Social Media Marketing Guide: Uncracking the Code

Social media marketing can often feel like a black box. Especially when you’re starting out. 

If you feel like the algorithm is against you and you’re losing hope of your content ever getting in front of your customers, this guide is for you.

Cutting through the noise and competition on social media is a lot easier with an understanding of the different tools, tips, and tricks for each platform – and the know-how behind using them for marketing your digital products.

Here’s our step-by-step guide to social media marketing, plus a look at the top 6 social media platforms and how to use them to boost your business and your revenue in 2025.

Follow along or skip ahead:

1. Set SMART goals
2. Get to know your audience
3. Assess your competition
4. Evaluate and optimize your social media profiles
5. Create a content calendar
6. Test and adjust your strategy

1. Facebook Quick Guide
2. YouTube Quick Guide
3. Instagram Quick Guide
4. TikTok Quick Guide
5. X (Twitter) Quick Guide
6. Pinterest Quick Guide
7. LinkedIn Quick Guide

Download The Ultimate Social Media Guide for Online Course Creators (With a Bonus Checklist!)

Quick comparison: Social Media Marketing Guide

 

	Best for	Active users (Monthly)	Audience	Content Type	Key Features
Facebook	Building brand awareness, community building, local targeting	3.07 billion	Most used by individuals aged 25-34, approximately 56.3% male and 43.7% female	Text and image posts, videos, stories, live streams	Advanced ad targeting, Groups for community, Local events
YouTube	Long-form content, brand storytelling, product demos	2.70 billion	Attracts a wide range of users, majority of users aged between 15-35. approximately 54.4% male and 45.6% female	Long-form and short-form videos	Search engine visibility, monetization options, long-form and short-form video support
Instagram	Visual storytelling, influencer marketing, product discovery	2 billion	Majority of users aged 18-24, approximately 51.8% male and 48.2% female	Photos, images and short-form video – Reels, Stories, Live streams	Highly visual focus, Shoppable posts, Influencers
TikTok	Viral content, trend participation, brand engagement	1.69 billion	Dominated by younger users, with 32.5% aged 10-19 and 29.5% aged 20-29, approximately 56% female and 44% male.	Short-form videos	Trending challenges, creative tools, viral post algorithm
X (Twitter)	Real-time updates, thought leadership, customer service	611 million	Majority of users aged 18-35, 68.66% male users and 31.34% female.	Short-form text posts – Tweets, Threats, Polls	High-speed engagement, trending topics, real-time brand conversations
Pinterest	Inspirational content, product discovery, driving web traffic	537 million	Majority of users aged 18-29, approximately 70% female and 30% male	Images and video – Pins	Visual search, high intent for purchases, strong e-commerce focus
LinkedIn	B2B marketing, networking, employer branding	310 million	Primarily used by professionals aged 25-34, 57% male and 43% female users,	Short-form text posts, infographics, images, short-form videos, events, articles	Thought leadership, lead generation tools, B2B targeting

 

Step-by-step guide to social media marketing

1. Set SMART goals

Whether you’re just getting started with social media marketing or your accounts are already flying, if you want to reach new heights with your social media, it’s important to set clear goals.

Why? Setting goals allows you to zoom out and understand what you’re trying to achieve with your social media. 

Take the time to set clear goals for your social media marketing to help you understand what you’ll track, how you’ll measure success, and what you’re aiming for.

Any goals you set should be SMART: 

• Specific: Be clear about what you want to achieve
• Measurable: Make sure you can measure your progress using specific metrics
• Achievable: Choose goals that are within your reach for your business with your current resources
• Relevant: Set goals that will help to contribute to your business’ overall goals
• Time-Bound: Create deadlines for your goals to give you more momentum

Here are a few examples of SMART social media goals:

• Increase Instagram follower count by 20% within the next 3 months by posting 3 engaging Reels per week and interacting with at least 5 new accounts daily.

• Generate 10 qualified leads per month on LinkedIn over the next 6 months by sharing two lead-magnet posts weekly (e.g. templates, case studies, and ebooks). 

• Increase Twitter profile visits by 30% within the next 90 days by tweeting at least twice daily, joining one trending industry hashtag weekly, and engaging with three thought leaders’ posts each week.

Try writing your own goals for your social media marketing, using these examples as a guide.

Often Creator Educators start chasing vanity metrics like follower count or the number of likes, rather than drilling down on the goals that matter most to your business such as website traffic and conversions. Remember to think about what you’re trying to achieve with your social media when you’re writing your goals to help you stay focused.

2. Get to know your audience

The secret to social media marketing is to know who you’re trying to reach. Instead of marketing your business to millions of people, focusing on tailoring your content to a specific group of users will have the best results. Think small but mighty.

Most social media platforms have detailed analytics that allow you to see who your followers are, their core demographic information, where they’re based, and how they interact with your content.

To help you get deeper into the minds of your potential customers, try creating a customer persona. Imagine your entire audience and customer base as one person, with a name, a personality, and a specific set of needs and wants.

Here are a few questions to ask to help you get started:

• What values are most important to this person?
• What are their biggest fears or concerns?
• What challenges do they face regularly? 
• What is currently preventing them from achieving their goals?
• What’s a challenge they recently overcame and how did they do it?
• What sources do they trust for advice or guidance?
• What type of content do they like to consume? 

To allow you to create targeted content for your ideal audience, you need to know who your customers are and what they are about.

If possible, talk to your customers directly. Don’t assume you know what they think and feel. Instead, try to gather feedback, conduct customer interviews, and use surveys to get a window into their wants and needs.

3. Assess your competition

As well as looking at your own customers and audience, it’s important to check out your competitors too. Have a peek at their social media marketing tactics to get ideas for what you could do better.

A competitive analysis allows you to take a structured approach to assessing your competition, here are some questions to ask when you’re conducting a competitive analysis: 

• What social media platforms is the competition using?
• What type of content do they post? E.g. Do they use Instagram Stories? Reels?
• What does their content look like?
• How often do they post?
• What do they say in their bio? How do they set themselves apart?
• Do they respond to comments? How in-depth are their responses?

By conducting a competitor analysis – where you map out how your competitors use social media and the type of content they post – you can identify gaps in their content. This is a potential opportunity for you to get ahead.

For example, you could experiment with different social media platforms or different types of content to what your competitors are doing to reach your audience and win new customers.

4. Evaluate and optimize your social media profiles

When you’ve got some ideas flowing about how you can stand out from your competition, it’s time to evaluate your own social media – and then get to work improving it.

This is the time to be brutally honest about your current social media marketing, including:

• What platforms are currently working best for you? E.g. Driving the most traffic or generating the most conversions
• What type of content performs best on each platform? E.g. videos, images, carousels, Reels
• Who is currently connecting with you? Are they your target audience?
• Are there platforms where your presence is underperforming or could be expanded?
• What is the ROI of each platform and how does it compare to the resources you’ve allocated to it?

By understanding what’s working and what’s not working in your current social media marketing, you can get a clear idea of how to move forward and the platforms and content where you should focus most of your energy and resources.

The hard work of evaluating your current social media effort allows you to choose which social media platforms you’ll move forward with – and which you may move away from – and your strategy for each one.

You might have different goals for each platform, such as using X (Twitter) for customer service and Facebook for community-building. Use your research to help you choose your strategy.

5. Create a content calendar

One of the best ways to stay on top of your social media marketing is to create a detailed content calendar. This allows you to plan your content ahead of time.

Your content calendar tells you:

• What to post
• Where to post
• When to post

While you can leave space for creating content spontaneously, it’s a good idea to plan your content in advance. The fact is, at some point you’re going to run out of content ideas and be staring at a blank page trying to think of something relevant to say. This is when a content calendar can save the day.

A content calendar also allows you to plan your social media campaigns in advance, for example creating specific content in the run up to the launch of your online course.

And if you’re working with a team, a content calendar helps ensure that everyone is on the same page and that all your content is ready to go ahead of the posting date.

Here are some things to consider when you’re creating a content calendar:

• Your posting schedule (e.g. how often you’ll post, what days, what time)
• Your content mix (e.g. 40% providing actionable tips and helpful content, 40% sharing content from thought leaders and trusted sources in your industry, and 20% of posts directly promoting your brand)
• Your content formats (e.g. Short-form videos for Instagram Reels, Carousels for LinkedIn)

When you’ve mapped out your content calendar and you know what you’re going to be posting across each platform each week, you can get to work creating and scheduling the content. 

6. Test and adjust your strategy

To help you get maximum ROI on your social media marketing, it’s important to track, analyze, and adjust your strategy over time.

Test out different types of content, content formats, and posting schedules to see what works well for you. What content gets the best results? What resonates with your target audience? By regularly evaluating your social media and tweaking your content to align with what your target audience most wants to see, you can grow your social media over time.

Your social media marketing will constantly evolve as new trends and changes appear. Maybe a new platform will become more relevant to your audience or a different type of content will get more traction. By tracking your social media, you can adjust your strategy as you go. Get ready to ride the wave.

Social Media Quick Guides

Get a head start on your social media marketing with these social media quick guides for 6 of the top social media platforms in 2025 – including key stats and tips to help you maximize your success.

Download The Ultimate Social Media Guide for Online Course Creators (With a Bonus Checklist!)

1. Facebook Quick Guide

Facebook is still one of the top social platforms today. While it may have developed a reputation for being your grandparents’ favorite place to hang out online, Facebook boasts over 3.07 monthly active users. And the majority of them are Millennials.

Thanks to Facebook’s community-focused approach, it’s ideal for building a community online or tapping into local networks to market your digital products. It also has a healthy balance between professionalism and informal networking. 

You can market all kinds of digital products to your Facebook audience and it can be a powerful tool for lead generation.

Facebook stats

Here are eight essential Facebook marketing tips

1. Create a Facebook page or public Facebook group that’s closely aligned with your digital product content. This is your opportunity to showcase your thought leadership and build a community. 
2. Regularly update your profile description and add links to your website and landing pages.
3. Give out your valuable knowledge for free. Those who want deeper, specialized training will feel compelled to opt for your digital products.
4. Post high-quality images. It’s also important to be sure of the correct, platform-optimized dimensions of your photos. 
5. Controversy tends to generate a lot of discussions and comments on Facebook. You can use this to your advantage smartly while avoiding posting offensive content. The idea is only to get people to engage in healthy debate. 
6. If your engagement levels rise dramatically, consider getting external help to manage your DMs and comments and foster closer relationships with your audience. It’s where the gold often lies.
7. If you are running out of ideas when posting content, leverage the content from your other social profiles and repurpose it for your Facebook audience. 
8. Consider investing in Facebook Ads to drive paid traffic to your digital product landing pages. Facebook Pixels is great for analytics. 

2. YouTube Quick Guide

The video-based platform that helps creators to share both short and long-form videos to inform and entertain their audience, YouTube is an absolute must for digital products creators. If you’re looking to build credibility, share your expertise, and grow your status as a thought leader, YouTube is a top platform choice. 

YouTube’s audience is broad and mixed. Both younger and older audiences tend to use YouTube consistently, though it’s slightly more popular among men than women. This makes the platform suitable for building an audience for your digital products organically by sharing helpful, informative content to build your reputation with your target audience. 

YouTube stats

• 2.7 billion people use YouTube regularly, making up almost a third of Internet users
• YouTube is the biggest search engine after Google
• Across the world, people spend more than 1 billion hours each day watching YouTube videos
• YouTube has paid more than $2 billion to content creators in the last five years
• With a 75% growth rate in channel subscription, YouTube is the right place to market your course-related videos organically

Here are eight essential YouTube marketing tips

1. Give your channel a unique name and spruce up your YouTube profile with a keyword-oriented description to help you show up in searches. Add hashtags and links to your website and social media profiles where applicable. 
2. If you’re using YouTube for your business, consider investing in a good camera, lighting, and a tripod to shoot high quality content – though a mobile phone is also fine when you’re just getting started. Once the momentum picks up, you can consider upgrading your toolkit.
3. Set up a studio space with a professional background that reflects your brand, ideally in a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed while recording content.
4. Let go of your camera fear and speak with confidence. The only way to crack this as a beginner is by practicing being on the camera extensively, until it feels natural. 
5. Have a script ready for your videos. You can draft it on Google Docs and set up a teleprompter so you can read while you’re recording.
6. Consider outsourcing tasks you don’t have the time – or skills – to do yourself. This might include simple but time-consuming tasks like video editing, adding captions, and responding to comments.
7. Plan out a content calendar to help you consistently publish compelling videos. The idea is to regularly engage, educate, and nurture a loyal audience of subscribers on your YouTube channel.
8. When you upload your content, try to classify the videos according to your course content so that they’re easily accessible – and optimize the video title and description to include keywords so it’s easily searchable.

3. Instagram Quick Guide

Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users and it’s popular among both B2B and B2C audiences. Though it began as just a photo-sharing platform, Instagram is now a top choice for users looking for funny, entertaining, and informative content.

There’s a lot of choice when it comes to creating Instagram content – Reels, Stories, Posts, and Livestreams allow you to tailor your content to your audience depending on the format that works best for them. And with Link In Bio tools, you can direct followers and viewers to your website and product pages. 

Instagram stats

Here are eight essential Instagram marketing tips

1. Instagram has shifted firmly to video content so focus on creating short-form videos for your audience to boost engagement and reach.
2. It can be difficult to create unique videos for multiple platforms all the time – instead, try repurposing and cross-posting your Instagram reels to TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
3. Optimize your Instagram bio by adding keywords to show up in searches – and call-to-action buttons.
4. Use a Link In Bio tool to organize your other content and make it easier to funnel your audience to your landing pages, product pages, and other social platforms.
5. Don’t ignore your Instagram DMs and comments – use them to nurture leads and build a community around your brand.
6. Regularly track your Instagram Analytics to understand your audience better and create content that can convert.
7. Consider using Instagram paid ads to boost your content and get your content in front of your ideal audience.
8. Always experiment and make changes to your content strategy depending on the insights you gather from Instagram Analytics. If it’s working, double down on it.

4. TikTok Quick Guide

Known for being informal and fun, TikTok specializes in short-form videos that often have the potential to go viral. If you like witty, intelligent, unpolished, and informative videos and you’re looking to communicate your ideas in a relaxed and unfussy way, TikTok might be the social media platform for you. 

TikTok’s audience is younger than other social platforms. Emphasis is on quick, bite-sized videos, so your content needs to be attention-grabbing to stand out – but the good news is you don’t need to worry about investing in high-end equipment. Your phone camera will do.

TikTok stats

Here are eight essential TikTok marketing tips

1. TikTok’s algorithm favours profiles that post consistently. If possible, post every single day. You can also crosspost TikTok videos to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts
2. Try recording multiple TikTok videos in batches. This can simplify content creation – and gives you the chance to outsource video editing in bulk, all in one go. 
3. While TikTok favors off-the-cuff and unpolished content, it’s a good idea to know what you want to say before you start filming to give your videos focus
4. TikTok doesn’t like outbound URLs added to external sites – to add a links to your website or digital product landing page, try to use a Link In Bio tool like LinkTree or LinkGenie.
5. Make sure your TikTok content has an element of entertainment. This will boost engagement with your videos and boost your potential to go viral.
6. There are TikTok bans in some countries and potentially more bans on the way, so make sure you have a backup social media platform for your audience – and if the platform is banned where your target audience is located, it’s worth checking out alternatives.
7. Keep a close watch on the trending hashtags and trending audio on TikTok and use them to guide your content plans, if you can jump on trends, you can keep your brand relevant and get more eyes on your content.

Related: How To Make Money on TikTok: A Guide for Creators (Includes downloadable guide)

5. X (Twitter) Quick Guide

X (formerly known as Twitter) is a social platform that underlines the real importance of immediacy. You can quickly establish connections with both your competitors and your target audience on this micro-blogging platform that’s all about fast, bite-sized, real-time content based on current events. 

It is also a great place to learn from your peers. That means using X to market your digital products is a great idea as users are hungry for new knowledge and ideas.

Twitter stats

Here are eight essential X (Twitter) marketing tips

1. Design and optimize your X banner page to reflect the nature of your business, your expertise, and your digital products.
2. Spruce up your Twitter biography to include relevant keywords and CTAs for your business – including your digital products.
3. Follow other digital products creators and watch what they are doing closely. Try to get inspiration from their strategies, borrow their tactics, and use them to improvise your own, unique content. 
4. To make creating content easier, write multiple tweets at one go and schedule them using BufferApp or HootSuite. 
5. X users expect more activity than other social media platforms. Try to schedule tweets for publishing every day, ideally a couple of times a day for best results.
6. Engage with other users regularly – post comments, join discussions, and retweet content to build a community and grow your follower base.
7. Keep your content relevant and ensure that it’s in line with your business and the content you’re posting across other social platforms – remember you can repurpose long-form content and infographics to use for your tweets. 
8. Use Twitter Analytics to understand your audience better and tweak your Twitter strategy to get better results.

6. Pinterest Quick Guide

Pinterest is all about visuals. This visual search engine allows users to curate their own corner of the internet – and 61% of weekly users say Pinterest is where they go when they start a new project. Users of this platform are hungry for inspiration, information, and ideas, so educational content works really well.

Pinterest users are happy to shop directly from the platform and are more likely to visit a brand’s website from a Pin than any other social media site, making it ideal for driving traffic to your website.

Pinterest stats

• Pinterest has 537 million monthly active users
• 85% of Pinterest users search for and prefer visual content
• Over 1.5 billion Pins saved every week
• 83% of users have made a purchase from content they’ve seen on Pinterest
• Pinterest users are 3 times more likely to click on a pin and visit a brand’s website than any other social media platform

Here are eight essential Pinterest marketing tips

1. Visual content wins on Pinterest so use infographics, how-tos and tutorials to share educational content on the platform – and include links to your website to drive traffic.
2. Create a Pinterest business account to get access to Pinterest Analytics and additional marketing features.
3. Produce and Pin branded images and videos to promote your products, such as videos of people using your products.
4. Tailor your images to appeal to your target audience and reflect your brand – including colors, fonts, and photo choices.
5. Look at the boards and Pins from your competitors to get inspiration for how to make your content unique and fill any gaps.
6. Optimize your profile to show up in searches by using keywords and phrases in your posts, Pin descriptions, board titles, board descriptions, and your bio.
7. Engage with other accounts by liking, re-pinning, and commenting on your followers’ and fans’ posts.
8. Consider using paid Pinterest Ads to directly target your audience on the platform.

7. LinkedIn Quick Guide

LinkedIn is a professional and business-oriented social networking platform where people are keen to network with like-minded people, businesses, and brands. This makes it an excellent platform for thought leadership content and educational posts to promote digital products and share your knowledge.

Many people use LinkedIn to learn more about updates, trends, and tricks in their industry so you can lean into this aspect of the platform in your content. 

LinkedIn stats

Here are eight essential LinkedIn marketing tips

1. Start posting valuable content regularly and people are sure to notice you. You can repurpose content from your blog, YouTube videos, Twitter, and more.
2. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn is all about professionalism. Choose a polished profile photo, add a well-designed banner image, and write a compelling profile description.
3. Join LinkedIn groups and pages and engage with the members there. Better still, start your own LinkedIn Group and get people to join you. 
4. Be personable yet professional on LinkedIn. Engage with your target audience and relevant creators in your niche by writing thoughtful, in-depth comments and contributing to discussions. Plus don’t forget to reply to comments on your posts and DMs.
5. Place CTA buttons in your profile description and optimize your Featured section with links to convert users – such as encouraging email sign-ups or driving traffic to your website
6. Experiment with different content types to see what gets the most engagement from your target audience – including video, carousels, infographics, and images.
7. Leverage LinkedIn Ads to your advantage – LinkedIn users tend to convert more easily than users of other social platforms. 
8. Ensure that all your posts, comments, and content are grammatically correct – but don’t make your content sound like a robot. You’re speaking to humans after all. 

3 top tips for social media marketing

1. Be authentic

Today authenticity is key on social media. 

To connect with your audience and build a strong, loyal community of fans, you need to be true to your brand. And that means only creating content that you believe in, that’s true to your values, and that sounds and feels like you.

Here are a few ways you can show up authentically on social media:

• Identify your brand’s core mission and values and share with your audience
• Use a consistent voice and message
• Talk about your story and personal experiences
• Only speak about issues that are relevant to your business and your audience
• Be open and honest in all your communication 
• Engage regularly with your followers
• Share real stories from your customers, users, and community members

The more personality you can put into your social media, the more unique your content will be. 

And the best part? You’ll not only connect more with your ideal customers, you’ll also stand out from the crowd by avoiding the generic content that your competitors might be sharing. Authenticity pays off.

2. Experiment often

The key to winning the social media game is to keep experimenting. Don’t expect to have all the answers from day one.

Be open to testing out new ideas, taking risks on new content formats, and seeing what gets the best response from your audience. It might not be what you think.

Sometimes the weirder and wackier your ideas are, the better they perform with your ideal customers. To help you be more experimental, save ideas from other accounts that you like and look for inspiration beyond social media itself, including advertising, movies, art, and more.

3. Repurpose your content

Creating multiple posts per week for your social media can seem like a mountain to climb. Especially if you’re a marketing team of one. 

The good news? Content repurposing is here to help. Rather than creating all new, completely unique posts week on week, you can borrow content you’ve already shared before.

This includes:

• Repurposing: Repackaging and sharing the same piece of content in different formats
• Reposting: Republishing the same piece of content on the same platform
• Crossposting: Sharing the same piece of content on a different platform

For example, one long-form YouTube video can be turned into short snippets for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and LinkedIn. The highlights  from the video transcript can be repurposed into quotes, text posts, infographics, and tweets. The possibilities are endless.

Content repurposing isn’t just a cheat code to social media, it’s also a way to make sure you’re regularly sharing the same messages with your audience – just said in different ways – so you can become known for your expertise on that topic.  

Get ready to crush your digital product sales with social media in 2025

Every social media platform comes with its own unique essence, energy, and best practices. If you’re trying to grow your traction, get more eyes on your content, and engage your audience, you’ll need to adopt a tailored approach for each platform.  

Use these tips to give you a headstart with your social media marketing in 2025 – and work on building a strong, loyal community around your brand.

And if you’re looking for even more juicy, actionable tips, we’ve created an in-depth guide to help you navigate social media as a Creator Educator. 

The best part: This guide comes with a detailed and handy checklist to simplify your social media strategy and take the guesswork out of getting started.

Want to learn social media from a pro? Check out our ultra simple guide to social media here.

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This blog was originally published in July 2022, it’s since been updated in February 2025 to include the newest information.