Social Media Presence vs. Social Media Marketing: Strategies and Best Practices

In today's digital era, having a strong online presence is crucial for individuals and businesses alike. Social media plays a pivotal role in building this presence and executing effective marketing strategies. However, it is important to differentiate between social media presence and social media marketing, and to understand how to optimize both.

Creating Your Branded Social Media Strategy

A branded social media strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines your objectives, target audience, content types, posting schedule, and engagement tactics. It aligns with your overall brand identity, ensuring consistency across all channels.

1. Define Your Goals: What do you want to achieve? More followers, higher engagement, or increased sales?

2. Identify Your Audience: Who are you trying to reach? Define their demographics, interests, and social media habits.

3. Choose the Right Platforms: Not all social media platforms will be right for your brand. Select the ones that best fit your audience and objectives.

4. Create Engaging Content: Develop a content calendar that includes a mix of promotional, educational, and engaging posts.

5. Measure and Optimize: Use analytics to track your performance and make necessary adjustments.

Presence vs. Marketing: Evolving Your Social Media Game

Presence refers to your overall visibility and activity on social media. It is about being active, engaging with your audience, and building a community around your brand. A strong presence establishes trust and credibility.

Marketing, on the other hand, is more strategic and goal-oriented. It involves promoting your products or services, generating leads, and driving sales. Social media marketing requires a more targeted approach, with clear CTAs and measurable ROI.

To evolve a personal social media presence into a professional one, start by cleaning up your profiles, updating your bio and profile pictures, and start sharing content that aligns with your professional brand.

Platforms and Content Marketing

• Facebook: Great for community building and advertising. Use Facebook groups to foster a sense of community.

• Instagram: Ideal for visual storytelling. Utilize Stories and Reels for short-form content.

• Twitter: Best for real-time updates and customer service.

• LinkedIn: Perfect for B2B marketing and professional networking.

• TikTok: Dominates in short-form video content, appealing to a younger audience.

Cohesive Branding for Social Media

Cohesive branding ensures that your brand is consistently represented across all platforms. This includes using the same logo, color scheme, and messaging. A consistent brand image helps in building recognition and trust.

Example of Presence: Wendy's on Twitter

Wendy's has mastered the art of social media presence, especially on Twitter. Their witty and playful tweets reflect their brand personality, and they actively engage with their followers, creating a strong community around their brand.

Example of a Branded Marketing Campaign: Airbnb’s #LiveThere

Airbnb’s #LiveThere campaign encouraged travelers to live like a local instead of a tourist. They utilized Instagram to share stories of real travelers, creating authentic and relatable content. The campaign also included targeted ads with clear CTAs, driving traffic to their website.

Engagement, CTAs, and Tracking ROI

Engagement is a key indicator of a successful social media strategy. Respond to comments, ask questions, and encourage user-generated content. Use clear and compelling CTAs to guide your audience on what to do next. Finally, track your ROI by setting up tracking pixels, utilizing UTM parameters, and analyzing the performance of your campaigns.

Tools for Leveling Up

Leverage social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer for scheduling posts, and use analytics tools like Google Analytics or Facebook Insights to measure performance.

By differentiating between presence and marketing, and by implementing best practices for both, you can build a strong online presence and execute effective marketing campaigns that drive results.