In 2025, social media dominates Australia’s digital landscape, with nearly 78% of the population actively engaged. Australians spend about 1 hour and 51 minutes daily on these platforms, using them for brand research and engagement (Source: Melania Watson, Ecommercenews). For SMEs, understanding these trends is key to effective marketing. As social media ad spending and influencer investments grow, this guide will provide practical strategies for SMEs to leverage social media and drive business growth.
What is social media marketing?
Social media advertising is a digital marketing solution. Businesses will promote their brand, products or services on social media platforms. This involves sharing content, images, and videos on sites. For example, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn,…
Social media helps potential customers find and connect with brands. Moreover, businesses can drive traffic to their website. In particular, you could guide people to understand your products and increase sales.
Why social media marketing is essential for SMEs?
Social media platforms have more than 5 billion users. This number includes brand competitors. Hence, if your business is not active on these platforms, you can not connect with potential customers. For example, Shopify uses Instagram to promote its site. They can engage with current entrepreneurs. Especially, you can interact with people who are interested in starting an online business.
Currently, AI technology is advancing rapidly. Hence, businesses can use AI for their social media marketing. AI helps brands to automate tasks. For example, scheduling posts, analysing trends and targeting the right audience. It can also personalise content for each user. Moreover, AI also tracks engagement to optimise future campaigns.
Top 5 social networks in Australia (by user data)
In Australia, there are currently 20.80 million active social media users. This number represents 78.3% of the total population. Of these users, 50.7% are female and 49.3% are male. Below are the user statistics for the top social media platforms in Australia:
| Social Media Platforms | Ranks | % Population |
| YouTube | 1st | 78.2% |
| 2nd | 62.7% | |
| 3rd | 56.5% | |
| 4th | 52.5% | |
| TikTok | 5th | 46.6% |
Source: Digital 2024: Australia, Datareportal.com
Essential elements of an effective social media strategy
Social media marketing for small businesses is a powerful tool. Thanks to these elements, you can build strong customer relationships and drive sales. Let’s find what they are:
- Audience research: Firstly, you must understand your target audience. To do this, you should find out the platforms customers use. Then, you also need to explore what type of content they enjoy and who they follow.
- Goals and objectives: Then, you should set clear goals to align with your business. These goals might include brand awareness, traffic, engagement. You can use SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to guide your goals.
- Content strategy: Next, you must create a content plan. It should outline the type of content you will produce. Moreover, businesses need to identify how often you will post and on which platforms. Your content should include many formats. For example, blogs, videos, infographics,….
- Engagement plan: Then, you need to develop a strategy to engage with your audience. In detail, you should comment, messages with your viewers to build relationships and drive interaction.
- Competitor analysis: This element defines that you should keep track of your competitors’ activities on social media. Let’s analyze their strategies, content to identify opportunities and your threats.
- Digital marketing practices: Digital marketing is powerful because it helps you to achieve business goals. However, you should understand the key factors to make your plan successful. Hence, brands need to practice to increase your opportunities.
- Goals: You should define your goals clearly. Some examples of SMART digital marketing goals are:
- Increase website traffic
- Build brand awareness
- Boost brand engagement
- Become an industry expert
- Generate more qualified leads
- Expand your email list
- Increase sales
Step-by-step guide to creating a powerful social media strategy for SMEs in Australia 2025
SMEs in Australia usually use social media advertising to reach their targeted audiences. Here are four steps you can follow:
Step 1: Define Your Goals
This step helps you to identify what you want to achieve with social media. Businesses should ensure their objectives are aligned with strategies. For example, you should choose the right platforms for your marketing campaign.
Australia boasts 20.8 million social media users, representing 78.3% of the population, making social media a highly effective tool for small businesses to connect with and engage their customers in the digital era.
Step 2: Understand Your Audience and Analyse Your Competitors
In today’s world, AI is becoming more important. Hence, it can help you create personalised content. Business leaders believe that personalisation will be a key factor in their success. So, you need to understand your audience to connect better with them. Here is how you can segment your customers:
- Demographics: Things like age and job role
- Location: Where they live or the climate they are in
- Economic and social factors: Income level or life stage
- Behavioral preferences: Interests, hobbies or problems they face
- Technological preferences: The devices and platforms they use
For example, you can use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Pipedrive. The main purpose is to collect data from social media. Then, you can update your customer profiles.
Moreover, it is important to look at what your competitors are doing. And you should see how they target similar audiences. This is a competitive analysis. Here is the way that you can analyse your competitors on social media:
- Firstly, you should identify your direct competitors in your industry.
- Then, businesses need to check the platforms they use. And what kind of content they post.
- You should also look at their performance. For example, likes, comments, shares, followers,…
- Next, you analyse their visuals, colours and branding.
- Businesses need to observe how they engage with their audience.
- You should note where they do well and where they can improve.
- Finally, you need to look for gaps or opportunities in the market. From that, you can take advantage of it.
According to Yellow Pages report 37% of Australian small and medium businesses have invested in social media advertising. This strategy amplifies the impact of your content, allowing it to reach a broader audience, ultimately boosting brand awareness and driving higher conversion rates.
Step 3. Develop Engaging Content that Resonates with Today’s Audiences
Australian businesses should prioritise creating high-quality, valuable content rather than creating large volumes of content. Quality content is more likely to attract your target audience, build trust, and effectively achieve your marketing goals.
Step 4. Maintain an Always-Active Social Media Presence
Currently, people now expect quick responses from brands. According to Sprout Social, 76% of consumers value fast replies. And nearly 70% expect a response within 24 hours. Hence, brands should be quick to respond to comments and messages of customers. It can help you build stronger connections with your community. Here are some ways to maintain an active presence:
- You can use marketing automation tools. Such as chatbot to handle common questions and replies.
- Brans should create a content calendar. Hence, you can schedule posts ahead of time.
- You need to hire a social media manager. The main purpose is to handle your content and customer interactions.
- You should engage with your audience on trending topics.
- Brands need to enable push notifications for new comments and messages. The main goal is to respond to customers quickly.
For example, businesses can use Pipedrive’s Facebook Messenger integration. This allows you to see and reply to messages directly from your CRM system. Hence, you can stay on top of customer interactions.
The future of social media marketing in 2025: 3 key insights
In 2025, social media marketing for small businesses will continue to evolve. If you can adapt to this trend, you will strengthen your connection with the audience. Here are three key insights that you can follow:
AI is pushing the demand for authenticity
Quality control remains a concern for 56% of Australian businesses utilising AI, with challenges such as factual inaccuracies, plagiarism, and bias. For 42% of companies, preserving the authenticity of AI-generated content is a key hurdle, while 31% struggle to create content that effectively connects with their target audience.
Social media is a place for relaxation
Social media is a platform that everyone uses to find entertainment. According to Hootsuite’s research, in 2025, the second biggest reason people use social media is to mentally relax. This highlights the opportunity for brands. You can create content for customers’ leisure. Creating fun content will grab the attention of customers.
Social media is a platform that everyone goes to find entertainment
Video content remains crucial
With the rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, short-form videos are still a powerful micro content format to grow your business. Short videos typically last between 15 and 60 seconds and can be used to showcase product highlights or any entertaining content that grabs attention quickly.
Additionally, A global survey of marketing professionals conducted in late 2023 found that 90% primarily rely on YouTube for video marketing. Facebook, boosted by its new Reels feature, secured the second spot with 86% of marketers utilising the platform, while Instagram followed closely as the third most popular choice, favoured by 79%.
Contact Information:
- Address: L2, 627 Chapel Street, South Yarra, VIC 3141
- Website: https://ven.com.au
- Hotline: (03) 7003 5248
- E-mail: hello@ven.com.au
The article has shown you steps to use social media marketing for small businesses in Australia. If you understand the platforms, you can resonate with your target audience. Moreover, brands need to stay updated with the latest trends and tools. We hope that these tips can help you reach new customers and increase brand awareness.
