According to a report by Hootsuite and We Are Social, there are now over 3 BILLION people worldwide active on at least one social platform. That’s around 40% of the world’s total population. Translation: there are a LOT of users on social media right now. With its substantial and growing user-base, social media has become one of the most necessary tiers of business communication.

With social media adoption so widespread and growing, I thought I’d provide some useful tips to help you navigate your way to success:

Do know your audience, and know which platform will resonate the best with your audience. Yes, Facebook is all the rage right now. Yes, the majority of your audience is probably using Facebook (2 billion monthly active users to be exact). But that doesn’t mean that you should use that platform if it’s not a perfect fit for your business. According to the Data & Marketing Association, LinkedIn is the most popular social media site for B2B marketers to distribute content, for example.

Don’t post the exact same content on every social platform. In conjunction with knowing your company’s general audience, it’s also imperative to understand how your audience communicates on each social platform. Content matters, and you shouldn’t use the same language on Twitter that you would use on LinkedIn.

Do look at your reporting. How well did your social post do? What’s the engagement rate? Are your fans responding better to content with videos or photo imagery? What time of day do you achieve the most impressions? These are questions you should be asking yourself constantly, since the only way to really get a good understanding of your success is to look at your reporting.

Don’t forget about your reporting! This is so important that I had to say it twice. Yes, it’s important to have a constant stream of posts and to look at trending topics to find the perfect aesthetic and tone to fit your brand. But that’s only half of the battle. Reporting not only provides you with necessary data on your current strategy and insights on how you can better improve to reach your goals, but it also gives you a good benchmark of how you’re competing for share of voice and engagement against your competitors.

Feeling a little lost? Check out these reporting tools from NetBase.

Do engage with your audience. Social media is a two-way street between you and your audience. Follow people back. Like or retweet their post. Reply to their comments. Join the conversation. This makes your brand more relatable to your fans and brings it a higher level of humanity. It shows that you are not a robot behind a screen, scheduling social posts. You are a human being with your own thoughts. Express those!

Do experiment with paid social efforts. It may be difficult to get started, especially if you have never dabbled in paid campaigns. But there’s no better way to get started than to just do it, right? Try a $20 boosted post here and there. Target your audience, and see what your results are. Take the time to do some testing and really hone in on your optimal audience. This will provide you with a stable platform when you eventually move into a full campaign.

Do stay organized. Social media can get overwhelming. Social media calendars are a good way to alleviate the stress level. I like to call it an organized chaos. It could be a word document or a spreadsheet or a social media management tool online. Find the method that works best for you and go with it.

Don’t stress about the little things. A social calendar is supposed to help you stay organized. But as organized as you can be, some things still need to be performed ad hoc. And that’s okay. Social media is a learning process and as experienced as you are, there is always room for growth.

Social media marketing can be challenging if you don’t know where to start. There are so many moving parts and many different goals you can achieve. It’s important to keep things simple at first to create your baseline, then work through the various strategies to reach your goals.

Feeling overwhelmed with your social media strategy? Send me a note at mbayas@dev.randjsc.com and we can work together on creating a social media strategy that works for you. You can become a social media pro in no time!