You’re scrolling through YouTube when you spot a short video that catches your eye. It’s funny, or maybe it’s surprisingly touching. Either way, you watch it several times, then share it with your friends and family. A day later, you discover this video has gone viral, racking up millions of views and launching the creator’s career. If you’re looking to grow on YouTube, understanding key YouTube marketing tips—like optimizing your video titles and descriptions, using engaging thumbnails, and leveraging trends—can significantly boost your chances of success.
Can I also create a viral short video? What’s the secret sauce? This guide will provide valuable insights and actionable tips to help you achieve your goals, including creating viral short videos that capture attention and drive engagement.
Table Of Contents
- Benefits of Marketing on Social Media
- Types of Marketing on Social Media
- 12 Tips for Efficient Social Media Marketing Strategy
- 6 Examples of Successful Social Media Marketing Strategies
- Create Viral Shorts In Seconds With Crayo
Benefits of Marketing on Social Media
Social media marketing has become essential to any business’s marketing strategy, and for good reason. Social media marketing has many valuable benefits, including increased brand awareness, improved brand loyalty, more website traffic, and better search engine rankings. Here are 15 ways social media marketing can help your business grow.
1. Improve Your Brand
When done correctly, social media marketing can positively impact your brand. It can help humanize your company while building trust, loyalty, authority, and recognition. You can build brand credibility and trustworthiness by posting content showing the people behind your brand and product users.
People like to see authenticity. By living out your brand values and putting employee and customer needs first, your brand can stand out. Sprout Social found that company alignment with its values was 74% more important to consumers in 2022 than the previous year. Aligning ideals with actions that support activism and philanthropy can significantly benefit your brand.
An excellent recent example of an organization practicing what it preaches is Patagonia. Founder Yvon Chouinard gave away the company to help combat the climate crisis. Chouinard is dedicating profits to organizations and projects that benefit the environment. Patagonia has a history of activism, and this action from the founder further showed that the brand lives its values.
2. Engage The Audience
Social media is a good way to grow brand awareness and allows companies to engage, respond to posts, share user-generated content, and follow up with dissatisfied customers. Unlike traditional media like radio, television, newspapers, and magazines, social media allows customers and businesses to interact.
Social media makes getting customer perspectives on your products and services more manageable. You can share new content, get immediate feedback on your company’s offerings, and see what people say about your company on their accounts.
Some companies respond to posts in a sweet, wholesome way. Others choose to troll competitor accounts and joke around. Social media allows brands and customers to express themselves in the moment. Engaging with your followers on social media can show that your company cares about customer needs through personalized interactions.
147 minutes is the amount of time the average person spends on social media each day.
3. Promote Customer Service
Your company may already have chat, email, and phone lines to serve your customers, but social media is another excellent way to connect. Additionally, since the criticism you receive over social media is very public, a well-timed and thoughtful reply shows your broader audience that you’re listening to feedback and responding. Providing a resolution to an upset customer increases the chance of that customer shopping with your company again. It also shows other consumers the type of service you offer, building trust and loyalty.
While the relevant department or individual may not be the person sharing the posts, it’s essential that customers can request help over social media and be guided to the proper support location. Social media users expect brands to be available to answer their questions, and about half of users expect brands to respond within three hours.
4. Impact Sales And Conversion Rates
Successfully marketing your brand or a specific product on social media should positively impact sales and conversion. Ultimately, that’s the goal of spending on any type of marketing.
While many of the leads gained from social media are considered top-of-funnel, industry research has found that the average person spends 147 minutes — or nearly two and a half hours — on social media each day. This means your content will be seen widely, and if practical, it can compel viewers to become customers.
5. Become A Thought Leader
Social media platforms offer your company a voice. Whether posting insightful content on LinkedIn, taking a stand on Twitter, or sharing news through Facebook, social media allows your company to become a thought leader, building customer trust and loyalty.
The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer reported that nearly half of respondents found the government and the media “divisive forces in society.” Recent cycles of disinformation have fueled this distrust, and people are starting to turn to brands for authenticity. There is a higher expectation for businesses to take stances on important issues and speak out.
Some of the top issues respondents want businesses to address are climate change (52%), economic inequality (49%), and workforce reskilling (46%). Social media is a great place to share your thoughts on current events and help your brand stand out as an industry leader.
6. Study The Competition
By looking through your competitors ' social media posts, you can gain insight into where you need to improve and what not to do. This can help you understand how they position a product within the market or which trends they’re keying in on.
For example, say you own a coffee company and the holiday season is approaching. You’ve noticed your sales have been slower than usual. You can check social media and see that similar companies serve coffee in festive cups for all of December.
You can borrow from strategies you see on social media and add your unique twist. Because so many social media metrics are easily seen — how many likes, shares, and views a post gets — you’ll quickly know what’s working for competitors and what isn’t.
7. Improve Search Engine Result Page (SERP) Presence
Google constantly pulls information from social media platforms—such as Instagram images, Facebook pages, and tweets—into its search engine results. By successfully marketing your brand on social media, you also increase your SERP presence. Keeping an eye on what’s new and trending can help you tailor your social content to the needs of the public while adding your brand’s unique flair.
Think of your audience's questions and how specifically they would phrase them in a search engine. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow you to make edits after posting, so if more relevant questions and keywords arise, you can make changes as needed. Blog content is another excellent way to draw in audiences, and it can be posted quickly on social media for your followers to find.
Paying attention to social media can show you what your customers are interested in and where your brand could improve to meet their needs.
8. Boost Website Traffic
Your social media post should send your readers somewhere, and that place will most likely be your website. Think about your sales funnel for social media. A lead views your content on a social platform, follows a link to your website to learn more, and — hopefully — decides to purchase from your site. Ecommerce conversion is another topic, but social media marketing can at least get the audience to your site.
Social media content helps with increasing your company website’s traffic. You can easily attract readers each time you publish by posting high-quality content from your website or blog to your social media platforms. Engaging in interactive chats on social media is a great way to get your brand’s name out there, reach new audiences, and demonstrate your skills while directing people to your website.
To secure loyal customers, you must go beyond self-promotion. Your company website should be included in your social media profile profile so people can easily access more information about your business.
9. Attract Top-of-Funnel Leads
Social media can be an excellent way to get your brand or products in front of new audiences. While these audiences may not be ready to buy yet, hopefully, they’ll enjoy your posts enough to check out more of your content. Social media has made it easier for potential customers to explore your brand in a simple, low-commitment way.
Social media is a powerful lead-generation tool for businesses, and many platforms offer advertising formats to gather leads. A great example of a brand using social media to attract leads is McCarthy and Stone's Facebook ads, which helped people who wanted to learn more about their real estate projects do so in seconds. These ads produced 4.3 times more leads than the previous year, and they were half the cost of more traditional real estate campaigns.
10. Earn Greater ROI
Both organic and paid social media marketing can produce high returns on investment. Organic social media marketing refers to content your company posts online without paying anything. Popular posts, especially those that go viral, can have a vast reach without a lot of spending. Organic social media content is a cost-effective way to promote your business, as social media platforms are free.
Paid social media marketing is still a good option, though. Buying ad space on social platforms can reach a different audience than paid ads on search engines, put your brand in front of new customers, and still deliver significant ROI.
However, many social media users will quickly scroll to another post if your content looks spammy or seems like an ad. While there’s nothing wrong with using social media to advertise, pay for it to look professional if you wish to go that route. When your post has a transactional call to action, such as “Purchase today” or “25% off,” it should be an ad, not an organic post.
11. Retarget Missed Customers
Suppose a customer is on your website and has added a product to their cart, but they don’t buy for some reason. With social media marketing, you can retarget this customer to engage them again to complete their purchase — or at least keep your brand on their mind.
70% is the average online shopping cart abandonment rate.
$18 billion in sales revenue is lost annually from abandoned shopping carts.
Industry research has found that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%, and $18 billion in sales revenue is lost annually from shopping carts left behind. With online shopping, you have a second chance to secure a customer through social media, since 3 out of 4 shoppers notice these retargeted ads and more than a quarter (26%) will click on them and return to your website.
On Facebook, the Meta Pixel is installed on your website, and it collects data about your shoppers, including items they’ve abandoned. This data is synced with a Facebook profile. Dynamic product ads show customers the items they left behind and encourage them to return to your website to complete their purchase.
12. Learn About Your Audience
Reading what your customers say about your brand on social media can be a valuable way to get a feel for your products, promotions, popularity, and more. You can use the data on which posts perform well to help you understand what your customers like — and vice versa. This is called social listening.
By monitoring social media, you can listen to customer conversations. This way, you stay in the loop on what’s trending and how to better adjust your brand to fit consumer needs. You can also address pain points people are experiencing by analyzing the problems they post about and their areas of interest.
For example, your target audience may post about how more brands should donate profits to meaningful causes. You can respond to this need by sharing information on what your organization is doing to give back and make a difference.
13. Build Partnerships
Social media allows you to connect with other companies working in the same or similar spaces that align with your business goals. It also allows you to partner with influencers who can help promote your brand. Customer reviews are an essential part of brand trust and engagement. When people share information about your product on social media, you gain credibility, build brand awareness, and even increase sales.
There are endless possibilities for connection on social media. More than 1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups each month, and there are tens of millions of groups to choose from. This is an effective way to find business partners and people to collaborate with your business. LinkedIn is a professional platform and an excellent opportunity to meet potential business partners, employees, employers, or collaborators. With more than 467 million members, you have plenty of opportunities for collaboration.
Twitter is another way to reach the right people. The platform’s List function creates groups of people that may meet your social media goals, helping you engage with those prospective business partners. Instagram is one of the best platforms to reach content creators and collaborators. Influencer marketing is projected to become a nearly $16.4 billion space this year. Instagram creators can add brands to their preferred list to indicate the companies they want to collaborate with.
14. Keep Up With Industry Trends
Following other brands or influencers will show you what’s happening in your industry. Through social media, people can see real-time conversations between customers and businesses. Your target audience’s social media content can help you keep up with industry trends. For example, maybe #winterwear could help you find the content creators and influencers you need to promote your business.
Paying attention to social media can show you what your customers are interested in and where your brand could improve to meet their needs. Using customer data is one of the best ways to channel your content to meet people’s needs. Keeping an eye on words, phrases, and hashtags associated with your industry is essential, but seeing real numbers will give you a better idea of what your customers are invested in.
15. Acquire Talent
Traditional talent acquisition methods are expensive and time-consuming, but social media offers a cost-effective and easy method of reaching the people your brand needs to succeed. The 2021 Future of Recruiting Study found that 86% of job seekers use social media for their job search. Social media platforms have tools in place to help companies find the right candidates and candidates find the right companies. 86% of job seekers use social media as part of their job search.
LinkedIn is built for professionals and has many free tools for recruiters, although many require a premium account. Its native video meeting feature can help you set up interviews with candidates. According to a report from LinkedIn, an estimated 49% of people use social media to stay aware of job opportunities, and the platform is a proven way to meet like-minded or qualified professionals. Other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, offer features or pathways to post open jobs or job-seeking messages, helping recruiters and applicants find and connect.
Related Reading
- Social Media Video Marketing
- What Is A Common Issue With Social Media Marketing Plans
- Why Is Marketing YouTube Videos Crucial for Brands
- How To Create Video Content For Social Media
- What Video Files Does Instagram Support
- Instagram Video Marketing
- Social Media Videos for Business
- YouTube Marketing Examples
Types of Marketing on Social Media
1. Content Marketing: Engaging Audiences with Valuable Insights
Content marketing on social media revolves around producing and sharing valuable content to attract and engage a target audience. It resembles hosting an endless virtual seminar, where you share your expertise and insights to captivate an audience. Social media marketing establishes authority and fosters trust with your audience. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X are ideal for distributing content, including blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and more.
Take TED, for instance. It effectively utilizes content marketing by sharing thought-provoking snippets from talks and educational content across its social media channels. This highlights its speakers’ expertise and inspires and educates a global audience. These engaging snippets drive viewers to TED’s website and YouTube channel for the full-length talks, helping to build a loyal and intellectually curious community around the brand.
2. Influencer Marketing: Equipping Trusted Voices to Reach New Audiences
Influencer marketing leverages individuals with significant social media followings to promote products and services. Consider having a trusted friend who always knows the best products and services. Due to their credibility and reach, these influencers have the potential to sway their audience’s opinions and buying decisions.
For example, fashion brand Fashion Nova partners with influencers like Kylie Jenner to promote their products. By leveraging her massive Instagram following, Fashion Nova can reach hundreds of millions of potential customers with each post. Each post by Kylie is like a personal recommendation to her followers, sparking interest and driving sales in ways traditional advertising can only dream of.
3. Social Media Advertising: Targeted Campaigns to Maximize Reach and ROI
Paid advertising on social media platforms is a powerful way to reach a broader audience. Social media platforms offer targeted advertising options that allow businesses to reach specific demographics based on age, location, interests, and behavior. Unlike traditional ads that shout to everyone, these ads whisper directly to those most likely to listen.
Coca-Cola frequently uses Facebook Ads to promote its latest campaigns and products. Honing in on specific demographics ensures that its campaigns and new product launches reach the most likely interested people. This precise targeting maximizes ad spending, ensuring every dollar works hard to create brand affinity and drive sales.
4. Video Marketing: Captivating Audiences With Engaging Visuals
Video marketing involves creating and sharing videos to promote a brand, product, or service. It is a medium that brings stories to life, captures attention, and conveys messages captivatingly. This type of marketing is particularly effective on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, where the algorithms highly favor video content.
Duolingo has made a significant impact with its recent video marketing efforts on TikTok. Duolingo has engaged a younger audience by creating humorous, relatable, and often viral videos featuring its green owl mascot. This approach not only boosts the app’s visibility but also reinforces the brand’s playful and approachable image, helping to attract and retain users.
5. User-Generated Content (UGC): Fostering Trust Through Authenticity
User-generated content is any content (text, videos, images, reviews) created by users rather than brands. UGC is highly effective because it serves as social proof, showcasing real people using and endorsing a product or service. When people see others enjoying your product, they are more likely to trust and try it themselves.
GoPro extensively uses UGC in their marketing. The company inspires users to share their exhilarating adventures captured with GoPro cameras. By featuring these stories on its social media channels, GoPro showcases its product in action and fosters a vibrant community of passionate enthusiasts about their brand.
6. Social Media Contests and Giveaways: Boosting Engagement and Expanding Reach
Running contests and giveaways on social media is a great way to boost engagement and increase your following. You can quickly generate buzz and reach a wider audience by offering prizes in exchange for likes, shares, comments, or tags. These events create excitement, encourage participation, and expand your reach organically as participants share and spread the word to their networks.
Lush Cosmetics frequently hosts Instagram giveaways, offering followers a chance to win products. By asking participants to like posts, follow their accounts, and tag friends, Lush generates buzz and broadens its audience while creating a fun and engaging experience for followers.
7. Live Streaming: Real-Time Engagement for Deeper Connections
Live streaming is a powerful way to connect with your audience in real time. Platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Twitch allow you to broadcast live events, product launches, Q&A sessions, and behind-the-scenes content. This approach breaks down barriers and brings a human touch to digital interactions, fostering a sense of immediacy and authenticity.
Sephora’s use of Instagram Live for makeup tutorials and product launches exemplifies this. These live sessions allow viewers to learn beauty tips in real time, ask questions, and receive immediate feedback. It is an intimate, engaging format that strengthens customer bonds and showcases Sephora’s expertise and products in a highly interactive way.
Which Types of Social Media Marketing Would Work for You
Choosing the right types of social media marketing is akin to picking the perfect ingredients for a recipe that suits your business goals, target audience, and available resources. It’s crucial to assess where your audience spends their time and what content resonates with them. A well-rounded social media marketing strategy often blends many approaches, allowing you to reach and engage with your audience through various touchpoints.
Consider crafting a multi-course meal: start with educational blog posts (content marketing) to whet the appetite, run Instagram ads (social media advertising) to attract diners, collaborate with influencers (influencer marketing) to add flavor, and host live Q&A sessions (live streaming) for that interactive dessert experience. Incorporating these diverse elements into your social media marketing plan helps maximize your reach and impact across different platforms and audience segments, ensuring a delightful and memorable experience.
Crayo AI: Transforming the Creation of Short Videos
Crayo AI is the fastest way to create short videos. Create unlimited short videos at once. Crayo even auto-generates captions, effects, backgrounds, and music for you. Take advantage of an opportunity of a lifetime and make easy money with the Tiktok creator fund program.
Go from ideas to short videos in seconds:
- Write an outline/prompt,
- Customize the style (select a background video, voice narrator, and music from Crayo’s free templates).
- Finish and export!
Go viral, make money, and make clips in seconds with Crayo.
Try Crayo’s free clip creator tool today — just click the ‘Try Now’ button on our homepage to get started. No account is required! Go from prompt to viral short videos in minutes with Crayo.
12 Tips for Efficient Social Media Marketing Strategy
1. Leverage Crayo AI for Effortless Video Production
Creating high-quality video content can be time-consuming and challenging. Crayo AI simplifies the process, allowing you to generate unlimited short videos in seconds. With features like automatic captioning, effects, and music integration, it’s an invaluable resource for any marketing team.
2. Establish Clear Objectives for Your Campaigns
Every marketing initiative should start with a goal: boosting engagement, increasing conversions, or growing your email list. These objectives will guide your strategy and help you measure success. Ensure your goals are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
3. Get to Know Your Audience Inside and Out
Understanding your target demographic is crucial for effective marketing. Use social media to engage with your audience and gather insights on their preferences. This will help you create content that resonates with them.
4. Choose the Right Platforms for Your Brand
Every social media network has its own unique audience and content preferences. Before launching a campaign, research which platforms your target demographic uses and tailor your approach accordingly. This will improve your chances of reaching and engaging them.
5. Create a Comprehensive Social Media Calendar
A detailed content calendar will help you plan and organize your social media posts in advance. This ensures a consistent and varied content mix that aligns with key dates and events throughout the year. Use your calendar to map out visuals, copy, hashtags, and posting times for each piece of content.
6. Utilize Social Media Management Tools
Platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social can streamline your social media efforts by enabling you to schedule posts, track performance metrics, and manage all your accounts in one place. This will save you time and improve your overall strategy.
7. Prioritize Visual Content for Engagement
Posts that include images or videos generate significantly higher engagement than text-only updates. Utilize eye-catching visuals to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to interact with your content.
8. Experiment with Paid Advertising Options
While organic reach is valuable, paid social media ads can help you quickly expand your audience and drive targeted traffic to your website. Experiment with different ad formats, targeting options, and budgets to find what works best for your brand.
9. Stay Relevant with Newsjacking Tactics
Monitoring current events and trends can help you identify opportunities to align your brand with timely topics. This approach can boost your reach and engagement by positioning your company as a relevant and trustworthy source of information.
10. Test Your Content with A/B Variations
To optimize your social media strategy, experiment with different post types, visuals, copy, and calls to action. Analyzing the performance of these variations will provide valuable insights to inform your future efforts.
11. Engage with Communities and Influencers
Connecting with niche groups and industry influencers can help you expand your reach and build credibility. Actively participate in discussions to establish relationships and explore potential partnership opportunities.
12. Monitor and Analyze Your Performance Metrics
Regularly tracking your social media performance will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. Use these insights to refine your strategy and optimize your content for better engagement and reach.
6 Examples of Successful Social Media Marketing Strategies
1. Duolingo – Viral TikTok Strategy
Platform
- TikTok
Strategy
- Meme marketing, humor, and brand personality
How They Did It
- Duolingo’s mascot, the green owl “Duo,” became a social media sensation by engaging in trendy, humorous, and often chaotic videos that followed viral trends.
- They used Gen Z-friendly humor, pop culture references, and even pretended to threaten users who didn’t complete their language lessons.
- The brand engaged with comments and interacted with other viral content, making the account feel authentic and fun.
Results
- They have over 10M TikTok followers and billions of views on their videos, which has boosted their brand awareness massively, especially among younger audiences.
Takeaway
- Leveraging humor and an engaging brand personality can help a business go viral on TikTok.
2. Wendy’s – Twitter Roasts & Engagement
Platform
Twitter (now X)
Strategy
Bold, witty, and engaging content
How They Did It
- Wendy’s used savage comebacks and roasts to interact with users and competitors.
- They engaged in real-time interactions, responding to users with clever replies that made their tweets go viral.
- They launched the #NuggsForCarter campaign, in which a teenager (Carter Wilkerson) asked how many retweets he needed to get free nuggets for a year.
- Wendy’s responded with “18M,” sparking a viral movement.
Results
- The tweet got 3.5M+ retweets, setting a record for the most retweeted tweet.
- Increased social engagement, brand loyalty, and a fun brand identity.
Takeaway
- A unique and witty voice can make a brand highly engaging on social media.
3. Spotify Wrapped – Data-Driven Personalization
Platform
- Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook
Strategy
- Personalized user-generated content
How They Did It
- Spotify created “Spotify Wrapped,” an annual customized music summary that showcases each user's top songs, artists, and genres.
- Users shared their Wrapped results on Instagram Stories, Twitter, and TikTok, leading to massive organic exposure.
- The campaign capitalized on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and user participation.
Results
- More than 60M shares across social media annually.
- Boosted Spotify’s app engagement and subscription numbers.
Takeaway
- Personalization and user-generated content can create viral, shareable moments.
4. Airbnb – Instagram Storytelling & UGC
Platform
Strategy
- User-generated content (UGC) & storytelling
How They Did It
- Airbnb reposts high-quality user-generated photos of stunning properties and travel experiences.
- They feature real travelers' stories, turning customers into brand ambassadors.
- Airbnb launched the #LiveThere campaign, encouraging people to travel like locals instead of tourists.
Results
- Over 6M Instagram followers and a steady increase in engagement.
- Increased trust and interest in Airbnb experiences.
Takeaway
- UGC and authentic storytelling can build trust and create strong brand engagement.
5. Glossier – Community-First Marketing
Platforms
- Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
Strategy
- Customer-driven marketing and micro-influencers
How They Did It:
- Glossier has built a strong online community by encouraging customers to post reviews and content.
- They worked with micro-influencers and everyday customers rather than big celebrities.
- Their Instagram-first approach focused on aesthetic visuals and user content.
Results
- Over 2.5M Instagram followers and a cult-like brand following.
- Massive success with minimal traditional advertising.
Takeaway
- Engaging a community and leveraging micro-influencers can drive brand success.
6. Nike – ‘You Can’t Stop Us’ Campaign
Platforms
- YouTube, Instagram, Twitter
Strategy
Purpose-driven marketing
How They Did It
- Nike created the “You Can’t Stop Us” ad, a split-screen montage showing athletes overcoming obstacles.
- The campaign promoted inclusivity, diversity, and resilience, aligning with social justice movements.
Results
- Over 50M views on YouTube within a few days.
- Enormous brand goodwill and engagement.
Takeaway
- Emotional and purpose-driven storytelling resonates deeply with audiences.
Related Reading
- YouTube Marketing for Small Business
- Posting Longer Videos on Instagram
- Instagram Video Best Practices
- How to Post Videos on Instagram
- Facebook Video Marketing
- Best Video Format for Social Media
- Importance of Video Marketing
- Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
- Social Media Video Marketing Tips
- YouTube Social Media Marketing
- LinkedIn Video Marketing
Create Viral Shorts In Seconds With Crayo
Crayo AI is a groundbreaking tool for creators looking to make short videos. Crayo streamlines the entire process, allowing users to create unlimited shorts simultaneously. The platform automatically generates captions, effects, backgrounds, and music, eliminating tedious tasks and letting you focus on your content. Simply write a prompt, customize your style, and export your video in seconds.
Related Reading
- TikTok Video Marketing
- Trends in Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
- Instagram Video Marketing Strategy
- Benefits of Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
- Steps for Successful Social Media Video Marketing Strategy
- YouTube Marketing for Small Business
- Video Marketing Tools for Social Media
- Best Video Format for Instagram
- Instagram Marketing Tools
- YouTube Marketing Tools
- Best Social Media Marketing Tools
- What Is YouTube SEO
- How to SEO YouTube Video