Social Media Marketing
We’ve all heard of marketing, but what about social media? When we think of the
Internet, we usually think of searching for information or connecting with
friends and family. However, as more of our daily lives are spent online, more
businesses see an opportunity to promote themselves online as well. That is why
they are using social media. We’ll define social media marketing, explain how it
works, and show you how to use your favorite sites to promote your business or
website.
Some Important Social Media Terms
The first thing you should know is that social media is a broad term that
refers to any service that allows users to interact with other people
online. You’ve probably heard the terms social networking, online
communities, message boards, and forums before. All of these services may be
part of a social media site, but they can also stand alone as separate
websites. These sites are becoming increasingly popular, and you’ve probably
noticed that the term “social media” is becoming more widely used to
describe how we share information with one another via the Internet.
Social Networking:
Users can create a profile page with photos or videos, share stories and
updates with friends on the network, comment or upload content on another
user’s profile or pages, keep track of upcoming events, and connect with
people who share similar interests through groups on social networks.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are examples of popular social networking
services.
Online Communities:
Online communities are places where people who share common interests can
share information or ask questions that other users can answer. Forums,
message boards, and chat rooms are common features of online community
websites. Reddit and Quora are two popular online community sites.
Message Boards/Forums:
Users create threads that ask questions or start conversations for others to
respond to on message boards and forums. Most message boards also allow
users to post images or videos. 4chan, Baidu Tieba (a Chinese forum
service), and Imgur Gallery are examples of popular services like these. It
should be noted that different social media services use different privacy
settings for all of their users. This means that your profile could be seen
by close friends, your entire school, or members of a specific interest
group. Check your privacy settings frequently so you can control who sees
what.
Social Media Marketing Explained in Detail
While social media has become a popular term to describe all of the various
ways digital citizens communicate online, marketers discovered that they
could reach customers by advertising on these platforms as well. While some
people associate “social media marketing” with their Facebook newsfeed,
there are several different types of social media marketing strategies.
Successful forms of social media marketing, according to Sami Inkster,
writing for Social Media Today, revolve around increasing user engagement
and sharing content with other users. Successful social media marketing,
according to Guy Podjarny, CEO of security service website SiteLock,
necessitates brands getting personal. According to Podjarny, businesses
should always “engage on a human level, and treat people-not the company-as
their brand.”
When marketers create business accounts on social media networks, they
frequently choose to focus on one or two of these specific marketing
strategies rather than attempting to use all possible forms for every post.
According to Inkster, creating branded Facebook accounts is more likely to
increase Likes than using Twitter hashtags. While it may appear that
businesses with physical locations should have a Yelp account for their
customers, SEO specialist Jay Baer advises marketers to only create Yelp
profiles if they are willing to regularly update their business information
with photos, hours of operation, and customer reviews.
Social media has also become a popular way for marketers to create
second-screen experiences, which are social media accounts that interact
with the television shows that their users are watching. Using hashtags or
creating live chats on Twitter, according to Alison Griswold of
Mashable.com, is a great way for marketers
to do this.
Inkster’s article also includes several examples of successful social media
campaigns from businesses across a range of industries. Clothing retailers
have used Facebook and Instagram as tools to advertise new products and
allow customers to share photos of themselves wearing those products with
friends and family. Some coffee shops have used Snapchat as a marketing tool
successfully, sharing “stories” about what’s going on in the shop every day.
While marketers may not consider YouTube to be a social media site, the
truth is that many users use it to create and share videos with one another.
The use of social media websites to promote a product or service is known as
social media marketing (SMM). Although e-marketing and digital marketing
remain dominant terms in academia, social media marketing is gaining
popularity among practitioners and researchers. Most Social Media Marketing
initiatives, investments, and strategies are associated with businesses’
efforts to generate publicity for their products by creating awareness,
changing user attitudes toward their brand, or increasing customer
engagement through a large number of online profiles. Stakeholders, on the
other hand, have continued to expand their use of social media sites due to
a number of inherent advantages over traditional marketing, such as the
ability to increase user engagement and shift the cost of promotion from a
monetary outlay to a “pay per click” model.
Individuals, businesses, and other organisations can interact and build
relationships through social networking websites. Consumers can interact
with companies directly when they join these social channels. This
interaction can be more personalised for users than traditional outbound
marketing and advertising methods.
Facebook,
Instagram,
Twitter, and Google+ all encourage their users to connect with, like, and
follow pages within the network, generating publicity for the
organization/brand without paying for ads or relying on email subscriptions
that may not generate traffic.
If a person “likes” or becomes a follower of a company, they will be able to
see some of the same information and updates that their friends do. This may
necessitate a shift in marketing strategy; however, many businesses see this
type of interaction as superior to more traditional marketing methods, which
can cost the company significantly more money with little return on
investment. Businesses can communicate with current or potential customers
much more easily using social media marketing, giving them a better
opportunity to generate sales or leads from these customers.
Companies must build a loyal customer base who become brand ambassadors for
their products and services in order for any social media marketing campaign
to be successful. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest are the most
popular social media sites. Because these sites have millions of users, they
provide a very accessible and effective means of communicating, connecting,
and advertising.
