What if you could stop guessing and start turning social posts into a reliable growth channel? Learning how to market your business on social media comes down to choosing the right platforms, creating content your audience actually wants, and measuring what moves people to buy.
Key Takeaways
- Build your social strategy around clear business goals, audience research, and a content calendar so every post supports measurable outcomes.
- Choose platforms based on audience behavior, content fit, and team capacity instead of trying to maintain a presence everywhere.
- Combine organic content, community engagement, and paid promotion to increase reach while learning which messages and formats convert.
- Track performance consistently and refine your approach so your social media efforts improve over time instead of staying static.
According to the Digital Global Overview Report, internet users aged 16+ spend an average of 2 hours 21 minutes per day on social media. That’s a significant amount of attention dedicated to posting and consuming content. Brands that want a piece of that attention need a solid social plan to stand out in users’ feeds.
Ahead, learn how to market your business on social media, with examples from successful brands and tips to get the most out of your marketing efforts.
15 ways to market your business on social media
- Start with a social media marketing strategy
- Choose the right social media platforms for your brand
- Optimize your social media profiles
- Introduce yourself
- Use hashtags strategically
- Run social media ads
- Run an influencer marketing campaign
- Set up shop
- Go live
- Engage with your audience
- Run a contest or giveaway
- Leverage trends
- Create community
- Use the right tools
- Test and track performance
1. Start with a social media marketing strategy
Before you get started, developing a social media marketing strategy will help you focus your efforts.
First, identify your brand’s social media marketing goals. These could include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Driving traffic to your website
- Generating leads (capturing emails)
- Growing revenue
- Improving customer service
- Building brand affinity and loyalty
- Growing your professional network
If you don’t already have your target audience defined, this is a great time to do that. Describe your audience with as much detail as possible to help you understand which platforms they frequent, what types of content they engage with, and when they’re typically online.
You can learn about your target audience in a number of ways:
- Ask them. Ask your audience about themselves and what they hope to see from you. This can be done through customer research emails and surveys, polls, or the comments section of your posts.
- Use social media insights. Data from built-in analytics on social media platforms can give you information about the age, gender, location, and interests of your audience.
- Check your competitors. Other brands who have similar audiences may offer clues about your own. What content resonates most? How are users responding?
For some founders, this research starts long before launch. Ami Colé founder Jara J has described using social platforms and online communities as a low-cost way to understand customers and build trust before products were even available.
"I was the Reddit reader I was the the kind of commenter and trying to find my tribe on the internet so it felt very natural to me and then also lack of resources the internet was free right I'm just putting out there like this is what I have right now."
— Jara J, Founder at Ami Colé (Source)
Next, as part of your social media marketing strategy, create a content plan. Pivot your plan as you start to understand user habits and preferences on each platform.
A content calendar can help you keep on track and plan ahead for shopping holidays and product launches. The TikTok examples above from Hauste and YETI demonstrate relevant brand content centered around special occasions. Remember to also build in spontaneity—social media is all about trends, so be ready to respond.
2. Choose the right social media platforms for your brand
Your brand doesn’t need to have a presence on every social media platform. In fact, in some cases, you may be wasting your time. Platform choice depends on audience behavior, product category, content format, and your team’s capacity to create consistently—not age alone. For example, Facebook may be a stronger fit for some older-skewing or community-based audiences, while TikTok may be less efficient depending on your customer research. Validate your assumptions with your own analytics, customer interviews, and third-party audience research such as Pew Research Center’s social media fact sheet.
A simple way to choose platforms is to score each one against five criteria:
- Audience age and interests
- Content format fit, such as short video, long video, static images, or text-led posts
- Purchase intent and product discovery behavior
- Ad costs and targeting options
- Team capacity to create, publish, and respond consistently
| Platform | Best for | Content formats | Buying intent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual brands, lifestyle products, creator partnerships | Reels, Stories, carousels, photos | Medium to high | Strong for brand building and product discovery | |
| Community building, local businesses, reviews, retargeting | Posts, video, Groups, Live | Medium | Useful when your audience is active there and you need reviews or community tools | |
| TikTok | Discovery, entertainment, trend-led products | Short-form video, LIVE | Medium | Requires steady creative testing and fast iteration |
| Search-driven discovery, home, fashion, beauty, DIY | Pins, idea pins, product pins | High | Often strong for evergreen content and planning-based purchases | |
| YouTube | Education, demos, reviews, long-term search visibility | Long-form video, Shorts, Live | Medium to high | Works well if you can invest in useful video content |
| Snapchat | Younger audiences, AR experiences, fast promotions | Stories, ads, lenses | Low to medium | Best when your audience is already active on Snapchat |
| B2B, recruiting, founder-led brands, professional services | Posts, articles, video | Medium | Strong for expertise and relationship building |
Once you narrow your options, you can make smarter decisions about how to market your business on social media without stretching your team too thin.
Here are a few social media channels popular with ecommerce brands.
Instagram marketing is a smart tactic for brands who want to reach millennial buyers. It’s an ideal platform for visual brands that can share beautiful, entertaining, and educational static and video content.
Instagram is often a strong fit for beauty and fashion brands and is also popular among a wide variety of businesses from pet brands to bookstores. Meta says Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users, making it a major platform for social media marketing.
What works on Instagram:
- Focus on high-quality, visually appealing content
- Use Instagram Stories for behind-the-scenes content and time-sensitive offers
- Leverage Instagram Reels for short-form video content
- Engage with followers through comments and direct messages
Facebook remains one of the world’s largest social platforms. In Meta’s Q1 2025 results, the company reported 3.43 billion monthly active people across its Family of Apps. It’s often useful for reaching established communities, collecting business reviews and ratings, and connecting directly with your customers. Integrating your Shopify store with both Instagram and Facebook allows you to sell directly on the platforms.
What works on Facebook:
- Share a mix of content types like text, images, videos, and links
- Use Facebook Groups to build community around your brand
- Leverage Facebook Live for real-time engagement
- Take advantage of Facebook Ads for targeted marketing campaigns
TikTok
On this rapidly growing platform, users are engaged and open to discovery. Because TikTok has become a destination for product discovery, users are conditioned to seeing brand content and sponsored videos from their favorite creators.
According to TikTok Business insights, TikTok is widely used for discovery and can be an effective channel for reaching younger audiences. If you want to reach a younger audience, TikTok marketing can be an effective channel, with the largest demographic falling into the 18-to-24-year-old group.
What works on TikTok:
- Create entertaining, authentic, and trend-driven content
- Participate in popular challenges and use trending sounds
- Collaborate with TikTok influencers for wider reach
- Use hashtags strategically to increase discoverability
- Keep videos short, engaging, and to the point
Pinterest had 570 million monthly active users in Q1 2025. It isn’t the largest social platform in the world, but its planning mindset and search-driven discovery can make it especially useful for brands that want to get discovered while people are actively looking for ideas and products.
Pinterest marketing is often a strong fit for brands in categories like home, fashion, beauty, and DIY. For audience composition, see Statista’s Pinterest gender distribution data.
What works on Pinterest:
- Use rich pins to add extra details to your content
- Organize your content into themed boards
- Write detailed, keyword-rich descriptions for your pins
- Pin consistently and at optimal times for your audience
While LinkedIn might not be the first social media marketing platform that comes to mind, it can be especially useful for B2B marketing, employer branding, recruiting, and building professional partnerships.
By creating a company page and sharing relevant content, you can reach a wide audience of people who may be interested in your products or services. It’s also helpful for connecting with industry peers, potential partners, and prospective hires.
What works on LinkedIn:
- Share industry insights and thought leadership content
- Use LinkedIn Articles for long-form content
- Engage in relevant LinkedIn Groups
- Showcase company culture and employee achievements
YouTube
YouTube is one of the world’s largest search and discovery platforms for video content. Not only do users turn to YouTube to find best-of lists, unboxings, and demos of products they want to buy, YouTube videos can also rank in search engines like Google.
This makes it an effective social media marketing opportunity for brands. According to the Digital 2025 Global Overview Report, users spend an average of 27 hours 10 minutes per month using the Android YouTube app worldwide. Create video content that adds value and optimize it for search to get the most out of marketing on YouTube.
What works on YouTube:
- Create high-quality, informative video content
- Use eye-catching thumbnails to increase click-through rates
- Engage with viewers through comments
- Leverage YouTube Shorts for short-form video content
Snapchat
Snapchat is a messaging app that allows users to send and receive photos and videos. These images and videos are called “snaps.” You can use Snapchat to market your small business by using Snapchat ads.
If you’re looking to reach a younger audience, Snapchat can still be relevant. Snap reported 460 million daily active users in Q1 2025, and Snap for Business says Snapchat reaches 90% of 13-to-24-year-olds in more than 25 countries.
What works on Snapchat:
- Create fun, ephemeral content that resonates with younger audiences
- Use Snapchat filters and lenses for brand awareness
- Leverage Snap Ads for targeted advertising
- Offer exclusive, time-sensitive promotions
Other platforms
Depending on your audience and their location, you may find social media marketing success on smaller and niche social platforms, or even platforms popular in other countries (e.g., WeChat). Your target audience discovery exercise will help uncover these other platforms.
3. Optimize your social media profiles
Your social media bios are yet more customer touchpoints—and opportunities to cement your brand in their minds. Maximize this space by using branded visuals and showcasing your brand voice in your bio. Most platforms offer a bio link, and you can use a link-in-bio tool like Linkpop or Linktree to include more links in your profile. Many brands link directly to their homepage, but you may have a dedicated landing page for social traffic or a current campaign or promotion.
On some platforms, signing up for a business account gives you even more options. In the example above, Doe Lashes uses branded imagery and essential keywords while also applying tags (a feature only for businesses) to tell Pinterest users about its brand values.
- The Herbivorous Butcher uses business profile features to add brand details and calls to action.
- Revol Cares uses business profile features to add contact information, a street address, and action buttons such as “Sign up” and “Order food.”
If you’re figuring out how to market your business on social media, profile optimization is one of the fastest wins because it improves every visit from every platform.
4. Introduce yourself
Many buyers want to develop genuine connections with the brands they support, especially on social media. The best way to make this connection is to humanize your brand. As a founder, you can highlight your own journey within your brand story. Find ways to address your audience directly through content across channels.
On YouTube, you can upload a channel trailer to introduce your brand. A channel trailer helps new visitors quickly understand what your brand offers and why it matters. Here’s how it looks on Blenders Eyewear’s channel:
Social media marketing is ultimately about achieving your business goals. But to get there, don’t treat social platforms like traditional advertising channels. Authenticity, creativity, and vulnerability can go a long way.
5. Use hashtags strategically
Your social media marketing strategy should include details about your hashtag use. Using popular and trending hashtags on your account won’t do much if they don’t make sense for your brand and content.
Use hashtags that are relevant to your brand and your audience. Are there niche hashtags and communities (think #booktok on TikTok) that give your content a better chance to appear in search results? Here, Glassette took a seasonal approach on Instagram, tagging its content with trending hashtags around a gifting holiday:
Trends move fast, and some hashtags can remain useful for longer periods. While these can be saturated, a few, like #tiktokmademebuyit, may align well with ecommerce content when they are relevant to the post.
Branded hashtags help create a sense of community and connection among customers and followers. These are also useful for collecting user-generated content (UGC). But, apply them wisely—if you don’t incentivize use of your branded hashtags, they won’t get any traction. Include them in posts, add them to your bio, and run giveaways using the hashtags.
Platform-specific hashtag guidance
- Instagram: Use a small set of highly relevant hashtags instead of stuffing captions. Mix branded hashtags with descriptive ones tied to the product, category, or use case. Review reach and saves to see which tags support discovery. Instagram’s best practices emphasize relevance and content quality over trying to game distribution with excessive tags.
- TikTok: Prioritize relevance over volume. Use a mix of trend, niche, and descriptive hashtags that match the video’s actual topic. Test whether hashtags tied to communities, product problems, or seasonal moments improve watch time and engagement.
- LinkedIn: Keep hashtags limited and professional. Use a few topic-based tags that align with your industry or audience interests. Compare post impressions and click-through rates over time to see whether certain themes perform better.
A practical testing method is to keep the creative similar across a few posts, vary the hashtag mix, and track impressions, profile visits, saves, shares, and conversions.
In its posts, Gymshark uses an easy-to-remember branded hashtag that’s simply its brand name.
6. Run social media ads
Facebook ads are a popular form of social media advertising that let you promote your business on both Facebook and Instagram. You can target ads to specific groups of people based on interests, demographics, and behaviors.
While Facebook and Instagram ads are popular, other platforms also offer ads to business accounts. On Pinterest, there are a number of ad products including quiz ads, video ads, and carousel ads. In the example below, ads for Ruggable and IKEA show up in search results. Pinterest ads look like regular pins with the exception of a “Promoted by” tag.
Set up your social media advertising campaigns to achieve specific goals such as growing your email list, building brand awareness, or creating hype around a new product launch.
When creating your ads, remember to be authentic and create value for users. Ads should blend with other social media content in the feed or offer a compelling deal, like the Instagram ad examples from Knix and Casper, above, that make them hard to scroll past.
Show real people using your products, test different ad types, and identify the metrics that matter most as a business owner.
A simple beginner checklist for social ads
- Choose one campaign objective, such as traffic, leads, sales, or video views.
- Define your audience using customer data, interests, lookalikes, or retargeting.
- Select the right creative format for the platform, such as short video, carousel, or static image.
- Set a realistic budget and test multiple creatives before scaling.
- Send traffic to a landing page that matches the ad message and loads quickly on mobile.
- Track success metrics such as click-through rate, cost per click, Conversion rate, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend.
7. Run an influencer marketing campaign
Partnering with influencers and social media creators is another way to extend your reach. But, be sure your product and brand are a fit for the creator you’re working with. Choose a partner that has genuine enthusiasm for your product so the content is authentic.
“I think authenticity is really what’s important, because today a lot of brands pay people to wear stuff, but it looks like it’s paid for. Go with smaller influencers in the beginning, but somebody that really fosters your style.”
— Eran Elfassy, founder of Mackage
When evaluating creators, look at audience fit, content quality, engagement quality, brand safety, and whether the creator has already shown real interest in your category. Many brands start with nano- and micro-influencers because they can be more affordable and often have tighter audience trust.
Common compensation models include:
- Flat fee per post, video, or campaign
- Free product or gifting
- Affiliate commission or revenue share
- Performance bonuses tied to sales, leads, or content usage rights
Sponsored creator content should follow local advertising laws and platform disclosure requirements. For example, creators may need to use clear disclosures such as #ad, #sponsored, or a platform paid partnership label so viewers can tell when content is promotional.
Track influencer campaigns with a few clear KPIs:
- Reach and impressions
- Engagement rate and saves
- Clicks, code uses, or affiliate sales
- Cost per acquisition and content reuse value
In this example, Inkbox partnered with a creator Mollie Rose on TikTok to promote its finger tattoos:
@inkbox @mollie rose ☆ using our finger tats to elevate her look ❤️🌹💋 #inkbox#smalltattoo#tattoo#temporarytattoo#tattooideas#fingertattoo#holidaynails#holidaycountdown♬ Pretty (Sped Up) - MEYY
8. Set up shop
You can take your social media marketing a step further by enabling shopping features across social platforms. These products and integrations make it easier for people who discover your products to buy them in fewer steps.
To set up a Facebook and Instagram shop and sync it with your Shopify store, add Facebook as a sales channel. This in-app shopping experience creates less friction for customers while also simplifying your operations by syncing sales and inventory across channels. Here’s how it looks for apparel brand Miracle Eye:
This kind of setup can also reduce manual work behind the scenes. In Shopify’s case study with Salt Boutique, owner Jennifer Devlin said adding shoppable links on Instagram and Facebook made it easier for customers to buy and helped turn online fulfillment into a daily occurrence instead of something sporadic.
"With Shopify, we can post a shoppable link on Instagram or Facebook, which makes it easier to buy our products or click through to our online store. We're fulfilling online orders now every day. That was not the case before."
— Jennifer Devlin, Owner at Salt Boutique (Source)
You can also switch to a professional account to access TikTok shopping features. And on Pinterest, catalog pins sync with your store to pull up-to-date stock and pricing information directly from your website and into the pin. Here’s an example of a catalog pin from Herschel:
Shoppable pins appear at the top of search results, like this example for the search “running shoes.”
9. Go live
Going live is one of the most intimate ways to connect directly with fans and customers in real time. There are many ways you can use livestreaming to promote a product.
- Use Facebook Live for community updates and Q&As.
- Use Instagram Live for launches, interviews, and behind-the-scenes moments.
- Use Twitch for longer interactive streams and niche communities.
- Use YouTube Live for demos, tutorials, and searchable replay content.
- Use TikTok LIVE for product demos, AMA sessions, and fast audience interaction.
Live video and live-shopping features can vary by platform, region, and account eligibility. Before building a campaign around them, verify the current feature availability and requirements for each platform. For example, TikTok documents LIVE access and eligibility in its Creator Portal.
On TikTok, users can access random live content by tapping the icon in the top left corner of the app:
On Instagram, Zen Art Supplies schedules regular live interviews with artists, promoting them through Reels and Stories to create anticipation.
10. Engage with your audience
Social media isn’t a one-way street. If you post quality content and forget about it, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful loyalty builders: engagement.
- Respond to comments and direct messages promptly.
- Ask for your audience’s opinion with questions and polls.
- Repost user-generated content when appropriate.
- Use replies to uncover objections, product ideas, and content themes.
In this example from Huha, the brand used its Instagram account to engage with followers and poll them for their opinion:
This kind of two-way engagement can do more than boost comments. For Ami Colé, social media was a way to build relationships first and earn trust before conversion.
"I think at the end of the day it's about the customer so how do I create a relationship with the customer to then you know gain trust with the customer um gain you know momentum with the customer and then furthermore hopefully convert her or him into a customer."
— Jara J, Founder at Ami Colé (Source)
11. Run a contest or giveaway
Contests are an easy and affordable way to increase reach for your brand on social media.
- They can incentivize users to engage with your brand.
- They can encourage people to share your content.
- They can help grow followers or email subscribers.
- They can support another business goal tied to a launch or campaign.
Partnering with other brands is another way to reach compatible audiences and create a compelling prize package together.
If you run an Instagram giveaway, you can promote it across your content in posts, Reels, and Stories, like these examples from Pinsy and NoochPOP:
Tips for running a successful social media marketing contest or giveaway:
- Align your giveaway with a product launch or other event to create buzz around it.
- Get the most out of entries. Ask users to follow or subscribe, like or comment on content, submit UGC, or tag a friend.
- Check the rules around contests for each platform and local laws that govern them, too. Contest and sweepstakes laws vary by jurisdiction, so review local legal requirements before launching a promotion.
A simple compliance checklist can help you stay organized
- Define who is eligible to enter, including age and location restrictions.
- State the prize and its approximate value clearly.
- Explain the entry method and any limits on entries.
- Publish the start date, end date, and time zone.
- Describe how and when the winner will be selected and contacted.
- Review platform-specific promotion rules before publishing.
12. Leverage trends
On every social media platform, trends will come and go almost daily. It’s hard to keep up as a brand, but you should pay attention to the trends that rule your specific industry. Once you spot an emerging trend, it’s tempting to jump on it right away. But before you act, ask yourself whether it’s relevant to your brand and if you have a unique spin or POV.
If you spot wide trends in fashion or food, for example, see how other creators are making content around it. This will help you understand what types of content are going viral. Here’s a sample of popular video content for the search “pastel makeup look”:
Many social platforms have insights around trends, designed to help creators and businesses keep their edge.
- On TikTok, you can filter trends by time period.
- You can toggle between songs, creators, hashtags, and other trend categories.
- You can compare trends against your niche before deciding whether to participate.
13. Create community
On social media, community is key. There’s a reason they’re called social networks, after all.
As you engage on each social media platform, you’re growing a base of potential customers—and also a community of fans around your brand.
If one of your social media marketing goals is to grow brand loyalty and awareness, your followers can become some of your strongest brand ambassadors on social media. Engage them in conversations and reward them for sharing your brand and their experience. This can help them feel like part of a community of other followers.
Community in social media marketing also includes creating a network of other brands, businesses, and creators. Creating content with your network can help you grow your reach and earn trust with new followers. Partner with a compatible brand and create engaging content that works for your shared audiences.
Some brands build that loyalty by being unusually direct and educational in their content. Dieux, for example, has used social media to explain products in detail and set realistic expectations rather than oversell, an approach its co-founder says helps avoid the bad blood that comes when customers feel misled.
"I explain the product I give you all the details then you make the decision that's what we do. I don't want you to buy my products if they don't work for you."
— Charlotte Palermino, Co-founder and CEO at Dieux (Source)
Drag queen Trixie Mattel, founder of Trixie Cosmetics, partnered with fellow queen Kim Chi on YouTube. This partnership gave both brands a chance at exposure with a compatible audience.
14. Use the right tools
It’s hard to keep up with the pace of social media without social media management tools. These tools help automate social media posts, track engagement, and analyze data to help you better understand your target audience and how to reach them.
Popular social media management tools include:
- Canva for creating social media visuals
- Sprout Social for measurement and analytics
- Buffer for scheduling, publishing, and lightweight analytics, or Hootsuite for scheduling, inbox management, analytics, and team workflows
- Brandwatch for social listening and consumer intelligence
- Feedhive for AI-assisted post drafting, scheduling, and content recycling
Shopify social media apps that integrate your social efforts with your store include:
15. Test and track performance
Social media marketing trends change constantly and what works today may not work tomorrow. As algorithms and user preferences evolve, so too should your social media marketing strategy. Test content across various channels and formats to see what sticks, then iterate on it.
Most social media platforms have analytics built in so you can track performance of your posts, understand your audience, and get insights on the best time to post. As you gain more data, continue to refine your social media marketing approach.
This is where SEO-style discipline helps: document your tests, compare results over time, and keep improving the content that earns attention and action.
Social media marketing tips and best practices
As you apply the ideas outlined above, there are a few social media marketing best practices to keep in mind as you develop the social media presence of your brand.
- Develop a social media strategy for each platform. What works for one platform might not work for another. Creating content across multiple platforms means understanding the unique needs of each audience.
- Create a social media calendar. A calendar will help you and your staff or agency partners stay on track and plan for upcoming events.
- Experiment with different platforms. Is your marketing strategy falling flat on TikTok? Explore other platforms and increase your brand awareness at the same time.
- Stay on top of social media trends. While you’ll rely on your content calendar and social media marketing plan to guide you, leave room for spontaneity so you can react to trends and create relevant content for your brand.
- Look into social media marketing courses. If you’re new to using social media for your brand, there are plenty of free and paid courses online to help you.
As you refine how to market your business on social media, keep your process simple: plan, publish, measure, and improve.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of social media marketing?
Social media marketing can increase brand awareness, drive traffic, generate leads, improve customer relationships, and create more opportunities for sales. It also gives you direct feedback from your audience so you can improve products, messaging, and content faster.
How do I start marketing my business on social media?
Start by choosing one or two platforms where your audience is already active, then set clear goals for traffic, leads, sales, or engagement. Build a simple content calendar, optimize your profiles, and test a few content formats before expanding.
What's the difference between paid and organic social media?
Organic social media is the unpaid content you publish to build relationships, educate followers, and stay visible over time. Paid social uses ads or sponsored placements to reach targeted audiences faster, and most brands get the best results by combining both.
How much does social media marketing cost for a small business?
The cost depends on whether you manage content in-house, use freelancers or tools, and run paid ads. Many small businesses begin with organic posting and a modest ad budget, then increase spending once they know which platforms and creatives perform best.
What are the best social media platforms for marketing a business?
The best platform depends on your audience, product category, and content strengths. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Snapchat can all work well when they match how your customers discover, evaluate, and buy products.
Achieve your goals with a winning social media strategy
Strong social media marketing helps you reach the right audience, build trust faster, and turn attention into measurable business results. Start with a focused strategy, choose the platforms that fit your customers, and commit to testing content, ads, and engagement tactics consistently.
If you want to learn how to market your business on social media more effectively, take the next step by setting up your content calendar, connecting your sales channels, and tracking the metrics tied to revenue. Then put your plan into action with Shopify and start building a social strategy that grows with your business.
