Howdy there! To all my lovely audience and random people surfing the internet. I am super elated to welcome you to my new blog! Today I am here to introduce you to Social Media Marketing, and I hope you enjoy reading!
As we leave the era of web 2.0 – also known as the “social web” – and enter into the new era of the “internet of things” (or web 3.0), we as marketers need to ask ourselves where do the value propositions lie? Does social media marketing still hold value in this new era of the internet?
Well, I believe that Social Media is a major part of all our lives whether we like to admit it or not. To put it into context, 4.54 billion people use the internet, which is more than half of the world’s population out of which 3.8 billion are active on social media. That is a staggering 84% of all internet users!
And whilst social media was once a means for sharing information about ourselves and communicating with friends and family, it now has so many more layers to it.
Nowadays we know so much more about the lives of celebrities and influencers just from what they post on social media and their interaction with followers. We can directly find out the latest news updates just from scrolling through our social media feeds.
For example, we now know whether Mr.Amitabh Bachchan is corona free or not, a piece of sad news for all the cricket lovers out there about Dhoni’s retirement, whether there is a ban on the most royal title ever PUBG or not. It’s all there on social media! Easy yeah!
We can now connect and build a relationship with all of our favorite brands simply by commenting on and liking their posts.
So what exactly is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the use of one or more social media sites that enable individuals or businesses to communicate with their target audiences via useful content and collaborations. This kind of marketing helps create brand recognition, increase sales, and establish long-term relationships with clients.
To extend this a bit, it is simply a way to bridge the gap between consumers and businesses. In some ways, social media is a way to feel more connected to your favorite brand. You can see how companies communicate with other consumers. When done properly, consumers will see the human being behind the competent logo and mission statement. This bridge enables the walls to crumble slowly, binding the two sides in a way that causes people to ‘interact freely with others.’
Social Media Marketing: Vital to Marketers
Nowadays most of the marketers are riding huge social media waves. Many companies have started giving greater importance to social media marketing due to the reach it provides to consumers. Marketers are now learning how to engage customers by using a specific type of social media to turn them into monetary gains. Some brands already have their social media presence by creating a Facebook page, Instagram page, YouTube channel, etc. They engage their consumers on these platforms so that they create a brand value among them.
Now, an important aspect that I believe businesses need to consider is that while they can create the content to post on social, how will they target their audience?
Here is an example of Cristiano Ronaldo promoting the latest marketing move by Nike which says “You can’t stop sport/us”, this basically is social media marketing where brands use influential personalities like Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner, Virat Kohli, and many more to give their marketing campaigns a platform on social media.
Moreover, social media helps the brand to deal with the customers directly and cuts down the middlemen which were used to expand the process due to which brands could not engage with customers on a personal level.
The most controversial type of social media marketing is through paid influencers or celebrities. Influencers can cost businesses approximately $1000 per 100,000 followers. While large businesses with hair care vitamins, waist trainers, and detox teas have the revenue to pay millions of money to the Kardashians/Kapoors, how can small businesses compete to target their audiences of a similar demographic?
Small businesses that lack the financial resources of large companies must be aware of the costs involved in advertising on online platforms.
However, social media such as Instagram enables smaller businesses to focus on their consumer relationships. It caters to communicate directly to their followers rather than solely seeking a one-off sale thus creating long-lasting strong relationships.
Now let’s just have a quick look at some of the advantages of social media marketing.
1. Social media marketing is targeted and focused
It allows marketers to specifically create and share tailored brand content specific to an individual. For instance, as shown above, shoemaking brand Nike promotes its product to sportsmen through its social media offering.
2. Social media is a quick way to reach your audience
If you are looking for one of the fastest ways to reach an audience with a source of information, then social media marketing is the best option for you.
Social media marketing can be relied on for immediate response and outcomes. As soon as you publish your piece of information, it is immediately visible to your audience across the globe.
3. Social media can be very cost-effective
Though creating and promoting social media content may have high cost but the returns on social media investments are often high compared to traditional methods of marketing like print ads or television ads.
Also, many social media platforms are free or inexpensive to use which puts them within easy reach of small businesses and brands that can’t afford a high budget on marketing products and services.
4. Engaging and social sharing capabilities
The biggest advantage of social media marketing has been its engagement with the customers. Social media are quite suited to creating customer engagement and getting the customer involved with the brand and with each other.
Customers can comment, give their feedback, like or dislike a particular product design, etc. and it helps in shaping and sharing brand content, experiences, information, and ideas.
Seems like this topic is a never-ending one!!
Writing all about social media marketing in a single blog post is quite impossible. I can write it all today, but I don’t want to bore you on such a beautiful day! In the forthcoming blog post, I would be diving deeper into the topic. On that note, Thank You so much for reading!
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Hoping to see you soon!
Till then maintain social distancing not from social media but in your everyday life:). Stay healthy, and enjoy the new ‘Norm’ of life!