What Is Social Media Marketing? Explained With Examples
Social media brought people closer making the marketing job easier. Social media marketing made it easier, faster, and simpler for brands to reach their leads and convert them into paying customers.
According to statistics, 70% of social media users have claimed to have a great experience with brands on social media. That’s what social media is about –providing a great experience. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are the much-known platforms where marketers can reach, engage with, and educate their prospects, boosting their brands.
So, what is social media marketing, you ask? Well, here is a simple answer.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is one of many branches of digital marketing. Marketers use the wide reach of social media to meet their branding and lead generation goals. It is totally different from creating a business social media profile.
Posting inconsistently on a business’s social media profile does not make it social media marketing. It is more of a goal-oriented strategy used thoughtfully to meet the measurable goals of a business. The goals targeted through social media marketing include the different targets outlined here –
- Maintaining and optimizing the business’s social media profile.
- Businesses are supposed to post photos, videos, and live videos on social media platforms.
- The brands should take a moment to respond to comments and likes and monitor their reputation.
- Following or engaging with different followers, customers, and influencers is an important part of social media marketing.
But why do you have to take your business online? Why choose social media marketing for business? Here are some good reasons that you can keep in mind.
Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
Social media is a widespread platform, and it is versatile. Also, it is a free channel for marketing. There are some specific benefits you cannot miss out on.
Humanize The Brand
Social media lets you humanize your brand. Your business becomes an active personality ready to converse with the audience. Approaching the customers, answering their queries, and familiarizing themselves with them to connect helps you build trust among the customers.
Drive Business Traffic
Social media channels are great places to generate more traffic on your business website. It is an even better platform compared to blog posts, ads, and other channels for increasing traffic on the business page.
Generate New Leads
Social media marketing brings great lead-generation opportunities before marketers. Marketers can use Facebook shops and the call to action button to generate new leads.
Increase Brand Awareness
social media marketing provides your business with increased reach helping you create a visual identity among the leads and the customers. Social media stands as one of the best online platforms for boosting brand awareness.
Build A Network
social media is a great place for building a network and gathering feedback. Businesses can build a relationship in both B2C and B2B models. In fact, some of the most sought-after social media marketing jobs require a specialist to build a network on social media.
How To Be Successful At Social Media Marketing?
Whether you work at a social media marketing agency or, you want to develop skills for your own small business, the tips here will come in handy. Here, I have offered some tips to help you develop the best social media marketing tactics –
Gather Knowledge
Your roadmap to success as a social media marketer starts by gathering knowledge. You have to know different information such as –
- Which platforms does your target audience use?
- When and why do they use the platform?
- The type of content your customers like.
- Who are your customers following on social media?
Build Reputation
As a social media marketing executive, you must know how you want the customers to feel when they look at the content you post. You have the power to create your brand’s image your audiences see on social media. So, it is important to be able to see the brand from the audience’s eyes.
Content Strategy
It is hard to create social media content consistently and strategically. Of course, the content on social media needs to be spontaneous. However, it has to have a purpose and strategy that builds a voice through good-quality content.
Maintaining Regularity
Social media marketing is not as easy as it sounds. Partly because the platforms have a huge amount of users and multiple competitors, it is very crucial to stay consistent with your social media content and engagement on the platform. You also need to keep up with the latest trends and keep your profile optimized always.
Examples Of Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is mostly about relating to the audience and connecting with them. Sometimes popular brands take part in popular trends and make memes. Sometimes they engage in different campaigns that speak the stories of people in general. Here are some examples that you can check out –
Example 1:
Coca Cola takes their campaign on a human level while celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month through their instagram platform.
Social media marketing by Coca Cola –
Example 2
5 Star takes it to even further, by talking about their budget spent on marketing. Here is their new advertisement taking marketing to another level–
Example 3
BloggerOutreach, a budding outreach service platform for bloggers across the world, takes a unique step. Who would have thought of taking celebrity references for content marketing tips? Well they did.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
I think you found the definition of social media marketing and its examples helpful. Here are some popular questions and answers that you might enjoy reading.
Ans: Here are the six different types of social media marketing –
• Social networking
• Bookmarking
• Microblogging
• Social News
• Media Sharing
• And Online Forum Sites
Ans: Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of digital marketing. It is a method of building awareness, building the network, and boosting sales on the business website.
Ans: Social media marketing offers huge opportunities for people who are aspiring to a new type of career path. The field is growing and opens diverse types of work before people looking for a career in this field. Also, the demand in this field is increasing everyday.
Conclusion
Different types of businesses, from large multinational companies to small local brands, are on social media. Each brand is trying to boost its image and build a community of customers and leads on social media. The opportunity open before the marketers is immense, and this is the best time to be on social media for a business.
I think you have found this article helpful. If you have any further questions, you can comment below.
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