Social Media Marketing and Its Importance
Every-day you must be spending some of your time on social media.
Some people are so much into it, that they skip their coffee, but not scrolling through Facebook feeds.
Or they take a picture of their coffee mug and post it onto Instagram and Facebook, before sipping the coffee.
Can you relate to this?
Social media has become a part of our life that we use daily. If you travel on a bus, train or any other public transport to the office, then what you do on the journey?
80% of people say, that they scroll through social media feeds.
Social media is used by all ages and is currently doing wonders in people’s life.
How?
Well, you can connect to an old friend, by just searching his/her name.
When half the population on earth is available on social media, then why not take this as an opportunity to make your business famous?
And, those who do that, know that it is called as Social Media Marketing.
Yes, promoting a brand on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is known as Social Media Marketing. It is the best way to promote the content related to your products or services, where the audience can easily know about you.
According to Wikipedia,
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service.
Related: Top Social Media Marketing Trends for Your Business
Why Brands Use Social Media?
All brands want to educate their audience about the product they are selling or the service they are offering. For this, they need to invest in different marketing strategies, where cost and ROI play important work. It is observed that in traditional marketing methods like TV or radio broadcasts, billboard adds, newspaper ads, etc., the payable amount is very large. Also, it keeps you unsure about the returns. Hence, social media is recognized as a cost-effective marketing method. After all, your customers can easily be found on social media. Not only your audience, but their connections are also present on social media, and the chain has grown massively.
Social media allows you to target a relevant audience and retarget your customers too.
Do you know your competitor is also on social media?
No matter what product you are selling, it is a high possibility that your competitors are already present on social media. So, to remain digitally competitive, you need to build the presence of your business or brand on social media.
Let’s see which platforms come under social media marketing umbrella –
1) Facebook – 2.37 Billion Users
2) Instagram – 111 Million Users
3) Twitter – 330 Million Users
4) LinkedIn – 303 Million Users
5) Pinterest – 291 Million Users
6) Snapchat – 310.7 Million Users
7) Messenger – 1.3 Billion Users
8) Reddit – 1.7 Billion Users
9) YouTube – 1.8 Billion Users
Related : {5 Tips} – To Improve your LinkedIn Marketing
Choosing Correct Platform For Your Social Media Marketing :
In Social Media Marketing, you cannot just depend on the single platform, and sit back and relax. It is mostly a trial and error job with lots of permutations and combinations among these platforms, because, some of your marketing tactics may work on Facebook and not on Reddit or vice versa.
Keeping this in mind, it is a better option to first consider the goals that you want to achieve and then accordingly decide the platform. Facebook seems to be the most attractive option to all the marketers because it is the largest social media site in the world, that has one third of the world’s entire population active every month. But do you think, quality always matches with the quantity?
There are chances that your target audience is not present on Facebook or may be not interested in the type of content you are sharing. So, how would you reach to them?
For example: Someone browses LinkedIn more as compared to Facebook for the B2B content and industry related articles, as they have the ‘professional mindset’ – whereas, same user may use Facebook only to look for the content related to their friends and family. So, they will be less likely to engage with the content that you share.
The solution for such problem is provided in the following table. It covers the pros and cons of important social media platforms that will give you some idea about which platform to choose:
| Platforms | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook is the largest social media site in the world, has more chances of having your audience. | Targeting through job title is difficult. Example: using B2B to target the market is a tricky way on Facebook. | |
| Instagram ads are impeccable. They fit and function very smoothly in the users' feed giving an outstanding feel. Instagram stories also work without disruptions. | Instagram is a creativity focused platform, suitable for videos and images ads. If your business has more text messages, then this may not be a suitable fit for you. | |
| You need to be very precise while targeting keywords. Choose hashtags that relate to your business. On Twitter, users talk about in real-time. | Some users do use Twitter as a customer support platform, like a messenger. It then becomes a full-time job to respond to customer's messages/tweets depending on your business size. | |
| For B2B, LinkedIn is a great place to network. It has a specific job title/seniority targeting that makes it easy to reach decision-makers. | The cost per click is high on LinkedIn. You don't have access to target a different audience, without their permission. It doesn't provide much freedom like other platforms. | |
| Pinterest is a combination of social media and search engine, as it allows you to show ads that connect with users, to the users that have actively searched for your pin. | Pinterest is dominated by females (70% are females) and is very content-based. According to the study, it seems Pinterest feeds usually consist of home décor, fashion, cooking, DIY, and beauty. | |
| Snapchat | Snapchat is filled with millennials and influencers. Just like Instagram, the ads fit the feel of the app. Thus, it is also a non-disruptive form of advertising. | Snapchat is a video content-centric platform, like YouTube and Instagram. Thus, it might not be suitable for the business that isn't creative with its advertising. |
| Messenger | Messenger allows you to set-up and utilize chatbots. The benefit of chatbots? It can be a separate blog post on its own. | Again maintaining messenger inbox is a fulltime job, depending on your business size. |
| Reddit allows you to target very specific 'subreddits' to reach particular niche audience segments. | Reddit is a tricky site for businesses, as users here are infamous and might hate marketers. | |
| YouTube | Everyday, 1 billion videos are watched on YouTube. If you provide the non-skippable content then users can't miss your ads and can receive your message. | YouTube works only with the video content, which may not be accessible to everyone. YouTube ads can be expensive sometimes. |
So, next time when you are confused about which platform to choose, just refer to this table, it will definitely help you to resolve the confusion.
Importance of Social Media Marketing
There are various reasons why your business must have social media marketing. We are listing some beneficial importance that you shall consider.
1. Increases Brand Awareness :
Till 2018, 2.65 billion people were using social media worldwide. The figure is projected to increase to almost 3.1 billion in 2021. Social media has a large number of people, which tells you about the importance of sharing content related to your products as well as details about your company through platforms that can help you to improve brand awareness. Social media can boost brand awareness by operating engagement to your business. Social engagement is measured on parameters like likes, shares, and re-posts. Positive comments can add value to the post shared on social platforms. Social media also increases traffic to your site, to do this, you need to add direct links in your posts that point to your website.
2. Generates Leads and Boosts Conversions :
Promoting and sharing your products on social media is the best way to generate leads, boost conversions, and also to increase sales. As these platforms allow you to advertise in-front of your target people (ofcourse, people with same interest) and they are interested in knowing what you are selling, thus it is considered as effective marketing.
Following are some ways to generate leads through social media marketing :
Contest creation – Create a contest for your followers, and ask them to participate in it through social media platforms.
Links – Incorporate links to your websites through the bio section of your social media accounts. You can also add links or the offers in the bio section, this will let know everyone, about current offers you have.
Social media campaigns – Campaigns are the best ways to interact with a large audience. So, make sure you implement social media marketing campaigns on one of your channels.
Sell products – You can sell products through social media platforms. You can enable the Facebook’s Shop Section and also Instagram’s Shopping Feature on your profile. Through these features, your visitors will be able to click on products that you have shared in posts to view the information such as price, material, and size. This makes easy for visitors to proceed with checkout through the platforms, or can even let them buy the product directed by you.
3. Social Media Marketing Nurtures Relationships With Your Customers :
Through social media you can always be in touch with your audience, continuously sharing something beneficial to them. This increases their trust in you and makes them brand loyal. Social media allows you to answer their questions, comments or any doubts by providing them with the help they need immediately. Your brand followers, can be offered some giveaways to maintain the rapport between your business and audience.
Isn’t social media marketing full of benefits?
Get started now
If you haven’t planned social media marketing yet, then make sure you do it soon. You can choose the platforms by referring to the table mentioned above.
Looking for a perfect partner that can take the responsibility of your social media marketing?
Then contact us now, and see your business growing.