Social Media Marketing for Beginners: Tips + Resources

Social media is a valuable tool for today’s businesses. It has the potential for high returns, can influence buying decisions, and helps build lasting connections with customers. But while it seems straightforward, social media marketing is often more challenging than it looks.

This guide on social media marketing for beginners will help you get started. You’ll learn how to choose the right platforms, set realistic goals, and create content that engages your audience. We’ll also cover tools that make managing your accounts easier, so you can focus on what matters most.

Let's dive in!

Identify the Best Platform(s) for Your Audience

There are about 5.17 billion people on social media, spread across different platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

The fact is, you won’t reach all five billion people. You need to focus on the platforms where your audience spends the most time. Different groups naturally gravitate toward certain platforms more than others, and that’s what you need to focus on.

Here’s a quick overview:

• TikTok: One in four users is under 20 years old. If you want to reach teenagers, this might be your best bet.

• Facebook: On the flip side, 76% of people over 55 use Facebook, while only 5% use TikTok.

• Pinterest: If you want to reach women, Pinterest might be a good choice. Over 70% of Pinterest users are female.

• Instagram: For a mix of younger people, Instagram is terrific. About 66% of its users are Gen Z and Millennials.

• YouTube: This is the most popular online platform among Gen Z adults in the U.S.

• LinkedIn: In the B2B space, or if you’re trying to reach professionals, LinkedIn is where it’s at. It’s a smaller platform, with about 310 million active users, but the engagement rate can be quite high. Its user base includes entry-level professionals all the way up to executives across industries.

You get the idea, right? Figure out where your audience spends time online - that's where you need to be.

Start with one or two platforms and focus on them. When resources are limited, it’s better to concentrate on a few accounts and manage them well. Big brands might have profiles everywhere, but remember, they may have entire departments dedicated to social media. When it comes to social media marketing for small businesses, you’ll get more benefit by focusing on one or two platforms and managing them well.

Define Your Goals

Knowing your audience and where to find them is great, but it's not enough. You need a social media marketing strategy before you charge into battle. In social media terms, that means setting goals. Knowing what you want to achieve will help you figure out what kind of content to create.

But vague goals won't cut it. You need to set SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. For example, instead of saying, "I want more followers," a SMART goal would be, "I want to increase my Instagram followers by 500 in the next three months."

Here are some key aspects your goals can revolve around:

• Engage with customers and build relationships
• Drive website traffic
• Increase brand awareness
• Generate leads and sales
• Gather data/conduct market research
• Promote events
• Recruit employees
• Provide customer service

Decide what success means for you, and set goals around it. Of course, you’ll need to ensure you have the right tools to measure that success. This will also help when it comes time to determine the ROI of your social media campaigns.

Choose a Social Media Management Tool

Software for managing your social media is a must. Think about it. If you spend all your time creating content and posting on social media, when will you have time to work on your business? With a scheduling tool, you can set aside some time to plan your posts in advance.

You can also post the same or similar content across platforms at once, which really cuts down on creation time. Then, you can focus on other essential tasks for the rest of the week.

Popular tools like Hootsuite or Buffer let you manage multiple social media accounts in one place and schedule posts ahead of time. They also offer features like analytics and content ideas.

We have a list of top social media management software where you can see the top options (our list is based on an in-depth analysis of more than 40 top software providers). Even if you're not ready to spend money yet, you can try one of our favorite free social media management tools:

• Socialchamp: Socialchamp is ideal for anyone who craves automation. It uses AI for scheduling, posting, and content ideation. You can manage messages from one platform so you don't leave anyone hanging.

• Postly: Postly is one of the easier tools to use, even if you’re new to social media management. It’s also great for teams. You can schedule and manage your content, and it includes AI features to help you create content quickly.

• Tailwind: If your brand focuses on visuals, Tailwind might be for you. It's especially useful if you're focusing on Pinterest or Instagram. It offers intelligent scheduling and analytics, plus a handy Hashtag Finder.

• Vistasocial: Vistasocial is one of our top choices, even among paid tools. Luckily, it has a free version too! If you want more features than you know what to do with, this is your pick - it does almost everything. You'll find advanced capabilities like brand sentiment monitoring and AI-powered tools. And it works on most major platforms.

Get on the Platforms Yourself

The best way to understand social media is to use it yourself. Doing so will help you understand how your audience thinks and feels.

As you explore these platforms, look for things you love and things that irritate you. Make mental notes of both. It’s also a great chance to observe what your competitors are doing - what’s working for them and what isn’t. Think about how you can apply these lessons to your own strategy. In fact, many of the top social media strategists out there built their strategies on this type of analysis.

Remember, every platform has its own vibe, unwritten rules, and inside jokes. Even the hashtags vary. Engaging with social media firsthand will help you understand the memes on Twitter, the sarcasm on Reddit, and the aesthetics on Instagram. This will, in turn, help you create better content for each audience.

Create Engaging, Helpful Content

Now, we're getting to the heart of social media marketing: the content you'll be sharing, which needs to be helpful and engaging.

A great way to start is by understanding your target audience and creating buyer personas. A buyer persona is a made-up character that represents your ideal customer. It includes things like their age, job, interests, and challenges. This helps you create content that really speaks to them.

Once you know who your audience is, you can start focusing on providing value. A great example of this is the Calm app’s Instagram page. This meditation and mindfulness app showcases its expertise while giving followers something useful right on their feed.

For instance, Calm might post a 30-second timer with a simple instruction: “Do nothing for 30 seconds.” It’s a quick, accessible way for people to try mindfulness. Other times, they share beautifully designed posts that break down concepts like “the art of noticing.” These posts turn complex ideas into easy, bite-sized pieces anyone can try immediately.

What makes Calm’s approach so effective is how seamlessly it ties content to the brand’s core offering. Every post acts like a tiny sample of what users can expect from the app, while still being immediately useful on its own.

The bottom line is that you’re not just using social media to advertise yourself. You need to offer something that’s either helpful or exciting - ideally, both.

Be Part of the Conversation

Unlike old-school advertising, in which you just broadcast a message on TV or radio, social media is geared toward two-way conversations.

In a good conversation, you listen as much as you talk. So, engage with your followers! Ask them questions, respond to their comments, and show that you're genuinely interested in what they say.

Being part of the conversation also means keeping up with what's happening in your industry. That makes you more relatable to your followers and shows you know your way around the space.

Building these connections is extremely important. A study by SproutSocial found that when people feel connected to a brand, 57% will spend more money with them. Even better, 76% will choose that brand over a competitor.

Here are some tips on how to be part of the conversation:

• Respond to comments on your posts
• Ask questions in your posts to encourage discussion
• Tag people or brands when you mention them
• Join in on relevant hashtag conversations
• Share and comment on other people's posts (not just your own)

Focus on Quality

You might hear advice suggesting you post a certain number of times per day or week, like clockwork. Here's the truth: It’s better to focus on high-quality content and stick to a schedule you can manage.

If you focus too much on hitting a specific quota (i.e., the number of posts), you might end up posting just to meet that goal - even if the content isn’t very good.

Quality comes in many forms, not just slick images or videos. Quality means putting effort and thought into your posts. Yes, it takes time, but it’s worth it in the long run.

One way to make things easier on yourself is to use user-generated content. Take Sephora's wildly successful #SephoraHaul campaign, for example. The beauty retailer encourages customers to share their latest Sephora purchases on social media using the hashtag #SephoraHaul. It's pure marketing genius - customers excitedly unbox their new beauty products, creating authentic content that naturally sparks desire in other makeup enthusiasts.

With more than 373,000 posts using this hashtag, Sephora has effectively turned customers into content creators. Each haul video or photo serves as a personal recommendation from a real customer, which often carries more weight than traditional advertising.

Another way Sephora uses UGC is by posting real people using their products on their official page. That has the effect of making the brand seem more down-to-earth.

Be Authentic

Here's a simple but powerful tip: just be yourself on social media. Knowing about trends is good, but don't force yourself to do something that doesn't feel natural.

Another important thing is the consistency of your brand identity. Over time, your followers will get to know your brand and what to expect from you.

Make sure your posts always reflect who you are as a person or brand. Doing so helps build trust with your followers. To achieve this consistency, think about a few core values for your brand and stick to them in your content.

These values can relate to your brand's mission, what you want to achieve, or even the way you write your posts.

Let's look at an example of a brand doing this well. Most people know about Dove products. In the beauty industry, Dove stands out by using real, unretouched people for their content, rather than more typical models. The models come in all sizes, ages, and races, showing the diversity of their customers. By staying true to their message and values, Dove has built a solid following and gained people's trust.

Track Your Metrics and Progress

One key thing you need to do to grow a social media following is to understand what's working and what's not. For that, you need the holy grail of marketing: data. Keeping track of your social media metrics is vital. It helps you see which posts and strategies are working well and where you might need to improve.

Most social media platforms give you some basic metrics right on the platform. These are accurate and an excellent place to start.

Here are five key metrics you should keep an eye on:

• Reach: How many people see your posts.
• Engagement: How many likes, comments, and shares you get.
• Follower Growth Rate: How quickly you're gaining new followers.
• Click-Through rate: How often people click on links in your posts.
• Conversion rate: How often people take the action you want (like buying something or signing up for a newsletter) after clicking your link.

Keep Learning

The world of social media marketing is constantly changing. New tactics, trends, and even entire platforms can pop up out of nowhere. You'll continually need to adapt.

Keep building your skills through different resources. Here are some great places to learn more:

• HubSpot Marketing Blog: This blog is packed with helpful articles about all aspects of marketing, including social media. They often share the latest trends and best practices.

• Buffer Blog: A standard resource for social media marketers of all levels. It provides insight, education, tools, and more.

• Online Courses and Certifications: Hubspot Academy, Sprout Social, and others offer in-depth training and certification to help social media marketers build and upgrade their skills.

• YouTube videos: There are tons of free tutorials on YouTube about social media marketing. You can learn everything from basic tips to advanced strategies. We like Social Media Examiner and Later’s YouTube channel.

• Coursera and edX: These online learning platforms offer courses from top universities and companies. You can find both free and paid courses on social media marketing. Many allow you to learn at your own pace, making them perfect for busy entrepreneurs.

• Reddit and Other Forums: Forums can be a great way to get advice and ideas from other marketers. Check out the r/socialmedia subreddit or Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Society.

As we mentioned above, you should also spend time on social media yourself and follow other creators and accounts you admire. This will help keep you inspired and coming up with new ideas.

Just Do It

When it comes to social media marketing, many people hesitate to take the plunge or don't want to start because they're unsure what to do. But getting started is the best way to learn.

Our best advice is to learn the basics and then dive in. Don't try to plan for every possible situation. Just get started, learn as you go, and adjust your approach along the way.

Final Thoughts

Starting something new can feel scary and overwhelming. The key is to stay patient and not give up.

Remember, social media marketing is both a creative endeavor and a business process. Keep experimenting, analyzing the data, and making adjustments based on what you learn. Continue learning, trying new approaches, and tracking your progress. This is how you'll achieve growth and success in your social media marketing efforts.

And don't forget, you'll need the right tools for the job. Check out our top picks for the best social media management tools. You can adjust the criteria to find the best fit for your needs. Or, use our Comparison Tool to compare social media management software side by side. Finally, check out the best social media management tools for small businesses. Chances are you’ll find your fit.