From growing your following, connecting with your audience and showcasing your business, learn everything you need to know about social media marketing to make your mark on the digital world.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last fifteen years, there’s a good chance you’re present on at least one social media platform. In fact, as of February 2025, there are over 5 billion people across the globe using social media – that’s a lot of looped TikTok videos, hearted Instagram posts, and shared Facebook posts! With an astounding 63% of the world using social media, it’s safe to say that there’s a place for your small business on social media. All you have to do is take the leap! Not only will you be able to reach your desired customer base, but you’ll be utilising tools that will help your business grow, and your brand’s reputation soar to new heights.
Not sure where to start or need a helping hand in growing your channel? Read on and find out everything you need to know to get social media savvy with AXA. This might be a long one, so grab a cuppa, and let’s dive in!
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the practice of using social media platforms to connect your business with an audience, help you build a brand identity, drive traffic to website, and – ultimately - increase profits. This is achieved through creating and producing high quality content that resonates with your audience and engages new followers. The more followers you have, the more influence your brand may have – and more influence often equals means more profit!
Benefits of social media marketing
Presenting your business online via social media has many benefits and, unlike other marketing efforts, can be implemented and managed with no cost to your business at all. For those just starting up, or with a keen eye on budgets in your company’s infant days, this can make social media your ideal choice for spreading the word about your business.
Aside from the obvious ones like increased sales or leads, you may also benefit from improved brand awareness, as more people become aware of your business. With a well-thought-out strategy (info on this below!), you may just be able to create a community on your socials, filled with supportive customers who respect and enjoy your brand. In turn, this support will aid in helping your pages grow, help with word-of-mouth marketing and, ultimately, increase your profits. Everybody wins!
A strong social media presence can also help you stand out against your competition. Your social media, alongside your website, is often your idea customer’s first impression of your brand. Having a well presented and active social media profile (or more than one!) can lend to your brand’s overall look and feel. With this in mind, make sure your brand fonts, colours and ethos all align with the message you’re trying to convey for your product or service. For example, does your business promise fresh flowers delivered to your doorstep? If so, ensure your social media content reflects this with attractive imagery of fresh, blooming flowers to support your wider message – no dry flowers here, please!
In addition, as mentioned above, social media marketing doesn’t need to cost a lot – it can be done completely free, if you wish! With consistent posting, strategic hashtags, tagging and active community management, you can experience all the benefits of social media marketing with zero costs to your company. Not sure where to start with your organic and paid posts? Let’s break it down.
Types of social media marketing
Although there are many social media platforms out there, with more popping up every year, there remains two types of social media marketing when you break it down: Organic social media and paid social media. Not sure what separates one from the other? No problem - let’s talk about the differences:
Organic Social Media
Organic social media posting refers to content which is posted to the page without using paid advertising or promotion. This comes in many forms such as sharing posts, images, stories, engaging in conversations and more. The primary goals of organic social media for most brands are to build genuine relationships, foster a sense of community, and drive brand recognition through natural growth and engagement – without any costs attached. In addition, an organic strategy is often viewed as a more authentic approach and can help build strong relationships with your audience, resulting in trust and loyalty to your brand.
To encourage organic growth, keep the below in mind:
- Create valuable content – Your focus should be on providing your audience with information, entertainment or inspiration that resonates with them in some way.
- Use relevant hashtag – Utilising hashtags can help your content reach more people and increase visibility of your business. More on hashtags and key calendar dates later!
- Engage with your audience – Make sure you engage with your followers, responding to comments, answering any questions and taking part in conversations around your business. Being present, helpful and positive will help your brand secure a good reputation.
- Be consistent – Maybe the most important thing on this short list – consistency is key! Ensure you regularly post to keep your page on people’s feed, your audience engaged and your momentum going. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day - social media growth can take time but staying committed to your content will result in gradual growth.
Paid Social Media
In contrast to organic social media content, paid social refers to the practice of using paid advertisement on social media platforms to promote your brand or products. This often involves targeting specific audiences with your sponsored activity. Where organic social media aims to build following, brand loyalty and growth, paid seeks to drive traffic, generate leads and boost your sales. This can be done with image and video, sponsored posts and targeted ads to specific demographics such as age, location or interests.
Many platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram will allow you to boost content easily within their apps – often prompting you when you post new content. You can select the time frame in which it will run for, the amount of money the ad will spend, and who you’d like to see it – i.e. your target audience.
By mixing your paid media and organic content, you can achieve excellent results across your channel – resulting in more sales and increased brand awareness. Don't forget you can also boost your organic content with spend! Speaking of results, let us talk you through some keywords you might see when dealing with social media and performance.
Social media performance metrics
When it comes to measuring your results for your social media efforts, there are a number of terms you’ll need to be aware of. Keeping track of your monthly or weekly performance can give you valuable insights into what your audience wants to see from you, what’s working well, and even what isn’t. Don’t ignore this opportunity to improve your strategy – there’s lots to learn from the numbers, even if they’re not the most exciting!
Awareness metrics
Awareness refers to content that seeks to show your brand or product to as many people as possible. This is based on several metrics, the most important ones to keep track of are explained below.
- Impressions – This indicates the amount of users who saw your brand on their feed. This number includes duplicate views from users.
- Reach – This indicates the number of unique users who saw your brand. Generally, this number is similar but lower than impressions.
- Audience growth – This indicates the number of followers you lose or gain in the selected period.
Traffic metrics
Unlike awareness, traffic aims to get users to move off social media and onto another platform – your website, for example. This can be useful for directing your audience to visit your website for more info on your product or service, or even for sending them to specific pages to encourage sales.
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR) – This indicates the percentage of users who clicked on the link in your social media post.
- Link Clicks – This indicates the number of users who clicked on your link.
- Conversions – This indicates the number of users who completed a sale – going from your social media to your website and then checkout.
Engagement metrics
Engagement accounts for the number of people, or percentage of your audience, who engaged with your content in some way. This can count as:
- Likes, Comment & Shares – Self-explanatory, and the more the better!
- Engagement Rate – This is the overall percentage of people who engaged with your post compared to your impressions. So, keep in mind, if you have a high level of impressions, your engagement rate might drop!
- Video Views – Often broken down into 3 seconds, 30 seconds and completed video views, this indicates the number of people who have watched your video content.
How to create a social media strategy
Keeping it simple may be the key to your success when it comes to creating a robust and holistic social media strategy plan for your small business. When constructing your plan, you should consider the below:
Find your target audience - Factor in things such as interests, location and age to determine who your ideal customer is and where they might be. Would you find men interested in custom flasks on Instagram, for example? Figure out who and where your audience is before you plan anything else.
Research the competition – Find out what your competitors are up to on social media! What content are they posting, which language are they using – and is it working? Being informed will help you make choices early on that could have an impact of your growth.
Set your goals – At this point, you should be thinking about what you want from your social media – what’s your end goal? Whether it’s more followers, increased brand loyalty or sales, define what you want before you begin your posting journey.
Choose your platforms - There are many social media platforms out there, so figuring out which ones you should be focusing on will come down to one thing: your audience. Do some research on each channel for similar products and services to find out if your ideal customer is present on that channel. Consider factors such as age demographics for each platform, and the number of users when committing to a platform.
Create your content – Time to get creative! This is the time you can have a little fun creating eye-catching images, videos and posts for your channel. While creating these, keep in mind your brand tone of voice (how your brand writes and portrays itself), and any brand colours, styles and fonts. The more recognisable your brand is online, the better!
Manage your community – Don’t ignore your users! Ensure you’re responding to any comments or DMs you receive to foster good relationships with your audience.
Set up your KPIs – This is where your social media metrics come into play. Figure out what results you wish to achieve – for example, a 30% increase in followers by the end of the year. Monitor your performance and make changes to your strategy where needed to get the absolute most out of your social media marketing.
Social media tricks and tips
Not sure of best practice for social media marketing? We’ve got that one covered. Below we’ve outlined some useful hints and tips to keep in mind when diving head-first into the world of social media.
Link Shortener – Although, it may seem like a small detail, shortening your links across your social media can improve the overall look and lend to your brand reputation for being a trustworthy company. You can use free tools like bitly.com or tinyurl to shorten your links and clean up your captions.
People like People – People are wired to respond to faces, and this is no different across social media – no matter the platform. From TikTok to Instagram to Facebook, people like to see people. This means, when planning out your creative for your feed, you should ensure you have a few options which feature real people. Aside from grabbing more attention, it can also create a sense of personal connection, which can often make your brand appear more relatable and trustworthy.
Bio links – A somewhat new tool for social media marketers, bio links allow you to create a customisable landing page full of links to your website – all wrapped up in some neat, little package in your bio. Sits such as LinkTree, Campfire and Linkin.bio. Each has their own pros and cons, so have a look at some options to see which one suits your needs best.
Key calendar hooks – Don’t ignore national days when it comes to planning out your social content. Not only can it help fill any gaps to keep consistent in your posting, but there may be some key dates you can tie into your business to create fun content and experience growth in your metrics such as more impressions. For example, own a bakery business? Keep an eye on days such as World Chocolate Day on the 7th of July – ensure you add the hashtag to your post, and you may be able to reach new audiences! You can use sites such as Days of the Year to find out what’s coming up.
Usernames – When creating your social media profiles, pay particular attention to your usernames. These should be the same across all your profiles and as close to your website name as possible. This will make your profiles easy to find and also improve your brand consistency.
Algorithms – Each social media platform will have its own algorithm – this means it has its own rules for how it wants you to publish and what content it wants to see. The more you align with the algorithm, the more people the platform will show your content to. These algorithms change often, so make sure you keep on top of the latest guidelines for social media when creating your content. For example, Facebook prioritises timing, content type, demographics and more. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you’re comfortable with each algorithm, you may see improved performance.
Social media management tools
When it comes to selecting a social media solution tool to help you manage your socials, there are a good few to choose from! Whether it’s scheduling content, replying to your inbox or listening in on topics or hashtags that might be of interest to you, there’s no limit to what these tools can do.
Please note that a subscription to a management tool is not a requirement and, for businesses just starting out of with little budget for marketing, you can post to your channels and platforms directly. However, in using a tool, you’ll be able to see real results at your fingertips and free up a lot of your time – ideal for smaller companies!
Here is a list of some of the most popular social media management tool available to get your started:
Hootsuite – Perhaps the most popular of the list and tried and true! They offer a variety of plans, and even offer a 30-day free trial to small businesses.Other tools for social media management include: Sprout Social, Buffer, Zoho Social, SocialBee.
FAQs about social media marketing
What does a social media marketer do?
A social media marketer is a role that can vary from business to business. In general, it means an individual who is responsible for the running and managing of social media platforms such as X, Threads, Meta and so on. Their job may include tasks such as content creation, community management and social media strategist.
What is the main purpose of social media marketing?
The purpose of social media marketing is to create a space where you can shout about your business to your idea customer while establishing great connections with your audience.
How do I start social media marketing?
Anyone can start their journey into social media mastery! Simply create your accounts, add in those bios and profile pictures and create a plan of action. You’ll be top of the feed before you know it!
How do beginners use social media marketing?
For beginners, it’s important to not get too caught up in channel growth from the get-go. Social media marketing can take time before you see significant growth, especially if you’re starting from the bottom up. Just remember to be true to your brand message, authentic, consistent and creative and you can go from there.