Social Media Marketing involves the use of Social Media Networks as a platform to carry out marketing activities like running campaigns, promotions, brand building and awareness which helps in buyer engagement and increase website traffic.
Social Media Networks have seen exponential growth of adoption in the last decade and each of the popular networks has several hundred million users. The usage has evolved much beyond just sharing content. The sites have tapped into this and have evolved to provide business support which provides marketers ready access to the targeted audience at a low cost ( compared to direct marketing, outbound advertisement). The sites provide robust tools for marketers and businesses. Some of the visual media sharing networks are highly favored by users and have seen the fastest growth. This provides a tremendous opportunity for businesses to engage with consumers and it has dramatically changed the way consumers engage with brand content. Social Media interactions are more targeted, personal and intimate
The popular social networking sites where businesses commonly interact and engage with their buyers include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Snapchat, YouTube, Tumblr. Each of these networks has a unique way to bring together their users and that in turn drives how businesses can connect with their buyers on these networks. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn provide mechanisms to retweet, repost content ( supports a variety of formats) that when shared among the users and groups creates a viral effect. Instagram and Pinterest provide a rich visual environment and are great for users to pursue special interests and topics. WhatsApp and Snapchat, though primarily messaging platforms, do provide a mechanism for businesses to have personal connect with their customers. Overall, marketers simply can not afford to have a marketing strategy that does not include social media.
Social Media Marketing and SEO are closely related. One of the key aspects of social media marketing is to publish great content related to products/services/companies on social media. Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content which happens because of new content getting published or shared by its users/communities/groups and this, in turn, leads to SEO activity. Social Media can also help build links that feed into SEO efforts. It is said that Google’s organic search algorithm heavily depends on social media related factors and not having a good presence in social media will affect the brand’s ability to show up on Google search.
Social Media Marketing Strategies and Tactics
There are myriad possibilities for marketers to engage in social media. So it is important to have a comprehensive strategy that is in line with business goals.
At the basic level, marketers can engage social media to publish content for the targeted audience. The content can be for Public Relations purposes, direct marketing message or a communication message about products and services. Marketers can also do this engagement through social media influencers and social media celebrities who have a huge following on social media. They can also run highly targeted social media ads for their target audience. Facebook and LinkedIn are popular networks for running hyper-targeted ads.
Social media networks are a great place to get market research information at a very low cost. Customers share their perspectives on products, services and brands and share reviews or recommendations. Marketers can gather both qualitative and quantitative data to understand social, consumer and market trends. The quantitative data can come in the form of Likes, Shares, Comments, Mention volume, Share of voice, Reach, Followers and Subscribers. Qualitative analysis can be applied to this data through sentiment analysis and theme categorization. Together they provide market research that has higher ROI, faster results and more importantly comes from targeted groups. Marketers can employ this tactic for product launches, product research, consumer behavior insights, defining buyer personas.
Social media networks are a great place to listen to customer sentiments - either in the form of complaints, negative feelings, feedback, endorsements, satisfaction, recommendations. Companies can use those forums to address customer grievances by listening to customer voices and feedback. Responding in real-time to social media feedback greatly improves customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
The choice of social media networks to target specific demographic audiences plays a key role.
56% of all online adults over 65 years of age use Facebook
53% of young adults aged between 18-29 use Instagram and actively use it daily.
More than half of online adults use two or more social media networks.
LinkedIn has more than 630 million professional members.
500 million tweets per day on Twitter.
3Billion people use social media in some form or the other.