10 Proven Strategies on How to Promote Your Business on Social Media

Social media is a relatively new concept—but it has been around long enough to become a staple in business marketing. Promoting your business online is nothing original or groundbreaking. 

In fact, in a tech-driven world where customers live and breathe in online spaces, social media marketing is a need and not an option. If you’re not tapping into it, you’re missing out.

Whether you're a small startup or an established corporation, knowing the ins and outs of social media marketing can significantly improve your brand's visibility and reach. Since navigating this dynamic world can be daunting for beginners, we’ve put together this guide to give you effective tips and strategies on how to promote your business on social media.

Read on to learn how to grow your customer base with social media marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing, or digital marketing as it’s also called, is the use of online social platforms to grow a company’s brand, audience, and sales.^[1] Brands use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to amplify value-driven content, engage their audience, and acquire new customers.

Social media revolutionized the way businesses interact with customers, offering boundless opportunities for direct interactions and real-time engagement. Unlike traditional marketing media, which typically relies on one-sided communication, social media opens the door for brands to build lasting relationships with their audience.

Because of the power it wields, social media is an essential tool for marketers looking to expand their business. If you’re starting a small business, you need to learn how to promote a product on social media to grow your customer base.

Read more: All the Values and Skills You Need to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

Benefits of Promoting Your Business on Social Media

Entrepreneurship is a highly competitive landscape. If you’re new to the game, you’ll find out sooner than later that startup business challenges abound, and only those who can stand out can survive the early, unforgiving stages.

Social media is key to differentiating your business from the rest of the competition. The impact of social media marketing on small businesses is profound. By leveraging it, you can unlock better brand visibility, customer engagement, and sales.

Here are the top benefits of promoting your business on social media:

👍 Reach Your Target Audience

When used effectively, social media can enable businesses to reach a diverse or targeted audience. To find their customer base, brands can run tailored advertisements directed towards specific demographics. 

They can build their client portfolio either by bringing together a group of consumers with shared behaviors, interests, preferences, or locations; or by tapping into an existing community that finds value in their business.

👍 Increase Brand Awareness

Social media is a powerful tool for increasing brand visibility. Businesses can use it to share engaging content, showcase their products and services, and capture the attention of potential and existing customers. 

Social media is replete with opportunities for engagement, so brands can leverage it to organically spread their message and establish their identity online. As a result, they can foster a sense of familiarity and trust with their customer base.

👍 Drive Traffic to Your Website 

Successful businesses often use social media platforms to post relevant content that resonates with their target audience. With a healthy habit of consistent and intentional posting, they earn a strong brand credibility, which they capitalize on by driving traffic to their website. 

These brands’ calls to action may come in many forms, like encouraging customers to get more information, fill out an order form, or complete a purchase on their website. Do this for your business as well to increase your engagement, leads, and sales.

👍 Enhance Brand Loyalty

By constantly engaging with your audience on social media, you can keep your business top of mind. Social media is designed to allow brands to develop real, lasting relationships with their customer base. Leverage it to make your business part of your customers’ lifestyle. 

To do this, consistently post relevant content that increases your credibility. Also, communicate with your audience through updates, comments, and direct messages that can enhance their customer experience. If you do this correctly, you can almost guarantee a loyal following on social media.

👍 Generate Leads and Drive Sales 

Ultimately, the purpose of promoting your brand on social media is to expand your business through increased sales. Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to reach a wide audience, generate leads, and attract potential customers that you can turn into loyal clients. 

The genius of social media lies in the trifecta of targeted advertising, strategic engagement, and customer analytics, which can point you in the right direction to drive profitable growth for your business.

How to Promote Your Business on Social Media in 10 Ways

Convinced of the importance of social media marketing for your business? Here are 10 strategies you can employ to stay competitive and relevant in the ever-evolving digital landscape:

📌 Ride the Wave of Trends

Before you can make your brand stand out, you need to make it visible—and you can do that by engaging in activities that resonate with your audience. To gain traction online, execute relevant social media marketing ideas for small businesses. Jump on the bandwagon once in a while, and put your own spin on what’s currently popular. 

To stay on top of trends, constantly keep your finger on the pulse of the market. Never underestimate the power of industry research. Always be on the lookout for trends that you can integrate into your social media strategy. 

That way, you can keep your brand relevant and engaging.

📌 Cultivate a Space for User-Generated Content

One way to get people talking about your business and keep it top of mind is to encourage customers to post about their experience with you on their own social media accounts. This is called user-generated content (UGC), which is an authentic way to promote your business on social media.^[2]

UGC can especially be powerful when you’re confident about the quality of your customer service and the value you offer through your products and services. To widen the reach of your user-generated content, ask customers to tag you when they talk about you online. It’s also good practice to repost UGCs and amplify any positive feedback you receive. 

This not only builds your credibility but also showcases the active community around your brand.

📌 Collaborate with Influencers

To master how to market your business on social media, consider working with micro-influencers. You don’t have to be a big brand to collaborate with celebrities. As a small business, you can also benefit from influencer marketing by working with personalities that are relatively popular in your industry.

More than the size of an influencer’s following, look at the level of engagement they have with their audience and your potential customers. Choose influencers that align with your company values and purpose so that your audience can relate with them. Most important of all, get brand ambassadors who truly appreciate your products and services. That way, their promotion of your brand will come across as authentic, and they can more effectively pull people towards you and help extend your reach and boost your sales.^[3]

📌 Cross-Promote Across Platforms

To maximize your reach, set up a profile on various social media channels where your audiences often spend their time, then cross-promote across those platforms. If you have an extensive social media presence, make your customers aware of that through email communications, website promotions, and even through physical marketing materials distributed in-store.

This will improve your visibility, maximize the impact of your content, and drive increased engagement. It’s one of the proven ways on how to promote your business on social media. Remember, the greater your visibility, the higher the chances for your potential customers to find you.

📌 Run Paid Social Media Ads

Devising promotional campaigns that run only on specific online channels is an effective strategy for business promotion through social media. Launch ads, offer discounts, and arrange giveaways to increase engagement and attract potential customers. 

Social media promotions, such as those on Facebook and Instagram, allow for focused advertising based on demographics and preferences, so you can be sure you’re generating buzz within your targeted communities. 

💳 Get the Right Credit Card for Your Business

Funding a social media ad is also easy and convenient, as platforms often accept credit card payments, among others. For guidance on choosing the right credit card for your needs, compare options via Moneymax: 

Credit Card	Perks for Business Owners
UnionBank Rewards Credit Card	1 point per ₱30 spend 3x points for shopping locally and abroad
UnionBank Lazada Credit Card	₱6 Lazada Wallet Credits per ₱200 spend at Lazada ₱1 Lazada Credit per ₱200 spend at other merchants ₱50 monthly shipping vouchers at Lazada ₱500 discount vouchers for 5 Lazada Sales all year round Priority access to Lazada Sales Discounts from selected Lazada merchants
Metrobank Platinum Mastercard®	1 rewards point for every ₱20 spend eCommerce purchase protection of up to US$200 0% installment at partner merchants
HSBC Red Mastercard	1 point for every ₱20 spend 4x points on shopping, online, and overseas transactions

📌 Enable Shopping Features Across Your Platforms

Here’s another technique on how to advertise your business effectively: enable shopping features across your social media platforms. Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, setting up an online shop simplifies the sales process for customers interested in purchasing from your brand.

With reduced friction in the buying process, you can make your products and services accessible to more customers. Shorter sales cycles often lead to faster conversions and improved customer experiences. An efficient sales process can be your differentiator in a competitive market.

📌 Create a Strategic Content Schedule

Many social media promotion examples from top brands post content in a timely manner, and that’s because a successful social media campaign takes strategic scheduling into account. To heighten the impact of your work, create a social media calendar that allows you to organize posts ahead of time, ensuring a steady stream of engaging content across platforms. 

With a social media calendar, you can consistently post relevant content at peak times—i.e., when your audience is most active. That way, you can maximize customer engagement, gain actionable insights from tracking your analytics, and establish yourself as an industry thought leader through strategic posting. 

📌 Leverage Social Media Management Tools

You need to use the right tools—it’s important in implementing effective social media marketing for small businesses. 

Whether it’s to automate posts, generate captions, create social-specific visuals, plot a social media calendar, monitor trends, track engagement, or analyze data—there’s always an app that can help you reach your goal. 

📌 Use Hashtags to Increase Visibility

Incorporate the use of strategic hashtags into your marketing strategy to improve the visibility of your social media content. By using popular hashtags relevant to your brand and audience, you can heighten your chance of appearing in search results and tapping into the right market.

Whether you’re running a restaurant or managing a salon, there are popular hashtags you can use to focus your content and reach the right audience.

📌 Go Live to Promote Your Brand

Going live on social media is an intimate way to connect with your audience in real time. Many social media platforms offer a livestream feature you can use to get immediate viewer interactions. 

You can go live for many reasons—e.g., to demo a product, host AMAs, provide behind-the-scenes tours, or post other random but still relevant content to get real-time engagement. Use this feature to make personal connections and build trust with your customers.

Social Media Marketing Tips for Business

Need more social media tips for business? These ones top the list:

✔️ Create a Strategy That Distinguishes Your Brand

To do this effectively, make sure you’re secure in your brand identity. Know your own voice, style, and aesthetic. Only then can you develop a unique and consistent brand narrative for each platform. 

Part of developing a marketing strategy is identifying your main goal—be it to increase brand awareness, build brand loyalty, generate leads, or grow sales. From there, you can put together a step-by-step plan on how to realize your goal while humanizing your brand. Remember, authenticity and creativity go a long way in inspiring brand loyalty. 

✔️ Choose the Right Social Media Platform for Your Business

To choose the right social media platform for your business, start by identifying your target audience and the types of content they engage with. Next, understand the nuances of each platform and develop a unique approach for each.

There are many social media platforms for business. The most popular options include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. Facebook is ideal for reaching older demographics, while TikTok excels with younger audiences. Instagram and Pinterest are perfect for visual content; YouTube is for long-form videos; and LinkedIn is for professional networking. Maximize your strategy by tailoring your content to match each platform’s strengths.^[4]

✔️ Engage with Your Audience and Offer Great Customer Service 

Engage with your audience not only by posting regular content but also by replying to comments, running polls, and responding to direct messages. Carve out time every day for these activities so you can build a strong community around your brand.

Social media is also a good space to demonstrate superb customer service. Direct prospects from other platforms to your social media channels and address their issues there. You can also leverage chatbots for common inquiries and get dedicated customer support for more complicated concerns. By engaging with customers on social media, you can maintain an open communication channel with your community, thereby boosting your credibility.

✔️ Track Your Performance Through Customer Analytics

Social trends, user preferences, and system algorithms constantly evolve, so a static approach to social media marketing can never stand. Be agile and dynamic in conducting market research, tracking your performance, and implementing data-backed improvements.

Test out different types of content across channels, and refine your strategy based on what works. You can either leverage the basic analytics built into each platform, or use external tools with advanced functionalities to improve your metrics and optimize your campaigns. Always use reliable data to inform your decision-making.^[5]

✔️ Commit Time, Money, and Talent to Develop Your Identity

While social media offers plenty of free and cost-effective opportunities to promote your business, you can’t realize bigger gains until you commit enough resources to elevate your social media presence. You need sufficient funds to access tools and run paid campaigns. While using gizmos and paying for ads don’t always guarantee success, they can bring you closer to unlocking your goals, as long as you have a brilliant strategy you can execute with precision.

You also need time to refine your approach, find your niche, and settle into a rhythm. But, most importantly, you need someone savvy to handle your social media growth. Don’t surrender the wheel to just about anyone—find someone who understands the social media space and can navigate it successfully. Allocating dedicated resources can make all the difference in your social media marketing game.

Further reading: 

• Financing a Business: 8 Funding Options to Look Into
• How to Make a Business Plan Like a Pro: Step-by-Step Guide and Samples

Final Thoughts

Social media marketing is essential for businesses aiming to thrive in the digital space. By understanding how to promote your business on social media effectively, you can harness its power to establish your voice, widen your reach, engage with your audience, and ultimately drive profitable growth for your business.

As you navigate the complexities of social media, keep fine-tuning your strategy and adapting your approach to meet your business goals. Don’t waste another day waiting to implement the techniques you’ve learned—elevate your social media presence now and watch your business grow!

Sources:

• ^[1] Social Media Marketing: What It Is, How It Works, Pros and Cons (Investopedia, 2024)
• ^[2] Harnessing The Power of User-Generated Content (Forbes, 2024)
• ^[3] What Is Influencer Marketing: An Influencer Strategy Guide for 2024 (Sprout Social, 2024)
• ^[4] Which Social Media Platform Is Right for Your Business? (Federation of Small Businesses, 2024)
• ^[5] The Importance of Social Media Analytics (The Next Scoop, 2024)