Social media marketing types are the various strategies and techniques businesses use to engage with their audiences across social platforms. With 94.5% of internet users engaging with social media monthly, as reported by DataReportal, it’s clear that these platforms dominate the digital marketing environment. Social media has become a critical avenue for businesses to connect with audiences, build brand awareness, and drive conversions. As Pete Cashmore aptly put it, “We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency.” To capture value, brands must leverage diverse social media marketing types to effectively reach and engage their target audiences across multiple platforms.
Understanding these various methods – from organic content marketing to paid advertising, influencer collaborations, and social commerce – is key to crafting impactful campaigns. By strategically applying social media marketing techniques and aligning them with business objectives, brands can maximize visibility and achieve measurable results. In this article, we’ll explore eight common social media marketing tactics to uncover their unique benefits and practical applications, empowering you to enhance your digital strategy and grow your business.
What is a Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to connect with an audience, promote products or services, and build brand awareness. By leveraging tools and content strategies unique to each platform, businesses can engage audiences, drive website traffic, and boost conversions.
Social media marketing revolves around creating and sharing content that resonates with the target audience, whether it’s a post, ad, video, or interactive element. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are some of the most popular spaces for social media marketing today. Each offers its own tools and strategies to cater to different marketing goals, such as generating leads, increasing engagement, or building a community.
What Are The Different Types of Social Media Marketing?
The most popular types of social media marketing include organic content marketing, influencer marketing, paid advertising, video marketing, and social commerce. Each type serves a unique purpose within a broader social media marketing strategy, catering to different goals and audience behaviors, making it essential to understand their distinctions and applications across various social media channels.
Organic content marketing builds relationships over time by sharing consistent, valuable posts that resonate with your target audience. It’s ideal for creating trust and fostering a loyal community. Influencer marketing, in contrast, taps into the credibility and reach of individuals with a dedicated following to generate immediate awareness and engagement for your brand.
Paid advertising takes a more direct approach, using platforms like Facebook or Instagram to target specific audiences with precision. This method is great for boosting visibility and driving conversions in a controlled, measurable way. Video marketing engages audiences through storytelling and visually compelling content, whether it’s short-form videos on TikTok or in-depth tutorials on YouTube. Social commerce, meanwhile, streamlines the buying journey by letting users shop directly from posts, making it easier than ever to turn interest into purchases. Together, these types create a versatile toolkit for achieving diverse digital marketing objectives.
Create a landing page tailored to your social media campaigns and watch your engagement soar!
8 Common Social Media Marketing Types and Methods
Social media marketing comes in many types, including content marketing, influencer partnerships, video campaigns, advertising, contests, user-generated content, social commerce, and community building. Each form offers unique methods to connect with audiences, drive engagement, and boost conversions. Whether it’s through organic posts, collaborations with influencers, or creating a seamless shopping experience directly on social platforms, there’s a strategy for every brand and goal.
Let’s dive into these eight common types of social media marketing to uncover what makes them effective and how you can use them to grow your business.
1. Content Marketing (Organic Posts)
Content marketing with organic social media posts focuses on building meaningful relationships with your audience by sharing valuable and relevant content consistently. This type is the foundation of most social media marketing strategies. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are especially suited for this.
For example, a small bakery might use Instagram to post photos of freshly baked goods daily. They could share recipes or highlight their ingredients, such as sourcing local produce, which tells a story their audience can connect with. LinkedIn is perfect for a B2B company sharing whitepapers or thought-leadership articles. Regularly engaging with comments and sharing stories helps maintain an active, approachable online presence.
Content marketing thrives on relatability and utility. When followers see consistent, helpful, or entertaining content, it increases their trust in the brand, which translates into loyalty and engagement over time.
2. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the modern word-of-mouth. Brands collaborate with individuals who have a strong social media presence and dedicated followings to endorse or review their products. Influencers can be celebrities, industry experts, or micro-influencers who focus on niche audiences.
For example, a fitness brand might collaborate with a popular fitness trainer on Instagram as part of their social media strategy. The trainer could post workout videos using the brand’s equipment or wearing their apparel. Authenticity is key: the audience should feel that the influencer genuinely likes and uses the product.
On YouTube, tech influencers often create detailed unboxing and review videos for gadgets, providing in-depth insights into features and functionality. This drives purchase decisions, especially for high-investment items.
Successful influencer campaigns increase trust, exposure, and conversions. Many followers view influencers as relatable peers, making their recommendations highly persuasive.
3. Video Marketing
Video marketing engages audiences by using storytelling and visually compelling content. Whether it’s short TikTok clips or long-form YouTube tutorials, videos offer an unmatched way to capture attention quickly.
For example, a skincare brand could use TikTok to show quick before-and-after transformations using their products, paired with trending music. On YouTube, the same brand might post detailed tutorials about skincare routines featuring their products.
Another effective approach is live video. Facebook Live or Instagram Live sessions allow brands to connect directly with their audience, answer questions, and showcase new launches. For example, a makeup brand could use a live session to demonstrate how to use a new eyeshadow palette while answering viewers’ questions in real time. Integrating engaging video content into digital marketing campaigns enhances the overall impact and reach of the brand.
The storytelling potential of video makes it a powerful medium for increasing brand awareness and driving emotional engagement.
4. Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising allows businesses to pay for targeted visibility. Various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn enable precise targeting based on demographics, interests, and online behavior.
Imagine a travel agency launching a campaign for summer vacation deals. They could use Instagram carousel ads to showcase beautiful destinations with captions like “Plan your perfect summer getaway.” Clicking on the ad directs users to a dedicated landing page to book packages.
Similarly, retargeting ads can reach people who browsed your site but didn’t make a purchase. An online fashion retailer might show ads featuring the exact pair of shoes someone left in their cart, nudging them to complete the purchase.
Social media ads are invaluable for reaching a broader audience of potential customers, driving immediate action, and optimizing campaigns based on analytics.
5. Social Media Contests and Giveaways
Contests and giveaways generate excitement and interaction by offering users a chance to win a prize. To participate, users might be required to follow your page, tag friends, or share your content.
For example, a coffee brand might run a contest asking followers to share photos of their favorite coffee moments, tagging the brand for a chance to win a year’s supply of coffee. This drives both engagement and UGC, as users actively create content featuring the product.
Another example is a SaaS company offering a free annual subscription to participants who share their promotional post and tag three colleagues. Such campaigns increase brand visibility while fostering a sense of community among participants.
When done effectively, contests and giveaways generate buzz, expand reach, and convert participants into long-term customers.
Build a sleek landing page for your next giveaway and watch your impact multiply.
6. User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful way to build authenticity as part of your digital marketing strategy. It involves encouraging your audience to create and share content featuring your brand.
Take Coca-Cola’s famous “Share a Coke” campaign as an example. By personalizing Coke bottles with names and encouraging customers to share photos with their named bottles, the brand created a massive wave of user-driven engagement.
A smaller-scale example might be a local gym asking members to post photos with a branded hashtag, such as #FitnessWithUs. By sharing this UGC on their official pages, brands showcase real customers, making their content feel more relatable and trustworthy.
This digital marketing type not only increases engagement but also builds a loyal community around the brand.
7. Social Media Commerce
Social media commerce streamlines the buying process by allowing users to shop directly from platforms and social media apps. Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook offer features like shoppable posts, where users can click on a product within a post and make a purchase seamlessly.
A fashion boutique might post a photo of a model wearing an outfit, tagging each item with its price and a direct shopping link. On Pinterest, the same brand could create boards featuring seasonal looks with “Shop Now” links attached to each pin.
Social commerce reduces friction in the purchase process, making it easier for users to buy what they see and like without leaving the app. This leads to higher conversion rates and quicker customer decision-making.
8. Social Networking and Community Management
This type of social media online marketing revolves around building and nurturing relationships with your audience. Brands create groups, forums, or active discussions to foster a sense of community.
For example, a software company might create a LinkedIn group for developers to discuss industry trends and share knowledge. By regularly contributing to discussions and providing resources, the company positions itself as a leader in the space.
Similarly, a food brand might use Facebook Groups to bring together home cooks sharing recipes, tips, and ideas using their products. This creates a loyal base of users who feel connected to the brand and to each other.
Effective community management increases engagement, strengthens brand loyalty, and turns customers into advocates.
Design a landing page that transforms casual visitors into loyal, engaged members of your community.
How Do Landing Pages Integrate With Different Social Media Marketing Types?
Landing pages integrate with different types of social media marketing by acting as focused, conversion-driven destinations for social media campaigns aimed at a specific target audience. They bridge the gap between social media engagement and specific marketing goals, such as collecting leads, promoting products, or driving sales within the landscape of digital marketing.
Each area of social media marketing benefits from pairing with well-designed landing pages, ensuring a seamless transition from the platform to the desired action.
For example, a paid Instagram ad for a seasonal sale can direct users to a landing page showcasing discounted items with an easy “Buy Now” button. Similarly, social media influencers promoting a skincare product on YouTube can link to a landing page where followers can explore details about the product and claim an exclusive discount.
Landing pages also support contests and giveaways by serving as centralized entry points where users can fill out forms, learn about terms, or share the campaign link. User-generated content campaigns can drive traffic to a gallery-style landing page that showcases customer creations, fostering a sense of community and trust.
Design landing pages that drive action and maximize your social media impact.
Incorporating an effective social media marketing strategy is essential, and the perfect landing page builder for social media marketers is Landingi. It combines ease of use with powerful features. You can quickly create professional, high-converting landing pages using its drag-and-drop editor – no coding needed, which is a lifesaver for fast-moving campaigns. Plus, it works seamlessly with digital marketing tools you probably already use, like analytics, email marketing platforms, and CRMs, so tracking and managing leads is a breeze. With mobile-friendly templates and simple A/B testing, you can fine-tune your pages for the best results on any device. It’s a go-to solution for turning social media clicks into real results.
Leverage Diverse Social Media Marketing Types for Comprehensive Campaign Success
A successful strategy blends various types of social media marketing to address different touchpoints in the customer journey. By understanding and implementing these approaches, you can build a dynamic presence that resonates with your audience and achieves measurable results. Whether it’s UGC, video marketing, or advertising, the key lies in aligning your strategy with your business goals.
An essential tool for digital marketers aiming to maximize their social media marketing efforts is Landingi. Its user-friendly platform simplifies the creation of high-converting landing pages tailored to your campaigns, allowing you to seamlessly connect social media engagement with tangible business results. Whether you’re running a giveaway, running social media contests, launching a product, or leveraging influencer collaborations, Landingi’s robust features, such as drag-and-drop editing, AI-powered features, and A/B testing, ensure your landing pages are perfectly aligned with your objectives.
Don’t miss the opportunity to elevate your social media marketing strategy – try Landingi for free and see how it can transform your digital marketing campaigns today!
