Okay, you’ve started a business or launched a new project that requires public announcements - now what? Whatever your dream is, it deserves to be seen by the world. If you care about something, some people will care, too - the key is finding them.

While social media often faces criticism for contributing to mental health issues and political divisiveness, it’s not all bad. Thanks to the internet, even small businesses in Savannah, Georgia, can reach audiences nationwide.

Using social media strategically can unlock growth opportunities that once seemed impossible. But to harness its potential, you need more than just enthusiasm - you need a solid plan of attack.

Step 1: Establish Your Digital Marketing Goals

Before you begin your marketing campaigns online, you must know your goals. Knowing what you want to get out of campaigns can help you make the best use of your resources. It’s far more effective than a scattered approach of throwing money at Instagram and seeing what sticks.

Here are a few ideas to get you going.

Brand Awareness for Social Media Profiles

Let people know what you’re about. Increasing brand awareness means promoting your business’s mission rather than your products. This gives your business a personality with which customers can interact.

As a result, customer loyalty will grow.

Leads and Sales Through Digital Marketing

Selling more products is the most straightforward goal. You can do this by updating customers on sales and promos.

Expand Your Audience with Digital Marketing

Social media is a great tool to grow your audience. It allows you to connect with a large number of people who have similar interests. If you learn to use the algorithm to increase your reach, more people will see your business, thus increasing the chances that someone will like what they see.

The key is to also learn about what your audience is interested in. Pay attention to what people in your industry discuss and how others respond.

While you’re lurking around your competitor's pages, see what hashtags and keywords they’re using. Adopting these into your posts will increase the chance of users following those topics seeing your posts on their feed.

Community Engagement on Social Media

Maybe you want to be the conversation starter. Getting your audience to interact with your brand will make you more memorable to them and more likely to use your services.

What’s the best way to reach your audience? What do they respond to? Try different communication methods and see what works best.

Website Traffic

You’re paying for your website domain and trying to make the web design fit your brand, so you probably want people to see your site. You can increase your website traffic by posting content that encourages users to visit it or pay for ads.

Don't overcomplicate any goal you choose. Start small and expand. This way, you can best see how different changes impact your results.

Step 2: Pick Your Channels

After you know your goals, you must know the best social networks to fulfill them. As you’ve probably seen, the internet is overrun with social networks for various purposes. But today, I’m only going to talk about three. Figuring out which works best for you is about research and experimentation.

Facebook

There’s no denying that this OG social site is still a big platform for marketers. With Facebook marketing, you can be as specific as you want when targeting users. Whatever combination of interests, age groups, gender, or location you want in your target audience, Facebook will get you to them.

You can have any type of ad, including pictures, videos, or text. The world is your oyster. Aside from ads, Facebook is good for building a community. Through Facebook groups, you can have conversations about your brand to better build connections with your audience.

Instagram

While Facebook’s numbers have peaked, Instagram’s billion users are still marginally growing yearly. If you want to appeal to the younger generations, Instagram is where they are, especially the influencers.

Instagram is an influencer marketing hub. On Instagram, influencers can post promotions for your product and market it uniquely.

This highly visual platform is excellent for showing off your product and eye-catching graphics to go with it. And the new Reels feature allows you to take creative, short-form videos.

Twitter

Twitter has its benefits. This social network site was built to monitor the latest trends. It allows you to see the latest fads and industry conversations.

With thousands of hashtags flying around, you can customize your own to engage with your user base. See how people respond to your business by searching up your company name. You’ll be shown every tweet in which your brand was directly mentioned.

At the heart of Twitter is communication - that’s all it is. You can benefit from having direct conversations with your audience.

This information can help you solve customer service problems or discuss what your customers want to see from you.

Of course, there are many other platforms you can market on. And I encourage you to try as many as possible. A multichannel marketing strategy is the best way to get the greatest reach.

Step 3: Plan Your Content

Be Consistent

Posting regularly will ensure your page doesn’t go stale and is the best way to get social media algorithms to push your content. You should make a schedule for when you want to post and queue up your content beforehand instead of waiting the day of.

It’s also good to note where you’ll post in your schedule. The organization is your best friend.

Be consistent in what you post. Having a consistent theme is the easiest way to get your brand across. Whether it’s a color scheme or having your product in each visual post, the best branding will have a strong theme that ties certain imagery to your business in the eyes of your audience.

Instagram is best for creating this visual branding, as it’s heavily reliant on pictures. But that doesn’t mean it can’t apply to other platforms. Whatever you choose to do, keep the same tone across all platforms.

If someone visits your Instagram and Twitter page, they should be able to tell it’s the same brand without reading the username. The same goes for your captions. Are you using the same language throughout your social networks?

It’s okay for your brand to evolve, but be purposeful about your changes and their meaning.

Be Interactive

One way to get users to engage with your content is by posting theirs. User-generated content (UGC) is when users post about something related to your product that you can put on your page. And let me tell you, people love this!

Reposting UGCs encourages more people to interact with your brand. As a result, you get content for your page and increase community engagement.

Use Stories

People love nothing more than a behind-the-scenes look, and that’s what stories let you do. Yes, you can post pictures and videos onto your page, but stories feel more personalized—like they’re something special for your followers.

Stories are also temporary, so users must look at them before expiration. And who would want to miss out on that? Not to mention, social media algorithms favor accounts that post their stories more frequently.

Stories have an interactive quality that regular posting doesn’t. It’s great for quick updates, fun daily content, and showing off the wonderful personalities you have on staff.

Take Videos

Don’t let videos scare you. They’re not as intimidating as they seem. You don’t need an entire film crew to shoot a good video. All you need is a smartphone and an idea.

Videos are great to show your product in action and can give your company more of a narrative. If you have a story about why you made your business, videos are an outlet that can showcase that. You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to (but it helps).

Regarding social media marketing, it’s important to plan your strategy so you go into it feeling confident. You can see your business grow in just a short period of time through social sites.

Why wait? Start your marketing journey now.