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Social Media Marketing Strategy for Businesses: Master Guide
Table Of Contents
- What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
- How Powerful Can Social Media Marketing Be For Your Small Business?
- How to Create a Social Media Strategy
- Paid vs. Organic Social Media: Understanding the Balance
- Choosing the Right Platforms for Your Business
- Measuring Success: Key Metrics to Track
- Why Partner With Salem Surround For Social Media Marketing
In the last couple of years, social media has taken an interesting turn. With AI-generated content everywhere, feeds got crowded, engagement became tougher to win, and algorithms started prioritizing interactions over just reach. For your small to medium business this means a strong social media strategy needs to be in place in order for your business to succeed. The average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day. That’s 2 hours and 23 minutes per day that a potential customer could be getting to know your brand. Let Salem Surround help you make the most of your social media marketing strategy.
What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Social media marketing is all about using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to grow your brand, connect with your audience, and bring more traffic to your website. What makes social media marketing so powerful is its ability to connect with your audience, spark real interactions, and give you valuable insights through customer data, all in one place.
How Powerful Can Social Media Marketing Be for Your Small Business?
Having a small business comes with a handful of competitors. Whether you are in the home improvement industry, franchise, or health and wellness, you must have a strong digital presence to be visible when your target audience is looking for you. The average person uses 6.83 different social networks per month. Just being on those platforms is a great start, but the real power comes from knowing how to show up. When you tailor your content to each platform and speak directly to your audience, you don’t just get noticed, you start building real trust and long-term customers.
Social media can help your small business grow in big ways, from getting your name out there, to driving traffic to your website, to turning followers into loyal fans.
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How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Your Business
Many businesses assume that simply posting consistently is enough to build a strong social media presence, but that’s only part of it. The truth is, quality will always beat quantity. A smart social media strategy focuses on creating content that actually connects with your audience, not just filling up a feed. That’s what gives your brand a real edge over the competition.
A strong strategy maps out your goals, outlines tactics like influencer marketing or targeted campaigns, and tracks performance using the right metrics—so every post is working toward a bigger business win. And social media isn't just about pushing promotions. It’s about building a two-way connection: earning trust, creating community, and being part of the conversations your audience cares about.
Trends shift fast. What works today might flop tomorrow. That’s why your strategy needs to stay flexible, data-informed, and audience-first.
So, what does it really take to build a successful social media strategy for your business? Here are a few key pieces:
- Clear Business Goals: Define what success looks like, brand awareness, leads, engagement, or conversions, and build your strategy around those outcomes.
- Audience Understanding: Know who you're talking to, what platforms they use, and what kind of content they engage with.
- Platform-Specific Plans: What works on Instagram won’t always work on LinkedIn. Tailor your content and tone to fit each platform.
- Content Variety: Mix it up with videos, carousels, testimonials, stories, reels, and live content to keep things fresh and engaging.
- Consistency with Flexibility: Be consistent in voice and posting, but leave room to adapt to trends and timely moments.
- Two-Way Engagement: Respond to comments, ask questions, join conversations—don’t just post and ghost.
- A/B Testing: Try different headlines, visuals, CTAs, or formats to see what your audience responds to—and refine your strategy based on results.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Track performance regularly. Use insights to double down on what works and pivot from what doesn’t.
- Paid + Organic Balance: A strong strategy includes both, organic builds trust, paid boosts visibility and reach.
At Salem Surround, we help businesses do all of the above, and more. From audience research to creative direction to campaign management, we build social strategies that aren’t just trendy, they’re tailored, scalable, and built to convert. Whether you’re starting fresh or refining what’s already working, we’ll help you grow with purpose and show up in all the right places.
Paid vs.Organic Social Media: Understanding the Balance
When it comes to social media marketing for your business, the question isn’t paid or organic, it’s how to balance both to drive real results. Organic social helps you build trust, engage your community, and show up authentically in your audience’s feed. Paid social amplifies your message, expands your reach, and targets the people most likely to convert.
The most effective social strategies don’t choose one over the other; they use both together, strategically. At Salem Surround, we help businesses understand when to boost, when to post, and how to make every dollar and every piece of content count.
Choosing the Right Platforms for Your Business
The point of social media marketing isn’t just to be on social, it’s to show up where your audience actually is. So if your customers aren’t scrolling a certain platform, don’t waste your energy there. Hate to break it to you, but there’s no “if you build it, they will come” situation here. You’ve got to go where the people are. That starts with a little audience research. Create a clear picture of who you’re trying to reach, what they care about, how they spend their time, what platforms they love (and which ones they skip).
When you’ve got that figured out, it’s way easier to pick the right channels and start showing up in the right places.Not sure how to figure all that out? Don’t worry, we’ve got a few simple ways to help you find where your audience is already hanging out online.
Want to know where your customers hang out online? Ask them. Seriously, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
A short, no-pressure survey can give you solid insights fast. If you’re not big on social yet, email is a good place to start.
Keep your questions simple but specific. Stuff like:
- Which social media apps do you use the most?
- Where do you usually get recommendations or news online?
- Any influencers or brands you follow religiously?
The goal here is to get real answers you can actually use, not guesswork. Salem Surround can help you pinpoint exactly where your audience is spending time and how to reach them. We’ll take the guesswork off your plate and build a strategy that’s backed by real data, not assumptions.
In the meantime, start building a mental picture of your ideal customer:
- How old are they?
- What do they do for a living?
- What’s their vibe, laid-back, professional, trend-chaser?
- What are they into outside of your product or service?
The more you understand your audience, the easier it’ll be to meet them where they already are, and build content they actually care about.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the major platforms and what they’re best for:
Still one of the biggest players in the game, Facebook pulls in over 3 billion monthly active users, and it’s growing. It’s a great spot for local businesses, community engagement, and targeted advertising (thanks to Meta’s deep ad tools). If your audience skews 30+, Facebook is probably where they’re hanging out.
Instagram
If you’ve got something visual to show off, products, behind-the-scenes content, or a brand story, Instagram’s where you want to be. It gets 14% of all U.S. social media visits, which is no small number. Bonus: It’s also a go-to for influencer marketing and short-form video (Reels).
YouTube
With more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, right behind Google. If you’ve got how-to content, testimonials, or anything that tells a deeper story, this is the place. Plus, it’s great for long-term visibility since videos live on and get searched for months (or years).
X (formerly Twitter)
X has 611 million monthly users and is still a go-to for real-time news, trending topics, and quick updates. It’s not for every brand, but if your business is tied to events, thought leadership, or community convo, it can still be worth a presence.
If you’re B2B, this is your home base. LinkedIn is built for networking, hiring, thought leadership, and professional content. It’s less about memes and more about meaningful connections, and it’s ideal if your target audience includes decision-makers or industry pros.
TikTok
The heavyweight of short-form video. If you’re targeting Gen Z or Millennials and you’re not afraid to get creative, TikTok’s worth exploring. In 2024, TikTok was estimated to have an audience of around two billion users worldwide, that’s a lot of scrolling. Content here is fast-moving, highly engaging, and often reaches beyond your immediate following thanks to its discovery-heavy algorithm. Trends matter, personality matters, and authenticity wins.
Whether your crowd lives on Facebook, scrolls TikTok all day, or prefers professional updates on LinkedIn, the key is to meet them where they are with content that clicks.
And if you’re not sure where to start, or just want to make sure you’re not wasting time and budget, Salem Surround has your back. We’ll help you zero in on your ideal platforms, build a data-backed strategy, and manage your social presence in a way that drives real results.
Measuring Success: Key Metrics to Track
What are Social Media Metrics?
Social media metrics are the numbers that show what’s working (and what’s not) across your content, channels, and strategy. They help you see how your social efforts are moving the needle on your business goals.
5 Social Media Metrics Salem Surround Focuses On to Help Grow Your Business:
At Salem Surround, we track the numbers that actually matter, the ones that tell us what’s working, what needs adjusting, and how your social strategy is impacting your bottom line. Here are five key metrics we keep an eye on to help grow your business:
- Engagement Rate
Likes, comments, shares, these aren’t just vanity numbers. Engagement tells us how your audience is interacting with your content. High engagement means your message is hitting the mark. - Reach & Impressions
Reach shows how many unique users saw your content. Impressions show how many times it was viewed. Together, they tell us how far your message is going and how visible your brand really is. - Follower Growth
Tracking new followers (and the quality of those followers) helps us understand whether your brand is building a community or just making noise. - Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This tells us how many people are taking action, clicking on your links, visiting your site, or exploring your offers. A strong CTR means your content isn’t just being seen, it’s driving interest. - Conversions
This is the endgame. Whether it's a form fill, a sale, or a sign-up, we measure how social traffic is contributing to real business results. Because likes are great, but leads and revenue are better.
Why Partner with Salem Surround for Social Media Marketing
Social media moves fast, but we move smarter. As a full-service social media marketing agency, Salem Surround goes beyond just posting. We craft strategies that connect, convert, and contribute to real business growth.
We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Our team takes the time to understand your audience, your goals, and what sets your brand apart, then we build a plan that actually works.
Here’s why businesses trust us for their social media management:
Content That Connects
We create scroll-stopping visuals and messaging that not only grabs attention but drives engagement. It's content designed to make an impact.
Data-Driven DecisionsWe don’t just watch the numbers, we use them to improve performance. Our team constantly monitors and adjusts your campaigns for better results.
Full-Service Social Media Support
As your dedicated social media marketing agency, we handle everything from organic posts and paid ads to community engagement and cross-platform campaigns.
Real Results, Not Just Likes
Our approach to social media management is all about helping your business grow, whether that means more leads, increased brand awareness, or stronger customer relationships.
Social media shouldn't be a hassle. With Salem Surround, it's a powerful, results-driven tool in your marketing toolkit.
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