SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW TO SUCCEED IN 2023
For businesses of all sizes, social media marketing is a great method to reach out to prospects and consumers. People use social media to discover, learn about, follow, and shop from brands, so if you're not on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, you're missing out!
Great social media marketing may help your company achieve extraordinary success by cultivating loyal brand advocates and even driving leads and sales.
Globally, more than?3.5 billion individuals will utilize social media networks in 2024, according to estimates. This equates to over 40% of the world's population. In regard to these, there is no doubt that businesses invest so much time and money in social media marketing.
This post is exactly what you need to grow and succeed in social media marketing if you're just getting started.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing refers to business activity on social media platforms that contributes to marketing objectives such as brand awareness, website traffic, and customer acquisition. This activity is predominantly in the form of content — text, images, and videos — but also includes community engagement and paid ads.
What are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing?
The specific business outcomes of social media marketing campaigns (such as sales, traffic, etc) will depend on what objectives you set in the first place. However, there are other general benefits that come from brands being active on social media, such as:
BEING MORE DISCOVERABLE/RETRIEVABLE?
If you’re posting content on multiple social media channels that are tailored to your target demographic, you’re likely to be discovered by new potential customers.
HAVING FRUITFUL DISCUSSIONS WITH CUSTOMERS
It's no surprise that so many businesses use Twitter for customer service or employ Instagram Stories for Q&As. Social media marketing allows you to know your audience in a more personal and informal way.
POSSIBILITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT
It's easier than ever to communicate a company's culture and the people behind it with the rest of the world thanks to social media marketing. This does not only improve consumer loyalty, but also aids in the hiring of great new employees!
CREATING A COMMUNITY
Social media marketing connects you with your target audience and other related businesses, regardless of your industry.
With each app update, you'll find new and innovative ways to improve your social media marketing and meet your KPIs.
The advantages are limitless, and the more you learn about what platforms and content work best for your objectives, the more you’ll get out of social media marketing.
Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing
With 4.48 billion consumers on social media, any business can tap into a huge pool of potential clients simply by checking in and providing compelling content. Brands like BooHoo, Depop, and Chipotle flourish in social media marketing for one simple reason: they incorporate the key pillars of the medium.
There are five major pillars to consider. Let's go over each one individually.
1. DEVELOP A STRATEGY
The backbone of your social media presence is a solid social media marketing strategy. Without a strategy, you'll waste time, be less likely to achieve your objectives, and have a hard time reaching your target audience.
A content strategy, in case you didn't know, entails getting the "correct content, to the right people, at the right time."
In its most basic form, a content strategy helps you achieve your business goals by enabling you to:
A good social media marketing strategy has clear goals, specific plans to reach those goals, and must be measurable.
2. PLAN AHEAD OF TIME AND PUBLISH
Although social media is a great tool, you can't just go out and start posting content without a strategy. Make sure to include the following in your content planning:
There is only one golden rule in publishing: consistency. People will return for more if you publish on a regular basis.
3. LISTENING AND ENGAGEMENT
Plan your material and, most importantly, interact with your audience. Your comments may not always be pleasant, but the tone of your responses will not change if you do not make improvements.
A successful digital transformation requires listening and involvement, especially if you want to improve the overall customer experience.
It's also worth noting that social listening isn't solely focused on customer service. It may enable you to:
4. ANALYTICAL TOOLS
Analytics for tracking and gathering data is critical to the success of any social media marketing effort. You can't comprehend user behaviour, develop your strategy, figure out which platform is best for your business, know the best times to post, or study your competition without this data.
领英推荐
After you've gathered all of this information, you'll be able to determine what works and what doesn't.
5. PUBLICITY
Social media advertising is worth investigating for anyone looking for a target demographic. With roughly 2.93 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone, that's a huge pool of potential customers.
The following are the three primary categories of social media advertising:
Organic: Content that receives views without being paid for.
Paid: Content that is sponsored by an organisation and hence costs money to post.
Earned: Content that has been freely shared, liked, and commented on.
You may advertise on social media in the following variety of ways:
Additionally, if you aim to enhance your brand recognition, build loyalty, and increase conversion rates, advertising could be the way to go.
Some Fundamental Points to Consider
Social Media Marketing Trends One Should Pay Attention to
The social media world evolves at a faster rate than any other online environment. It's not simple to keep up with it all. So, here are a few trends to keep an eye on this year. These trends are expected to have an impact not only this year, but also in the future.
ORGANIC REACH IS DWINDLING
Once upon a time, a social media user could simply expand their social media following by posting intriguing material. They'd get a lot of friend requests, comments, shares, and likes within a few months due to their outstanding content.
That is still the case now. Most social media networks, in fact, are making it more difficult to grow an organic following. They make it more difficult for users to grow organically, so businesses have to spend more money on advertisements.
In fact, one change that Facebook made caused a 52% drop in organic reach per post in just a few months.
Remember: At the end of the day, social media platforms are businesses.
"PAY TO PLAY" IS TAKING OVER SOCIAL MEDIA
Businesses must pay to play as organic reach becomes more challenging.
That isn't all that shocking. Advertisements account for nearly all the revenue generated by social media companies. In other words, users can only use social media for free because advertisers pay a lot of money to reach them.
The product is the user. However, you must pay to get to them. The good news is that the investment is frequently justified. Most social media platforms still have low advertising rates, and because so many people use social media, you can reach audiences you wouldn't otherwise be able to reach.
MERGING OF CHANNELS
The possibilities become increasingly limitless as more entrepreneurs develop social media platforms.
And the trend shows no signs of abating. As new avenues of communicating, contacting customers, and generating leads emerge, so do inventive strategies.
Take cart abandonment emails, for example. Email used to be the only way to send and receive cart abandonment messages. Facebook Messenger, as well as other chat systems, are now equally viable. Re-cart, for example, allows you to send Facebook messages to abandoned Shopify carts.
Bottomline
At the heart of great social media content is the audience’s desire to share it. When your audience shares your content, they become your channel of distribution.