The term Social Media Marketing or SMM can be heard everywhere nowadays, mainly because businesses are going digital. Social media marketing is using social media platforms to create relationships and interact with potential and current customers. It is a form of digital marketing that uses content and engagement to build relationships with customers. This can be done by creating and sharing content, such as videos, articles, and images, or by engaging with customers directly via social media platforms.
Social media marketing is a great way to connect with more people, and it can be used to build brand awareness, promote products and services, and convert leads into customers. Let’s take a deeper look at social media marketing in this article.
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
Social media marketing is using social media platforms to promote a business or product. It involves creating a profile for your business on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and then sharing content that promotes your product or service. With the use of different social media platforms potential customers follow, learn, share, and shop from various businesses. You can also use social media to connect with potential customers and build relationships with them and customers can do the same.
It is not only about posting on your business profiles when you feel like it, but you have to evolve your strategy to reap the benefits. It consists of five key elements:
PROFILE OPTIMIZATION
It includes a complete profile of the company, should be active, and should connect to the website.
POSTING OF CONTENT
Content must be comprised of relevant stories, posts, videos, and pictures. Content should connect with the users.
ENGAGEMENT
Engagement means that you should like, comment, share, and follow your customers and connect with them. Make it a two-sided affair.
ADVERTISEMENT
Social media marketing also includes paid advertising of your content so it can be visible to a wider range of audience.
MEASUREMENT
There are plenty of tools available that can measure and track your progress along the way. You can also hire agencies that have expertise in social media marketing to devise a plan for your brand.
Social media marketing is a great way to reach a large number of people quickly and inexpensively.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
SMM is important because it allows businesses to connect with their customers on a deeper level. Through social media, businesses can build relationships with their customers and create a sense of community. This allows customers to feel like they are part of something larger than themselves, and they are more likely to return to businesses that they feel connected to. Social media also allows businesses to share their brand story and connect with customers on a personal level. This creates trust and loyalty between customers and the company.
INEXPENSIVE TOOL
It is a very cost-effective tool to make your product visible in front of a large audience. First, you need to learn to execute it properly, once you have built a strategy that works for you it can take your brand to new levels with minimum investment.
MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC
Through your engaging blog posts, links on the profile, ads, or social media posts traffic to the website can be increased. It is a great way to convert visitors into potential customers.
BRAND AWARENESS
Most customers nowadays check the social media profile of a brand or business first. So through SMM, brand awareness can be increased because of instant information.
WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS?
There are a number of social media platforms that you can use for marketing purposes. The most popular ones are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
- Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2 billion users. It is a great platform for building relationships with customers and promoting your brand. According to statistics, Facebook users click on approximately 12 ads, which they come across on the app.
- Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows you to share short updates with your followers. It is great for promoting new products and services, and for engaging with customers. 80% of Twitter users feel confident and more positive about any business when they get a retweet.
- LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows you to connect with other professionals. It is a great platform for building relationships with customers and partners. According to some stats, 4-5% of LinkedIn users drive business decisions.
- Instagram is a photo-sharing platform that allows you to share photos and videos with your followers. It is great for promoting your brand and products/services. 90% of people use Instagram to check out a brand first, rather than its website.
HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BE USED EFFECTIVELY?
It can be used effectively in a number of ways. Some of the most common ways to use social media for marketing purposes include:
• Must build a social media presence for your brand
• Run social media ads
• Generating leads and sales through SMM
• Construct strong relationships with customers through social media
There are many different ways to use social media for marketing purposes, and it’s important to find the strategies that work best for you and your business.
HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY?
To create a social media marketing strategy it is essential to know the basics of it first. It makes a road map for your company’s strategy. Here are a few ways to create your own social media marketing strategy:
1) GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Make realistic and attainable goals and use a SMART goal format. Start with very basic things, like posting every day for a month, or completing your profiles. Run a competitive analysis, from time to time to measure your progress and see where you are lacking.
The list of your goals should include increased traffic, more sales that lead to more revenue, and growth of organic audience.
2) CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLATFORM
Identify your audience type and then choose the platform accordingly. Make your profiles only on those platforms that you can handle. You can start with 2-3 platforms and gradually add more to expand your target audience. The key is to always be consistent whether on 1 platform or many.
3) CONTENT CREATION
Create engaging content that your audience can relate to. The content should not be mundane and have a variety so a lot f people can connect to it. Be very punctual in posting your content. Through analytics know which is the best time to post for engagement.
Another important thing to take care of is that you should respond back quickly to the customers who are engaging with your content. Your brand develops trust and authority through a direct relationship with customers.
4) OPTIMIZATION
This is the most important step in building a social media strategy. The algorithms of these platforms are continuously changing and so should your strategy to keep up with the trends. Your team should always monitor the changes and update accordingly.
Run the analytics of each platform and check what’s working for you and optimize those factors that aren’t up to the mark. Measurement is an important step toward success.
WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISTAKES MADE IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
One of the most common mistakes businesses make in social media marketing is not having a clear strategy. Many companies just start posting on their social media handles without any goal in mind. They should come up with an achievable plan so they may not get overwhelmed and give up.
Another common mistake is not targeting the right audience. You need to understand your target market and post content that is relevant to them. This gives your content a sense of direction and your energies are utilized in the right place.
Businesses also make the mistake of posting too much or too little. They think that the more they post, the more followers they will get, but that’s not always the case. And if you post too little, you’ll quickly lose followers. They should also not rely on automation. Being dependent on too much automation can make them lose the ‘human side’ of their brand.
All social media platforms are different and should be treated differently. Monitor each platform carefully and develop content that best suits each of them. When you’ll start to see each platform as a separate body, you’ll learn how to use them to avail the opportunities that come with them.
HOW TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
It’s important to track the results of your social media marketing efforts so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. You can track how many people are viewing your content, how many people are clicking through to your website, and how many sales or leads you’re generating as a result of your social media marketing.
Some best practices that you can do yourself to measure the effectiveness are:
- Monitor Online Traffic
- Revenue Generated
- Engagement
There are some free tools also available to gauge, like Hootsuite, BoardReader, and Sumall. You can also use paid services to measure and get a detailed analysis of your progress. If you’re not tracking the results, you won’t know if your efforts are paying off and you won’t be able to make necessary adjustments. So make sure you have a way to track your results and use that information to improve your social media marketing efforts.
BOTTOM LINE
Social media marketing is the process of using online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to build relationships and interact with potential and current customers. It’s a great way to connect with more people in a way that’s informal and interactive. If you’re new to social media marketing, it can be tough to know where to start.
Start by creating a social media profile for your business. This will give people a place to find out more about your company and what you have to offer.
Next, start building relationships with potential and current customers. Reply to comments, answer questions, and post interesting content that people will want to read.
Finally, track your progress and analyze your results so you can continue improving your social media marketing strategy.
Social media marketing is a great way to connect with more people and build relationships with potential and current customers. If you’re new to social media marketing, this guide will teach you the basics so you can get started on the right foot.
