With all the hype that surrounds “social media marketing,” you’d imagine it was a marketing cure-all. But is social media an asset you should be building?
Many self-proclaimed social media “gurus” would have you believe that social media is the future of all marketing. If you’re not dedicating all or most of your marketing resources to social media, you’re made to feel like a luddite who’ll soon be out of business.
Of course, like most hype, there’s a need to keep a level head in order to separate fact from fiction.
Before I’m labeled as being anti social media, let me set the record straight. I’ve used social media in multiple businesses and continue to use it on a regular basis.
I too have gone down the YouTube and TikTok rabbit hole, endlessly scrolling and searching for entertaining content. I know how addictive social media can be.
But for most channels, social is there to entertain and inform. Selling is not the end goal.
So let's set aside the hype that surrounds social media. I want to put in perspective for you and help you see where social media marketing fits into an overall marketing strategy.
Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.
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A successful marketing campaign has to get three vital elements right:
You need to hit all three of these to have a successful campaign. You need to send the right message to the right target market, through the right media channel.
Failing at any one of these three elements will likely cause your marketing campaign to fail.
Understanding this framework helps put things in context. Social media, by definition is a media – it’s not a strategy.
The time-tested fundamentals of marketing don’t suddenly change just because a new media comes along.
Remember, of the three things we need to get right for a successful campaign, media is one of them.
Every type of media has its idiosyncrasies and social media is no exception. Here are some of the things you need to be aware of when it comes to social media.
I like to think of social media as a social gathering or party.
We’ve all been to gatherings where someone, perhaps a family member or friend has been bitten by the multi-level marketing bug. You know where they start spruiking the health benefits of the latest pills or potions and try to sell or recruit others to sell.
It makes everyone uncomfortable because it feels pushy. It's an inappropriate time to be making or receiving a sales pitch.
Social media is exactly the same. Overt selling and constant pitching of offers is generally considered poor behavior on social networks. You'll only repel people from your business rather than attracting them.
Just like a real-life social gathering, social media's a great place to create and extend relationships which can later turn into something commercial if there’s a good fit.
One of the most valuable things I see in social media is being able to gauge customer emotions toward your business. You can also engage with vocal customers who offer either praise or complaints in a public forum.
Being accessible, responding to criticism or praise and engaging with your customers builds social proof.
It makes prospects and customers feel like they are dealing with humans rather than a faceless corporation. Remember people buy from people.
But let's take social proof a step further. If you wanted to add PR to your media strategy, social proof is crucial in getting journalists to give you the time of day. So you can use it to your benefit when pitching your new story to the press.
There are two potential traps with social media.
Feeling like you have to respond to every inane comment can be draining and it can suck time away from marketing tasks that can give you a far better return on time and money invested.
It’s important to be disciplined with your use of social media. Just like you wouldn’t let your employees stand around and chit chat all day, you can’t let yourself or them get carried away with the online equivalent.
Your social media page and profile is actually the property of the social network. So spending huge amounts of time and money building up a profile and audience on these networks ends up building up their assets rather than your own.
My preference as much as possible is to build and own my own marketing assets such as websites, blogs, email lists, etc. I then use social media simply as a way to drive traffic to these marketing assets.
This way, my time and effort go into renovating my own “house” rather than that of a landlord who can kick me out at any time.
You might want to check out my article on How To Build A Marketing Infrastructure.
1. Lead generation and customer acquisition
Social media gives you direct access to your ideal customers provided you're on the platform. With paid ads, you can laser-target users based on demographics, interests, and behavior. Organic content (if done strategically) builds trust, develops relationships and pulls people into your marketing funnel. Then you can use email marketing to move them along your funnel and closer to a sale.
2. Brand awareness and authority building
Being active on social media keeps your brand or business top-of-mind. Sharing valuable content positions you as an expert in your industry. But consistency is key to building credibility. Remember, people trust brands they see regularly. If you want your audience to become customers, you need to show up and deliver value.
3. User engagement and relationship building
Social media isn’t about blasting ads. It’s about creating conversations. When you interact with your audience, answer questions, and create content that provides value, you build real connections. And engaged followers are far more likely to become loyal customers.
4. Increased traffic to your website and sales growth
If you use social media correctly, it should drive traffic to your website, landing pages, or sales funnels. Direct-response ads (not just "brand awareness" campaigns) turn clicks into conversions. By retargeting users you can follow up with prospects who didn’t buy the first time and help them over the purchasing line.
5. Invaluable customer insights and market research
Social media is a goldmine of customer feedback. Tracking your content regularly allows you to see what your audience cares about, what questions they ask, and what problems they need solved. This data helps refine your offers, messaging, and products. So this can be massively helpful to your overall strategy, not just your social media marketing (SMM) strategy. It can help you refine keyword use, and guide your content strategy.
6. More cost-effective than marketing on Google
Organic social media is free (but requires effort). Paid ads are often cheaper than traditional advertising—when optimized properly. You can start small, test, and scale what works.
Absolutely. Social media can be a powerful marketing tool, but only when you fit it within a well-thought-out strategy that moves prospects through your marketing funnel.
Unfortunately, many businesses treat social media like a magic bullet. They post randomly, chasing vanity metrics like likes and shares, and don't understand when it doesn't result in sales. That’s not a strategy.
Social rewards those who show up consistently.
Instead, think of social media as a traffic source—a way to get attention and direct potential customers into your lead capture system (like an email list or CRM). You don’t own your social media followers—Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn do. Algorithms change, platforms decline, and your reach can disappear overnight. But if you use social media to attract, engage, and move people onto your owned assets (email, SMS, website, etc.), then it becomes a powerful part of your marketing machine.
Bottom line? Social media isn’t a strategy—it’s a tactic within your bigger marketing system. Use it wisely, but don’t rely on it alone.
Social media marketing is the act of businesses or individuals using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, or TikTok to connect with like-minded people, build rapport, drive traffic to your website, and increase sales.
The most important metrics to track in social media marketing are:
Ultimately, you should want to see your followers increasing month on month.
The best social media analytics tool is the one that gives you clear, actionable insights, not just vanity metrics. Likes, shares, and impressions don’t pay the bills. What really matters is engagement, lead generation, conversions, and ROI.
1. The best overall: Google Analytics (w/ UTM Tracking)
If you want to know which social media efforts actually drive traffic and sales, Google Analytics (with UTM tracking) is a must. It will track exactly where your leads and sales come from.
If you need a unified dashboard to track all your social channels, Sprout Social is solid. It's ideal for the businesses that need an all-in-one social media dashboard.
If Instagram and TikTok are your main platforms, Iconosquare is one of the best tools for deep analytics.
If you’re running Facebook and Instagram ads, Meta Business Suite (formerly Facebook Analytics) is your best friend. Use A/B testing to see which ads perform better.
Best for social listening and brand monitoring: Brandwatch
If reputation management and social listening are priorities, Brandwatch is a powerhouse. This is ideal for larger businesses that need deep audience insights.
Viral marketing isn't a strategy. It's a side effect. Viral marketing is when content spreads rapidly across social media through shares, likes, and engagement. It happens when people find something so interesting, funny, shocking, or valuable that they feel compelled to share it.
It’s not something you can predict.
Earned media is any publicity or brand exposure you get organically, without paying for it. It comes from people talking about your brand, sharing your content, or recommending you. Basically, it’s free marketing that you can’t directly control, but you can influence.
Examples of earned media include:
To run a complete social media strategy, you need all three:
Earned media is the most valuable because it’s the hardest to get—and the most trusted.
In social media marketing, sticky content is content that people can’t ignore. It grabs attention, keeps people engaged, and—most importantly—makes them come back for more.
With the right messaging, advertising your business on social media channels like Facebook or LinkedIn can be super powerful. But you need to be on a platform your audience actually uses.
Chances are, you don't have the luxury of running social media ads for brand awareness. Yours need to be targeted, specific, measurable, scalable and profitable.
I'm a big fan of constantly learning. Every year I invest about $100000 on upskilling my team because I understand that's what it takes if I want to be competitive in the global market. The same goes for your business.
If you're not staying on top of social media trends and innovating your content or approach to engaging with your prospects, you'll get left behind.
You can read as many blogs as you like, and spend hours studying viral posts, I guarantee it won't get you a result as quickly as a good social media course.
Here are five reasons why investing in a social media course is good for your business.
If you want to win at the game of social media marketing, you can't be complacent. Enroll in a course that focuses on social media advertising or tips for creating better videos. Choose courses that are credible.
But most importantly, choose an expert who has mastered their craft or channel.
You need to adjust your social media strategy according to the channel you're showing up on.
Your content should match your audience’s intent and the strengths of each platform.
Too many businesses post the same social media content everywhere without considering how people use each platform. Instead, tailor your approach for maximum impact.
A classic example of why you want to do this is Facebook’s change of policy on business pages.
Previously if people “Liked” your business’s Facebook page you could freely reach this entire audience for free. So businesses spent a lot of time, money, and effort getting people to “Like” them on their Facebook page.
Now Facebook requires you to pay them each time you want to send a message to your entire audience. If you don't, it only allows you to reach a small percentage.
For those who spent huge resources on building up a Facebook audience only to have the rug pulled out from under them, this came as a huge blow.
This is one of the reasons why personally I’d prefer to have 1,000 people on my own email list than 10,000 people who “Like” my Facebook page.
As always with any marketing strategy, it’s vitally important to find out where your prospective audience “hang out.” Then use the appropriate media to get your message through to them.
Social media may or may not be a platform they consume. Our client Altrady has discovered that building their YouTube presence is leading to far more users signing up for their paid subscription. On the other hand, Tonic Living has seen success on Instagram and Facebook.
Your business doesn't need to be on all social media sites. In fact, it shouldn't be. You'll never have an effective social media strategy if you try creating content and advertising for every platform.
You'll also be wasting your media marketing budget and time. It's best to start small, and only add a new channel once you've mastered the existing one. That's how you do lean marketing.
Which social media networks will you be axing from your strategy and which will you be doubling down on?
Make sure you've got your marketing plan in place before implementing.
How are you using or how do you plan to use social media in your marketing?
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