousands of brands worldwide. Snapchat is great for more local or personal brands with down-to-earth influencers and brand imagery.

Pinterest: Guides, Product Descriptions, and DIY Content

Pinterest is a female-centric platform dedicated to the DIY lifestyle. Because of this, the most common content formats on there are DIY-based guides and posts as well as useful product descriptions.

Target the Right Demographic

How can you ever expect to increase your sales when you don’t even know who you’re pitching to? Let me ask you this; would you pitch a brand new cellphone the exact same way to both a 20-year-old and a 60-year-old?

If you answered no (which you should have obviously) then you now understand why demographics are so important. But, having an age range isn’t nearly enough to create a truly accurate demographic profile. For that, you will want to review the most common demographic for every social platform and then determine which platforms best fit your business and brand.

The Most Common Demographic for Every Social Platform:

Once you have the best platforms picked out, you can continue to focus in and hone your demographic profile until you have a demographic that is sure to convert to sheer profit each and every time.

Facebook: All Ages, All Areas, High School Education

Facebook is a perfect place to specifically target a wider demographic and find a more in-depth profile of what your demographic truly is. The beauty of Facebook is that one billion people are on it each and every day, and they actually engage in the posts they enjoy.

Instagram: 18-30 Years Old, Female, College Education

Although many people have thought for years that Instagram was only for models, foodies, and fashion brands, the truth his that this platform is perfect for brand growth as well. The key to this exponential growth is tracking your followers, creating visually appealing content, and not being afraid to take a personal phone video for Instagram Stories from time to time.

Twitter: 18-30 Years Old, All Sexes, College Education

Although Twitter is primarily used for opinions, news, and business updates, being able to target this demographic is a great way to create an intelligent and informed audience base for your future endeavors as a brand.

YouTube: 25-44 Years Old, All Sexes, All Education Levels

The power of YouTube lies within its demographic. Because the average viewer is a middle-aged individual from anywhere worldwide, this means that you can effectively target the average consumer and increase your recognition exponentially by simply creating videos every week.

LinkedIn: 25-50 Years Old, Male, College Education

Although this specific platform is more for business connections and personal branding, it is a great tool for those looking to not only engage their audience but their industry leaders likewise. With business updates and highlights, you can show your professionalism and experience in your field.

Snapchat: 18-24 Years Old, Female, High School Education

For years, people simply assumed that this platform was not correlated to business whatsoever. This is where they were wrong. Snapchat is the ultimate tool to market to a more genuine and younger demographic which, in no time, will be the ones buying the most products and services in our society.

Pinterest: 25-40 Years Old, Female, College Education

Pinterest may seem more like a dream board of sorts for crafters but the truth is that Pinterest is actually an excellent tool for businesses to utilize. With Pinterest portfolios, marketing campaigns, guides, eBooks, and visually appealing content, you can rise above the rest.

However, I do recommend that anyone using Pinterest for their marketing should also join Tailwind Tribes as well to increase engagement in their particular industries and target the demographics more effectively.

Emulate Your Favorite Brands

Remember that old song from Annie Get Your Gun that said, “anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.” Well, think of that song when emulating a brand.

In essence, you want to take what these brands are doing, discover what is working and what is not, and then do it better. This will give you an idea of what to do as well as what not to do and also help you to properly target your demographic from the start.

To do this, review the aspects you should focus on below and implement this strategy into your personal business over time to see the best results.

What Aspects You Should Focus on:

Tone of Voice

Does the brand that you are hoping to emulate sound like a surfer dude talking to his buddies, or does it sound more like a seasoned business professional discussing topics with industry leaders?

Determining your favorite brand’s tone of voice and also paying close attention to whether it works or not is an essential first step in brand emulation.

For instance, if the brand you want to emulate is a moving company but their approach at social media marketing is very outdated and bland, you may not want to emulate them in the social media realm.

However, if their voice is more modern and approachable and they are receiving responses from it and positive feedback, this may be exactly the example you need to perfect your own social media in a far quicker time period.

Targeted Demographic

An age group and a region are easy to find from the very start of your business, but what about everything else? What does your demographic enjoy? Are they fans of a particular sports team or local band? Do they like certain hobbies or activities more than others? Are they looking for a particular thing in their lives that your product may provide?

These are things that can take the average business decades to perfect—but not with brand emulation tactics. With brand emulation tactics, you can closely follow brands in your industry ‘doing it right’ and analyze their demographic and how they target it to get an idea of what they are doing to get so much engagement.

For instance, if their brand is targeting 18-30-year-olds and they choose to write an article for their site about ‘Netflix shows that rock’ and it gets tons of positive engagement, this may indicate to you, the emulator, that Netflix is something your demographic enjoys as well.

Take some time, go through their content, analyze their engagement, and begin to make up what I call a ‘demographic profile’ of just one person. If you can properly target this one fictitious person embodying all your demographic enjoys, then you can target all of them.

Content Formats

This one can be done in less than a day but is extremely important to brand emulation for a myriad of reasons. Take a look at the brand you want to emulate—specifically their content formats—and review how successful each of these formats

are.

Are the videos doing much better than the photos? Do they get the most engagement from blog posts shared or vlogs? Determine what is doing great and what is not. Then, use this information to come up with a content strategy that matches your demographic accordingly.

Topics and Hashtags

So, what makes this brand so cool to you? What topics intrigue you? Are they talking about informative things, or do they simply make clever jokes and give a lighter approach to your industry?

One of the best things you can cover from a brand you want to emulate is what they cover. Think about it like this—they got you to look at their content and you now are so enthralled with it that you want your own business to be like it. So, what content are they posting that has led to this kind of a reaction?

Similarly, are their hashtags branded, are they using the most popular hashtags to get traction, or are they coming up with outlandish hashtags more for humor than market appeal? Take a look at their hashtags closely and, whatever it is they are doing, do the same.

Business Connections

What other businesses does this brand work with? Are there companies that frequently comment on their posts? Do you see viable connections between then and other businesses?

If so, this is your chance, man! Make a list of the people commenting the most on this content and reach out. it can be as simple as saying you like this brand as well. However, the goal of this is to create the same connections. After all, if they like them and you’re trying to be like them, why wouldn’t they like you?

Company Interests

In my opinion, this is one of the most important parts of a business to emulate. Beyond what they post or how their audience interacts with them, this is what shapes them. Are they involved in the community? Do they recycle? Are their team members in a band?

Discover what makes this company so charismatic and charming and then try to implement these ideals into your own business. For instance, I used to work a long time ago for a link building firm. In fact, high-quality link building was where I got a big push forward in my personal industry.

However, if you know me even slightly, you know I hate working for people. It’s just not something I like to do. I prefer to have people I work for independently under my own business so my personality can actually come out.

But, what made this company so ideal was their eco-friendly ideals and how invested they were in the community and their staff. If this attracted someone as independent as me to work with them, then why wouldn’t this attract people to your social media as well?

Build a Succinct Brand Image Cross-Platform

I see this all the time with clients and, although I totally get it, I also want others to learn from this and not make the same mistake. You go from Facebook to LinkedIn to Instagram and it’s like three different businesses.

Although I do think your tone should alter a bit in between platforms, your logos, your overall image, and your content style should not. What do I mean by this? Well, if you’re posting an article you wrote on your site’s blog on social media, you may post the featured image on Instagram and post the actual article link on LinkedIn. However, the topic is still the same and the way you write about it cross-platform represents the same brand clearly.

To do this, though ,you will need a quality brand image profile which I will get into in further detail below. A quality brand image is the key to consistency because it gives clear guidelines. With it, this step is a piece of cake.

What a Quality Brand Image Profile Consists of:

Color Palette

You may be laughing to yourself right now wondering how the hell a color palette matters to a brand image, but this is where you’re wrong. Think of it like this— if you were decorating a home with modern furniture, would you add some super old school ornate furniture into the mix?

Of course, you wouldn’t. That’s not how decorating goes. You get things that fit together. In the same sense, if your logo is black and red and you’re a Karate dojo, you wouldn’t go making some pink graphics with cute kawaii pictures on them.

Having said that, to create your own color palette, try checking out this free AI-generated color palette maker and thinking about complementary colors that work with your logo and your brand image.

Formatting

This is a very important thing to take into account for your brand image. After all,the way you format your videos, images, blog posts, hashtags, social media calendar, etc. is what determines your brand identity.

It also gives you clear guidelines to follow even years from now as your business continues to expand and become more popular on social media. A good example of this is my YouTube channel:

Yes, I’m aware of how stupid it is but I’m also aware of how recognizable it is as well. That’s me in all my glory. Anyone who saw this and knew me would know this is me and the covers of the videos all have my face in one way or another.

Don’t think for a moment this isn’t intentional. It absolutely is. It also works. In the same sense, find what formatting fits your brand’s identity and sitck with it.

Tone

Do you remember your mom ever saying, “Don’t use that tone with me.” Well, now’s the time to use that tone with everyone. What do I mean? Well, it’s simple.

Don’t get too cocky but the best part about your business is you. Why? Because you’re unique! No one has another you in their business, and that makes your tone special.

With this said, even past looking at brands you want to emulate, you should still try your hardest to make your tone match you specifically. in that way, you will never lose your unique qualities and will stand out from the crowd.

Likes and Dislikes

Think of this aspect of your brand profile as your brand’s personality. Just like you may like rock music and hate jazz, your brand might like environmentally-friendly organizations and hate harmful products.

No matter what your brand is, I strongly recommend you take time to map out the likes and dislikes associated both with your brand and the people involved in it. Here’s a good example: for my business, my husband and I do everything.

Therefore, when I came up with my likes and dislikes list, I thought about what makes us and what we wanted to see in a company. With that said, some of our likes include music, memes, travel, culture, and eco-friendly initiatives.

In the same sense, our dislikes include discussing politics, sounding ‘bland’ or ‘old’, pomposity, arrogance, and basically just being a self-centered ass.

This is why we strive to be young, fresh, humorous, and never arrogant or cocky in our content. By determining what you like and dislike, I guarantee you it will tell you a lot about your brand’s identity.

Design and Logos

With a clear image of your identity, it becomes far easier to determine what your logo and design elements should be. For me, I’m a huge fan of geometric shapes and modern design elements. I am also a huge fan of the concept of light and vibrancy within a company. With this said, I knew my logo and design elements had to reflect this. Therefore, I chose a sun logo, vibrant colors, geometric shapes, and plenty of bright, warm elements.

When it comes to your own business, determine what you want to represent your identity and utilize it in your design and logo elements.

Demographic

I talk about demographic profiles a lot but it’s a serious topic to consider. You can’t just come up with an age and a location and assume that’s all you need to target appropriately.

That’s why I tell people that coming up with a single person to target is your best method for success. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s simple—instead of targeting a thousand different people off age or location, focus in on your ‘perfect client’.

Here’s a good example of my ‘perfect client’:

As you can see, I cover some of his interests, his location, his age, what he may be looking for, and what he’s not looking for as well. These are just some of the things you can begin with when creating your demographic and feel free to get as focused as you would like based on analytics from past clients or social media engagement.

Content Styles and Formats

The content you create for your site, your social media posts, and everything else should also have a guideline you abide by. For instance, are you using AP format? Do you have words you want to never use or a writing style you don’t particularly like?

When it comes to my blog and social media posts, I knew that I hated boring and overly-professional content styles. Therefore, I chose to do AP format but still have a more personal style that felt like I was talking to my readers instead of relaying information like a robot.

Determine how you want to sound, what formats you want to use to do so, and create an editorial guideline to help you come up with social media posts and blogs that are uniform in nature.

Convert Engagement Into Profit

You’ve probably heard of the sales funnel or the sales flywheel before. In the same sense, you can easily convert your engagement on social media into synergy for your business and run them through your sales process to your final desired location. All it takes is a bit of marketing prowess and consistency to achieve it.

For starters, let’s analyze the average cost per click for each social media platform out there which you might use.

The Average Cost Per Click (CPC) of Social Media Platforms:

Facebook: $0.35

Instagram: $0.70

Twitter: $0.60

YouTube: $0.10

LinkedIn: $5.00

Snapchat: $2.95

Pinterest: $0.13

With this information in mind, determine what platforms you wish to focus on and start playing with pricing, demographic targeting, formats, and your new brand identity to figure out exactly what works for you and gets them from social media to your site.

Post Consistently and Expertly

Unfortunately, posting isn’t enough, guys. Sorry to burst your bubble. The truth is that you should be posting consistently and expertly on every social media platform and should have a consistency to your scheduling as well.

For me, this means that I post particular things on particular days of the week and never skip a day if I can’t help it. I also utilize a series of apps to schedule including Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tailwinds, Asana, and Calendly.

These apps help me keep track of when and what I am posting each week and it also helps me to create better content that is more fleshed out than just posting from my phone once a day would. To figure out the right posting schedule for you, take a look at the frequency of posting for each platform below and work around this for your actual scheduling strategy.

The Average Frequency of Posting for Each Platform:

Facebook: 1-3 Times/ Week

Instagram: 7-21 Times/ Week

Twitter: 7-21 Times/ Week

YouTube: 1-3 Times/ Week

LinkedIn: 3-5 Times/ Week

Snapchat: 4-7 Times/ Week

Pinterest: 21-35 Pins/ Weeks

No matter what scheduling system you choose, I want you to succeed so here’s a link to an awesome social media calendar template that is guaranteed to get you started on the right foot from day one.

The Result of Quality Social Media Marketing

Now that I have practically talked your ear off about how to create a social media strategy that works, let’s discuss what the results of these strategies are. After all, doing something because a marketer told you to do it is nonsense. You want results that show and give you clear increases in engagement and profits. With this said, here are some results below for you to take into account.

Visible Increase in Followers and Post Engagement

For this, I want you to take a look at my results—specifically, Breda Beds. When I began working for this awesome company, I knew they were not as active as they would have liked to be on social media. I also knew that their engagement both on their site and on social media was very low as well.

Before working with me, they had taken on a previous SEO and social media ‘expert’ that had utilized black hat marketing strategies and gotten their site penalized which caused a serious hiccup in their sales and engagement online.

I talk about these marketing scamming tactics in my article ‘Are You Getting Scammed by a Marketing Agency’. Needless to say, I started to post consistently for them, tie it into their industry and their recent posts and deals on their site. Through this, as you can see, I was able to increase their social media engagement by 3900 percent.

With this being said, it’s clear why I believe that these techniques will lead to an increase in engagement and followers.

Lower Cost Per Click and Higher Conversion Rates

When I first opened up my business, I thought posting like everyone else was the key to getting people to work with me. Now, I know that simply isn’t the case.

Ever since I came to that realization, I have been posting videos like this one and seeing a serious increase in conversion rates and far lower CPCs.

This is why I personally believe that there is no such thing as over-the-top marketing as long as it doesn’t include sexual or drug-related undertones. With this said, by simply posting with a brand identity that is clear and clever, you are sure to see better results.

More Site Traffic and a Better Ranking

Now, I want you to look at another one of my results infographics, specifically for Fossbytes Magazine. I began working with them as solely and editor but saw that they could use SEO and social media to take their site to the next level.

By recognizing this and working with them throughout the process, I elevated their Alexa ranking by nearly 6,000 sites and increased their organic traffic by over 557 percent.

The numbers don’t lie, social media can absolutely increase your site traffic over time exponentially.

Stronger Business Connections

I say this statement quite often and I’ll say it again: birds of a feather flock together. The reason I mention this is because, when someone sees you doing something honest and pure to your identity and they are doing the same, they want to connect with you.

Furthermore, because you have so much in common, they will stay connected with you longer. It’s just common sense—but, it’s also an opportunity for you to grow both in your community as well as your industry and make even more connections over time.

More Consistent and Longer-Lasting Clients

In the same way that you will gain more like-minded business connections, you will also gain long-lasting clients. Your consistency and unique qualities will be what attracts them. However, your ability to always produce and produce well will be what keeps them by your side for years to come.

For me, I have countless clients that I have worked with for over two to five years now. Each of these clients, to me, are more like family than they are clients. Because of that, I never fail to produce for them and they never fail to pay in a timely fashion. Sounds pretty nice, right? Well, by just posting expertly and consistently on social media, you can have just that.

More In-Depth Demographic Profiles

As stated above, demographic profiles are everything. With this said, having a demographic profile that constantly expands and perfects itself is essential for business growth.

This is guaranteed to happen when you post frequently on social media. In fact, let me tell you a little story. When I began posting on social media and following my engagement demographic, I was targeting all the big cities in America and both men and women ages 18-50. That’s a huge range. However, I thought that a huge range could work better for my style of marketing.

This is where I was wrong.

It turns out, marketing to such a large crowd didn’t give me much engagement for my money—but it did give me a clear view as to who likes my content most. Any guesses? Males, 18-35 years old, in urban areas such as the ones in my demographic profile above. Yup.

‘Chris’ revealed himself to me through this method and my demographic profile only got more and more focused from there. Through demographic honing, you are guaranteed to pay for only the most likely conversion candidates and no longer have to pay for those that just look or like and move on.

Now that you know the secrets to getting more followers on social media, all that’s left is implementing these techniques into your own business. I guarantee you that the results will be nothing but positive from your hard work and dedication.

However, if you still need help with social media, demographic profiling, ad creation, brand identity formatting, or blog posts for your site to tie into your social game, all you have to do is contact me today! Together, we can grab the proverbial ‘social media bull’ by the horns for the success of you and your business.