I was scrolling Instagram this morning and a product ad of a shoe brand appeared on my feed. The shoes were looking really pretty and I started to browse the brand profile and ended up ordering a pair from their website. Well, that’s social media marketing in action.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have become more than just a place for sharing memes and your favorite selfies. They’re now a powerful marketing tool that millions of businesses around the world are utilizing through social media marketing strategies.
But what really is social media marketing? In this article, I am going to discuss it comprehensively so that your business can utilize it in the best way possible.
Let’s start.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a type of marketing that uses social networks like Facebook and Instagram in order to promote a brand or a service. It is one of the biggest forms of digital marketing and focuses on reaching out to the right audience and converting them into permanent customers.
This marketing strategy has seen a huge surge in popularity in recent years since billions of people have now access to social media platforms. People spend a lot of hours on different apps every day to entertain themselves and also find products of their liking.
It gives companies and marketers a huge opportunity to expose a brand as a business or as an individual freelancer to the audience and make more sales. Besides that, SMM is also utilized to build positive relationships with customers and build a positive brand image.
What is the Purpose of Social Media Marketing?
As a business owner, the first thing you should think of is what is the purpose of SMM. Why companies are spending their time and resources on social sites? Well, there are three main purposes behind why people perform this marketing.
- Reach out to more audience
- Make more sales
- Build brand authenticity
There could be some different purposes for some companies as well. For example, a company might only want to have a good presence on social media to have a competitive edge in the market.
How does Social Media Marketing Benefit Businesses?
The benefits of social media marketing for businesses are infinite. These benefits help companies grow their reach and generate more revenue. I’ve discussed some major benefits below:
Enhanced Brand Awareness
The first benefit that social media brings to companies is enhanced brand awareness. I’ve mentioned earlier how billions of people use social sites almost every day. When a business focuses on marketing on these platforms, it gets the opportunity to have exposure to a large audience.
As a result, brand awareness is increased to a great extent. People get to know about the company and try to explore it. Eventually, they become permanent customers of that business.
Better Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is one of the most important factors for a company’s success. Social media provides a proper opportunity to engage with customers in a better way. When a company markets itself on social apps, they get a chance to interact with people via comments and messages.
They can directly respond to customers’ messages which creates a better brand perspective in people’s minds.
Cost-effective Marketing
Another big benefit businesses get from SMM is cost-effective marketing. Running and promoting a profile on social apps does not cost at all. All you need to do is post high quality content and the app does the rest of the job. As a result, people get to reach out to a large audience while saving money at the same time.
Increased Number of Leads
One of the main purposes of any business marketing is to increase the number of leads. More leads mean more potential customers.
Social Media Marketing helps in it as well. It provides a good opportunity to increase the number of leads by engaging with people. Companies can keep on influencing the audience and turn them into leads eventually. Then, they can nurture these leads and convert them into permanent customers.
How to Perform Social Media Marketing?
Knowing how to perform this type of marketing is extremely important for modern businesses. It’s more than just posting random videos and pictures on a social profile. It requires following a proper process in order to get the best results. The following guidelines can help you with performing this marketing:
Set a Goal
The first and foremost thing that you need to do is set goals. All types of marketing require setting proper goals and it is even more important for SMM. Setting targets helps you understand what type of results you want from the campaigns.
It could be having more leads, more brand awareness, or more engagement. Whatever the goal is, understand it well because it will help you mold the campaign strategies accordingly.
Pick a Social Site
Picking a social site is the next thing to focus on. There are several big social media apps available that are perfect for SMM. These apps include:
- X (Twitter)
- TikTok
- YouTube
Growing on any of these sites has a similar process. However, each of the have some differences as well. For example, if you run a cosmetic brand, picking Instagram and TikTok will be more beneficial than picking X.
Create and Publish Quality Content
Now, the real work begins. It’s time to create and publish high-quality content on the relevant site. The content should be valuable and attractive enough to persuade the audience to interact and engage with it. The more engagement you will get, the better results they will provide.
How to do it?
Creating content is an easy process. You can follow these guidelines for it:
- First, understand what type of audience you’re creating the content for.
- Use eye-catching and attractive visuals for both videos and pictures.
- Try to keep the message clear and direct.
- Use different types of content formats such as general posts, reels, live sessions, etc.
- Include a CTA at an optimum place.
As for publishing, all you need to focus on is being consistent. Keep on posting regularly and consistently. It will help you out with getting more reach. Creating a content calendar would be a great idea for it.
Engage With the Audience
Once the audience starts reacting to the content, engage with them appropriately. Engaging with the audience is extremely important to make this marketing type work. It helps with building trust and loyalty. Engagements also help your account grow by giving positive signals to the platform’s algorithm.
How to do it?
- Respond to as many comments as you can.
- Try responding timely.
- Reply to as many private messages as possible.
- If possible, share people’s comments and responses on your profile.
- Try asking people to join the company profile’s live sessions.
Invest in Paid Advertising
Many people think that using paid advertising on social media is a complete waste of time. But that’s not true. Although organic reach is amazing, paid advertising has its own benefits as well. It helps profiles reach out to the right type of audience in a very short time.
Each social media application has different types of procedures for paid advertisements. However, one thing that you should focus on while running ads is to make ads attractive. It will help you get more engagements and get better ROI.
Monitor the Performance
Another important factor that you need to focus on is monitoring the performance. It will help you understand whether or not your profile is getting the right result. Regularly keeping an eye on the performance helps understand what’s working and what’s not working.
How to do it?
- Use the app’s built-in analytic tools such as Facebook Analytics.
- Pick a key metric such as engagements and keep on focusing on it for better tracking.
- Keep on comparing the progress over time.
- Use A/B testing on content to see which type of content works the best.
If you sense that the marketing efforts aren’t bringing the right results, try making changes to the strategies.
Stay Updated and Adapt
One important thing about social media is that it keeps on updating. Every day, the algorithms of different apps go through updates which can affect your social media marketing campaigns.
So, it is important to stay up-to-date with new trends and adapt accordingly. Mold your strategies according to the latest updates in order to get the best results.
Final Thoughts
To sum it up, Social Media Marketing has become one of the most effective ways of promoting a business or its products. This type of digital marketing focuses on using popular social media apps in order to reach out to more audiences. Its main purpose is to help companies increase brand awareness and make more sales by getting more customers.
SMM is beneficial for several reasons and is pretty easy to perform. You can follow the above-discussed steps in order to execute a decent SMM strategy to promote your brand on different social sites.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is the use of social media apps to promote a business. It includes using social sites to publish content and engage with the audience to generate more leads. It also helps with increasing brand awareness.
Which platform is the best for Social Media Marketing?
It mainly depends on your goals and the type of company you’re running. However, Facebook and Instagram are two of the leading platforms in this regard. They provide a proper platform to promote a brand and engage with relevant audiences.
Who uses Social Media Marketing?
Any business that wants to reach out to a large audience through social media applications. Besides businesses, any individual brand or freelancers can also use this marketing type.
How is SMM done?
Doing SMM is pretty easy. First, you need to identify your goals. Then, pick the right social site and start publishing quality content. Make sure to engage with the audience at the right time and monitor the progress as well.
