Social Media in Digital Marketing [2025]

Social media in the world of digital marketing, there are few tools that have cracked as deeply into the landscape. Initially created as a means to connect to friends and family that it has grown into an influencer and sales platform for brands to interact with audiences, generate a community, and deliver real business results. For businesses, the epiphany did not come quickly.

Social media is an integral part of the ongoing customer journey today, further emphasizing how critical social media marketing for businesses of all shapes and sizes is becoming.

Despite what economic pressures tell their marketing budgets to tighten, executives continue to lead their comms budgets toward social media for all its worth. As consumers increasingly spend more time on these platforms, the ability of social media to influence purchase decisions throughout the funnel (from initial discovery through long-term advocacy) is unmatched.

Table of Contents

Key benefits of social media for businesses

1. Building brand awareness and reputation

Social media serves as a megaphone for your brand message. For startups and small businesses, it provides a cost-effective path to visibility in a saturated market. With effective social media management, even companies with modest budgets can tap into vast audiences.

Posting engaging, creative, and consistent content can increase brand recall and reinforce your positioning in the minds of consumers. But beyond visibility, social media also serves as a reputation management tool. Proactive customer support via DMs or comments, timely responses to concerns, and showcasing happy customer testimonials all build trust and credibility.

2. Engaging with customers and building relationships

The essence of social media is connection. Marketing with ownership that goes as far as users, answering comments, sharing user-generated content, and DMs makes a business emotionally connected to its followers more effectively.

These are the community touchpoints that drive customer loyalty, and it all feels so authentic. Your brand is more human in social media than through any other form of ad. It makes places to authentically interact that traditional advertising never will.

Similarly, every single interaction is a chance to learn more from your audience. Understanding what content people share, comment or like is crucial for defining the value that the audience holds, the needs, and behaviour, resulting in highly targeted campaigns.

3. Driving traffic and conversions

Social media ain’t just about likes, it’s a great way to drive traffic. Embed links to landing pages, product pages, and blogs in your post, bio, or stories (depending on where the audience is in the sales funnel) so you can direct active followers to your site / ecommerce.

Social media best practices

1. Post with purpose

Avoid posting just for the sake of staying active. Each post should tie back to a clear objective:

Are you trying to educate your audience?
Are you launching a new product?
Are you gathering feedback?

Every piece of content should serve a strategic purpose. Define your goals and ensure they align with your broader marketing objectives.

2. Engage like a human

Authenticity wins. Drop the corporate jargon. Respond to followers with empathy and a human touch. Treat every interaction as a chance to deepen your relationship with the customer.

Use casual, relatable language.
Acknowledge emotions in complaints and compliments alike.
Don’t be afraid to show personality.

3. Ride trends—but stay true to your brand

Yes, memes and viral dances can explode your reach, but not all trends fit your brand. Before hopping on the bandwagon, ask:

Does this trend align with our voice?
Will our audience relate to it?
Can we put a unique twist on it?

Trends are tools—use them wisely.

4. Know your audience inside out

Customer personas are just the beginning. Dive into analytics and social listening tools to understand how your audience behaves:

What content do they engage with?
When are they most active?
What language do they use?

Adapt your content and tone to reflect these insights and meet your audience where they are.

5. Test, tweak, repeat

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Experiment with:

Posting times
Content formats (Reels, carousels, Stories, polls)
Captions and call-to-actions

Track what works. Learn from what doesn’t. Iterate continuously.

6. Balance promotional and value-driven content

Follow the 80/20 Rule:

80% of your content should educate, entertain, or inspire.
20% should promote your product or service.

The more value you provide, the more trust you earn, making followers more receptive to your sales messages.

7. Use analytics, not just instinct

Gut feelings can mislead. Let the data speak:

What types of posts get the most engagement?
Which channels drive the most traffic?
Where are users dropping off?

Set KPIs like engagement rate, CTR, and conversion rate. Use social media management tools such as Sprinklr and Hootsuite to track performance and fine-tune your strategy.

8. Customize for each platform

Cross-posting is efficient, but not always effective. Each platform has its culture:

Instagram: Visual-heavy, aesthetic content.
LinkedIn: Professional and informative.
TikTok: Short, raw, entertaining videos.
X: Real-time updates, wit, and commentary.

Tailor your content, tone, and posting schedule to suit each platform’s unique audience.

9. Stay ahead of algorithm changes

Social media algorithms evolve constantly. What works today may flop tomorrow.

Keep an eye on industry news and platform updates.
Adjust quickly when engagement dips.
Follow credible marketers and newsletters to stay in the loop.

Flexibility is key to staying visible in the feed.

In Conclusion

Social media is no longer optional. It’s an essential marketing channel that enables businesses of all sizes to:

Build awareness
Earn trust
Drive engagement
Convert followers into customers.

Our own journey proves that even with limited resources, a thoughtful, consistent social media strategy can unlock growth. The key is to stay authentic, stay data-informed, and never stop learning. Whether you’re just starting or looking to scale your efforts, now is the time to prioritize social media marketing and make it a core part of your business playbook.