The complete guide to using social media for business

With powerful marketing tools and an expansive potential reach, social media is a goldmine for businesses. Yet having a social media presence alone is no longer enough as organic reach declines and competition grows fiercer. Establishing an identity and a sense of community is the key to standing out on social media for businesses.

The more you stand out, the better your chances of attracting customers. But if you’re new to it, you may not know the best way to incorporate social media into your overall strategy. While the importance of social media marketing for businesses is already well-known, marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need a holistic approach that leverages the channel to support every other aspect of your business.

We give you a comprehensive guide to help you do just that. Let’s find out how to use social media for business.

Benefits of social media for business

The benefits of social media aren’t one-size-fits-all. That said, here are five upsides that brands can see from a smart social presence.

• Create meaningful connections: Social media opens a two-way communication channel between brands and their audience. Use it to answer questions, handle customer service queries and gather feedback. These interactions help you build a stronger connection with your audience.
• Show off your products: From testimonials to tutorials and beyond, social media is a prime place to show off products. Use the opportunity to highlight what makes your product great and how it can add value to your customers.

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• Increase your brand’s visibility and reach: Social media drives product discovery, as highlighted in the latest social media statistics. Many potential customers will see your brand’s TikTok or Instagram before they see your website. They may learn about your brand when they come across your posts in their Explore or For You pages. Or they may even find you through a friend’s or influencer’s post. So having an established social presence is crucial to boost your visibility and reach.
• Gather real-time insights: Social media is a treasure trove of data points that are all out in the open. Learn more about your audience’s pain points and interests from their conversations. Discover the latest trends in your industry and the most popular types of content. From your audience to competitors, there’s no better place to conduct market research.

Setting social media goals for your business

These social media benefits don’t happen by accident. Instead, they’re a result of a strategic, goal-driven approach to using social media. That’s why it all starts with a goal.

Keep in mind that social media goals are unique as they’re totally dependent on your business. Also, you can set multiple goals that actually overlap and influence each other. Goals affect everything from your content strategy to the social platforms you use.

There’s no “right” way to set goals but the process can be a lot. A few tips to get you started:

• Start with the big picture before getting granular. Why does your business need a social presence? What resources do you need to make those results a reality?
• Look at your target audience and customer personas. For example, how are your customers using social media? Is your audience glued to TikTok or Instagram or another social media platform? What types of content do they want to see? Brainstorm how using social media for business can help you reach your audience.
• Think about your business’ holistic marketing strategy and how social media fits in.
• Tie your social media goals to actual metrics and KPIs. This is a big one in an era where marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. From engagement to traffic and beyond, there’s plenty to track.

Example social media goals and KPIs for B2B brands

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
• Competitor analysis (share of voice) and market share
• Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc.)
• Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
• Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
• Reputation management
• Customer satisfaction
• Positive reviews
• Customer sentiment online

Example social media goals and KPIs for B2C brands

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
• Uncover brand expansion opportunities
• Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Product launch analysis
• Competitive analysis

How to create a social media strategy for your business

Once you have your goal in place, it’s time to put together a strategy to achieve said goal. Let’s break down the essential steps to building a successful social media strategy for your business.

Step 1: Coordinate with relevant teams

Based on the goals you’ve outlined earlier, identify which departments or teams will be most relevant to your social media efforts. For example, you may have a marketing team that will handle the social media strategy, a customer service team that will want to respond to customer queries and a sales team that may want to nurture leads through your social content.

Work with each department to identify how social media can deliver the most value for them. Ask each team what they want to find out from social media. How do they want to use it? How can your brand’s social media presence serve them? This will help you come up with a plan that covers all the sides of the business.

Your sales team, for instance, may want to find and nurture leads through social media. So your strategy may involve identifying key purchase conversations on social media.

Step 2: Identify key platforms

Do some audience research to understand which social platforms your audience spends the most time on. Gain an understanding of the various platforms your audience uses and how each one caters to their specific interests.

This will make it easier to streamline your social media efforts as you can come up with a suitable strategy that covers each platform in a relevant, targeted way.

Consider also these kinds of questions to determine how these platforms will work under teams’ responsibilities: Which platform do you want to use to provide customer support? Do you want to include LinkedIn to attract potential employees?

Step 3: Set up a dedicated social media team(s)

Now the biggest question is: Who’s going to execute your social media strategy?

Many businesses use social media mostly for marketing. So the marketing team handles most social media tasks. But what if you want to use social media for customer support? Or what if your marketing team doesn’t know how to handle sales queries?

It’s important to have a dedicated team to handle key social media tasks relevant to each department. You may set up a team that handles all things social media. Alternatively, you may embed social media experts into various internal teams. The exact social media team structure depends on what works for your business.

15 social media tips for your business

1. Be original

Nothing beats originality if you want to stand out on social media. Yes, jumping in on trends and recreating popular memes are a quick way to drive engagement. And we’re not telling you to abandon that approach altogether either. However, you need a publishing strategy that’s unique to your business.

In fact, our 2024 Content Benchmarks Report found that original content is what makes a brand memorable on social. Come up with unique and creative ways to get your message across.

2. Show your product/service in action

So what original content can you create for social media?

Our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report found some interesting answers. Original content that shows your product or service in action is the biggest factor that compels consumers to buy.

Keep your content equally informative and entertaining. According to the report, 66% of social users find that edutainment is the most engaging type of brand content. We recommend creating original videos showing what your product is capable of. Demos, how-tos, walkthroughs and tests are just great ideas of how you can apply edutainment in your next social media posts.

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3. Keep people entertained

Speaking of entertainment, most social media users aren’t looking to be sold to. They just want to get a few laughs or find something to pass the time. So the best way to hook them in is by keeping them entertained.

Keep your Feed balanced with content that provides some lighthearted entertainment. A few ideas to get started would be: memes, comedy skits, ASMR videos and polls!

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4. Make user-generated content work for you

Content from your customers serves a double purpose of informing people and earning their trust. It can show them exactly what your product or service is capable of in a real-world setting. Plus, since the content comes from other consumers, it adds an extra layer of trustworthiness.

Bonus point for saving your team the trouble of having to produce original content from scratch. Balance your Feed with user-generated content featuring your products.

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5. Build a human, people-first social presence

This might seem like a no-brainer.

That said, busy businesses tend to get stuck in a “copy-and-paste” approach to social. Comments and social captions should feel like they were written by a real person, not a robot.

Injecting personality into your posts is a low-hanging way to relate to your audience. Beyond that, personalizing your replies to people shows that you’re there to help them. This is one of the best ways to use social media for business to build connections.

In fact, people expect brands to personalize their responses. According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 70% of consumers expect a personalized response to their customer service needs.

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6. Look at your social presence as a resource (not just a promotional channel)

Don’t make the mistake of treating your social presence as a dumping ground for offers. Building an audience means being genuinely helpful, not salesy.

Many of the best practices across social media treat their accounts as resources. That means:

• Creating actionable, educational content (think: how-tos, tutorial videos)
• Answering questions and sharing advice with your audience
• Sharing company updates and keeping customers in the loop

Imagine that your social accounts are your first touchpoint with a potential customer. Sharing resources makes a better first impression than screaming “BUY NOW!”

7. Show up consistently

This applies to both publishing content and engaging with customers.

Conventional wisdom says that social media algorithms reward consistency. Sprout’s own research on the best times to post on social media confirms this.  If nothing else, letting your social feeds gather cobwebs isn’t a good look.

Neither is leaving your followers hanging. Making a conscious effort to reply to questions and comments is crucial. This is why you need to keep a close eye on your @tags and social notifications.

In fact, the Content Benchmarks Report found that this is much more impactful than publishing frequently. 37% of consumers think that the most memorable brands directly engage with their audience on social.

8. Collaborate on social customer care

While most businesses are already aware of the role that social media plays in customer care, the line regarding who owns it remains blurred. This makes it challenging to efficiently deliver satisfactory social media customer experiences.

As marketing teams mostly handle social media, the responsibilities of responding to customers tend to fall on them. Yet without proper training on customer care processes, the quality of responses may suffer.

A collaboration between the two teams can solve this common challenge. With each team sharing responsibility, there’s better coordination on who responds and how to respond. So relevant team members can proactively take action with minimal back and forth. Based on the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 36% of businesses are choosing this approach.

9. Involve your C-Suite and employees to amplify your business

As noted earlier, social media shouldn’t be treated as an island.

This applies to your own team as well. The sooner you’re able to get approval and buy-in from your C-Suite, the better. Brand-building through employee advocacy is another way to use social media for business.

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a brand by its employees on social media.  Instead of solely promoting products, advocates promote a company at large. This means:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes experiences about work life
• Celebrating team members and workplace accomplishments
• Amplifying company messages and promotions

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of employee advocacy in action on LinkedIn.

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Again, the crowded nature of social media means anything you can do to stand out is a plus. Advocacy is an opportunity to boost your company’s profile and exposure via social.

10. Be prepared to experiment with different types of content

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of content they can post.

From short-form videos to Stories and slideshows, you have plenty of options. Different industries and types of brands thrive on different types of social media content.

That said, don’t make assumptions when it comes to what performs best.

Just because a competitor posts a bunch of memes doesn’t mean you should follow suit. Let your own analytics and engagement guide your content strategy.

According to our Content Benchmarks Report, consumers want brands to focus on short-form video. And the shorter the better, with 42% preferring videos shorter than 15 seconds. Meanwhile, 39% expect to see videos between 15 and 30 seconds long.

11. Create compelling ads

Your organic social media efforts will not generate immediate results. Make sure to back them up with strategic paid advertising. According to our Social Media Content Strategy Report, being targeted with an ad compels consumers to buy.

There are two things you need to perfect with your social media advertising:

• Targeting: Make sure the right people see your ads, so you get more value out of your ad spend. Show your ads to people who’ve visited your site before or interacted with ads from similar brands. And don’t forget to target them on the right platforms.
• Creative: Come up with an ad creative that would make people want to engage. Go for clever (and relevant) copy combined with eye-catching visuals.

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12. Leverage influencer partnerships

Influencers have thousands of followers who enjoy their content and look to them for advice. So what they say goes. Partnering with them can give you much-needed exposure to build your social media following. It can even compel people to buy from you, according to the Social Media Content Strategy Report.

Keep in mind that we’re living in an age of authenticity, where consumers expect honesty from the influencers they admire. Findings from our 2024 Influencer Marketing Report support this. 47% of consumers want to see authenticity from influencers, even when posting sponsored content.

Moreover, 67% say that the best brand and influencer collaborations are honest and unbiased.

So your partnerships should be genuine, involving influencers who actually love your brand and its products. Give them the creative freedom to infuse their personality and voice into the sponsored content.

13. Lean into transparency

Speaking of authenticity, you need to embed it into your brand’s overall social media strategy. Consumers are increasingly expecting brands to be transparent about their practices and values. According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, consumers feel like they don’t see enough of this from brands on social.

People also want to see brands posting about how they make and source their products. These expectations align with the greater move toward conscious consumerism. More consumers are choosing to buy from brands that use sustainable and ethical practices.

So being transparent about those practices on social helps you attract customers whose values align with yours.

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14. Use AI thoughtfully

Artificial intelligence helps social media teams to execute strategies more efficiently. In fact, 81% of marketers in the 2023 Sprout Social Index™ say that AI has positively impacted their work.

That said, 42% of consumers are still apprehensive about brands using AI in their social media interactions. So be mindful about how you use AI to support your strategies. Focus on using it to optimize backend activities. This could involve tasks like social media analytics, campaign targeting and sentiment analysis.

15. Work on a corporate communication plan

One last pointer for anyone on the enterprise level.

The power of social media as a communication channel shouldn’t be taken lightly. Brands have the opportunity to reach massive audiences at a moment’s notice. This applies to customers, industry leaders and competitors alike.

The stakes are high for large companies with significant audiences and stakeholders. That’s why having a corporate communication plan is crucial. In short, you need to establish rules for:

• Internal communication, including employee engagement and internal marketing
• External communication, including PR and how you speak to the public
• Executive communication (ex: how the C-level discusses your company on social media)
• Crisis communication to deal with controversies and damage control situations

Having all of the above squared away empowers brands to have consistent messaging. Likewise, you can avoid miscommunication and countless public headaches in the process.

Use social media marketing tools for business

Good news: you’re not expected to do everything totally DIY when building your presence.

There’s no shortage of social media marketing tools out there to help with the heavy lifting. Depending on your needs, you might consider investing in a combo of the following:

• Scheduling tools that allow you to queue up content across multiple platforms
• Analytics tools that measure content performance and engagement (see Sprout Social below)
• Listening and monitoring tools that make it easier to track audience conversations

The more opportunities to consolidate your tools, the better. Working with fewer tools means squeezing the most out of what you have. Also, you save a ton of time onboarding.

Here’s a quick overview of the best social media tools for your brand.

Sprout Social

Sprout is an all-in-one social media management platform with a comprehensive suite of social tools and analytics. For example, the platform makes it a cinch to map out your content calendar across platforms. This is a shining example of how to save time and avoid bouncing between tools.

Sprout’s analytics and dashboards encourage a goal-driven approach to social media for business. Advanced analytics means fewer question marks and a better understanding of your presence. This includes your top-performing content and social channels.

In short, you have a constant pulse on what’s working, what’s not and what you should do next.

Sprout’s proprietary AI tools also give you actionable insights to make informed decisions. Get AI-powered suggestions on how to improve your content. Focus on the most important customer care interactions with AI analyzing your messages.

Later

Source: Later

Later lets you automate various aspects of your social media. It comes with a unified calendar to plan your content for all your social channels. Schedule these posts to go out automatically at times when your audience is most likely to engage.

Use the built-in analytics to get powerful insights into your social media performance and how to improve it. Meanwhile, the social listening tools help you keep a pulse on trending conversations and see what people are saying about specific topics.

CoSchedule

Source: CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a social media scheduling tool with robust publishing features. The social calendar gives you better visibility into your content strategy. This allows you to easily spot gaps and make necessary adjustments and schedule your content to automatically go out at the best times across different social channels.

Unlock the power of social media for business

An active social media presence is the key to winning over consumers in a saturated market. It’s where your brand can showcase a unique personality and appeal to your audiences. Use the tips outlined above to get started on your social media journey or strengthen your existing strategies.

Sprout makes the job so much easier with a platform that combines all your social media management needs. From content to trend analysis and beyond, the platform empowers brands to build their presence with confidence. Get a personalized demo to see how Sprout’s comprehensive features can drive your strategies.

Social media for business FAQs

How do small business owners use social media?

Small business owners use social media to market their products and services and attract new customers. The channel also helps them connect with existing customers and provide customer support where needed.

What social media is best for business?

Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are the leading social media platforms for businesses. LinkedIn is also a useful platform for B2B companies’ social media marketing strategies.

How to run a social media account for a business?

You can run a social media account for a business by posting original content that relates to your target audience regularly. It’s also important to review comments and messages to engage with your audience and customers.

How to use social media to market your business?

You can market your business through social media by starting with a goal. Then identify your target audience and create content that will resonate with them.