Unless you’re living in a bubble, there’s a good chance that you are on a number of social media platforms. You can’t ignore it! The need to be social and online is the norm, and virtually everyone is doing it. That is why Social Media is one of the most sought after Digital Marketing tools available today, especially since billions of people around the world are on it. In fact, Facebook alone has crossed over 2.5 billion users, out of which, Facebook ads have reached 1.95 billion. That’s a lot!
So if Social Media is so important, how does one take advantage of it in order to market their business online? Well, we’re here to show you. While this article is just a basic overview to get you started, you can read more about Social Media Marketing at the Creometric Academy.
What is Social Media Marketing?
If traditional marketing is using platforms like television, newspapers, and radio to advertise your business, then Social Media Marketing is doing the same thing, but on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Social Media Marketing involves reaching out to people in varying demographics and sharing information about your business, its products and services, and other offers, through posts or even advertisements. Since the use of social media is by and large a free endeavour, this makes it a great platform for businesses of all sizes to reach out to audiences of any size.
Why use Social Media Marketing?
Apart from the obvious advantage of social media being free for the most part, there are other distinct advantages for using social media. A few of them are
Targeted Audience
By far one of the greatest advantages of social media is the ability to advertise to a targeted audience. Rather than putting out an ad in a newspaper and having it go out to a generic audience, for a fraction of the cost, you can choose the exact demographic – male, female, age group, location, etc, and publish your ad. In this way, you reach your target audience.
Real-time engagement
One of the biggest disadvantages of traditional advertising is not knowing if people have seen your ad. This is where social media comes in. When you run ads on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, your target audience can engage with the ad by liking it, commenting on it, or even sharing it. This allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your ad, and know the sentiments of your audience.
Actionable insights
Possibly the greatest advantage of using social media and other forms of digital marketing is the ability to get real-time actionable insights. At every stage of your digital marketing campaign, you can view stats related to user engagement and demographics, and use this data to plan effective strategies. While a campaign is running, you can tweak your strategy to reach more users, and after your campaign ends, you can use the data to plan the next one. Actionable insights are invaluable to a digital marketer.
How to use Social Media for Marketing
The very act of posting on a social media platform is marketing. People (in a personal capacity) can use social media to market themselves, their products, or their services. Businesses can do exactly the same – but often in a larger capacity. There are various strategies that digital marketers come up with to leverage the popularity of certain social media platforms to reach a company’s target audience. Some of these techniques include:
Increasing brand awareness
This is where established brands put out posts that talk about the product or service, thereby keeping their brand constantly in the consumer’s mind. New businesses can use this to introduce themselves or new products and services.
Generate sales or leads
By using an effective Call To Action at the end of a social media post, businesses can point users to a landing page where they can collect information from potential clients that could lead to a sale.
Drive traffic to a website
For companies that conduct business through their websites, such as e-commerce sites or drop shipping shops, social media is a great way to drive traffic to your webshop or website.
Customer service
People are extremely vocal on social media. Companies can use this to their advantage by practising Social Listening to find out what potential customers want and engaging with existing customer experiences be it positive or negative.
As you can see, there are many reasons why a company should invest in Social Media Marketing. This is just a quick introduction, though there is so much more one can do. If you’re looking for a Digital Marketing Agency that can take your business to the next level through social media, consider reaching out to Creometric. With a presence in India and across Europe, Creometric is a leader in all pillars of Digital Marketing.
