Having a business today requires more effort in letting people know about your brand. It is not enough that you just created it with only your family and friends knowing about it. In today’s game in business, you must be able to make your brand popular on social media, if you are not there, then you do not exist, but if you’re there without anyone knowing about it? Well, you must step up your strategy in marketing.

The growing popularity of online platforms made way for social media marketing to take place and it has been proven to be helpful and effective for businesses in reaching their goals. Without a doubt, It is the same thing that you also need to make your business grow more than you imagined.

Social Media has been a part of people’s daily lives; they could not go on a day without checking their social accounts. The Global Media Statistics Research 2022 revealed that as of now there are 4.70 billion people around the world who uses social media. It is where people connect around the world, where they share their thoughts, experiences, photos, videos, and anything they want to post. Users can engage around the world through the use of the internet. It creates a sphere of community where information is shared and communication takes place even if you are far away from each other. 

In the August 2022 report of Statista, Internet users worldwide spend an average of 147 minutes per day, which increased compared to the previous year’s average of 145 minutes. The time spent on social media can affect the lives of the users by being influenced by what they often see on it. For that reason, for business companies trying to establish their brand online, the best way to do it is on social media platforms.

Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform this year with 2.94 billion users followed by Youtube with 2.48 Million, Whats App with 2 billion, Instagram with 1.44 billion, WeChat with 1.29 billion, and Tiktok with 1.02 billion which has gained popularity during the start of the pandemic, (Shoptify, 2022). These online platforms will continue to grow as users are continuously signing up on these sites to connect to the online world. Because of the growing popularity of these online platforms, a new way to promote products has evolved and that is through social media marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media is now pervasive and crucial for web access, content sharing, and social networking in recent years. Social media creates a large market for firms like online marketing because of its dependability, consistency, and immediate advantages. Social media marketing (SMM) is where promoting and selling products as well as services are done on social media platforms. It is where businesses can engage with their customers and attract new ones, it is also where selling and buying transactions are done. Entities can track their performances, sales, and reach through e-commerce features built on social sites. 

Hafele’s book ‘Social Media Marketing: Interaction, Trends & Analytics (2011) said that SMM introduced a new concept of exponential dissemination and trust into mass communication and mass marketing by encouraging users to share messages to personal contacts. As a result of this innovative approach to marketing and outreach, new tools are being created and improved for businesses. The development of analytical software by official social network site platforms has improved and increased its effectiveness.

From scrolling to Facebook, to viewing stories on Instagram and watching videos on Tiktok you will often see a post or an advertisement upon your stay on these accounts. Products are everywhere and sometimes you think that you are shopping online on whatever application you open and for sure at least once or more you have bought something that you saw posted online.  So, how does these products or service promotional post work?

How does SMM work?

From the name itself, this type of marketing uses different social media applications like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, and more. This includes the process of utilizing the usage of these platforms to the advantage of business companies. It has features that can help your business promote and send your content to your target customers.

From promoting content that drives engagement, to extracting geographic, demographic,  and personal information to ensuring that messages resonate with users, businesses have the power to influence and increase consumer behavior.

SMM not only gives businesses the ability to connect with existing customers and reach new customers, but it also enables more ways for marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify interactions. Social Media applications have made updates to make purpose-built data analytics that will provide data analysis specifically designed to help marketers create their marketing strategies.

It provides the most helpful  social media marketing tools for marketers as they venture into promoting online and these are the things it provides:

• Research

SMM Data Analytics will give data that will help you research, analyze and understand market conditions, competitors, and target audience needs and requirements. 

Through the use of social media, research can be done in minutes or hours. This allows market research to track increasingly specific aspects of your marketing efforts. From product introduction to subsequent  marketing, each part of your marketing plan can be analyzed independently for better results in your entire marketing plan.

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

It is a combination of practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data of the customer. Its purpose is to improve customer service relationships, help build customer loyalty, and drive sales growth.

A CRM system compiles customer data across various channels or points of contact between the customer and the business, which may include the company’s website, phone, live chat, direct mail, document marketing, and social networking. A CRM system can also provide customer-facing staff with detailed information about a customer’s personal information, purchase history, shopping preferences, and interests.

Furthermore, SMM can track customer value directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product recommendations).

• Tracking Metrics

Metrics in business are quantifiable measurements used to track business processes to gauge how well your business is performing.

In SMM, metrics essential for your business online like conversion rate, click-through rate, average time spent on your site, page views, and visits are shown.  You get detailed insights into e-commerce features, customer behavior, and what works and what does not so you can make your social media marketing strategy more effective.

• Shareable Content

Making shareable content is one of the social media marketing strategies that are important to let your audience know about your products and services offered. It must be something catchy and grabs the attention of users so it can create engagement and interaction between you and your customers.

What is more fascinating about this type of word-of-mouth but in online is it reaches an otherwise inaccessible audience, but it also conveys the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts. Creating shareable content will be one of the most important ways social media marketing drives growth.

• Earned Media

Earned media is brand promotion or marketing that emerges from organic sources. Social Media Marketing offers this kind of media as there are features available where users can leave your page a review, mention you or create a post about your brand.

Other types of media include paid and owned which both can be done on social media too. Paid media are for promotion or advertisements that you want the social media to promote along with setting up the target audiences. Meanwhile, owned media are content that your business created. 

• Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a sales technique in which organic or word-of-mouth information about a product or service spreads at an accelerated rate. With the emergence of the internet and social media, the number of viral messages in the form of memes, shares, likes, and forwards has greatly increased.

In making viral content, the best way to approach it is to make something that touches human emotions. It can be something funny, absurd, sad, surprising, and such as anything where you can receive reactions from your audiences.

Now, is it really effective? Let’s take a look at its benefits and data showing the results of its efficiency.

Social Media Marketing Effectiveness

With the popularity of digital marketing growing, many firms are looking into how social media may help them promote their products and services to both new and current clients, as said by Watson et al. (2002) referenced by Sheth and Sharma (2005). Facebook and Twitter are two examples of social networking services that have changed how some firms view advertising. Some companies direct customers more to their social media profiles than to their websites.

The effectiveness and satisfactory results of SMM made it become a more preferable way for companies to promote and sell their products as well as services. Here are some data which proves its efficiency that can help your business grow online.

• Increases Brand Awareness

In this digital era, it is not enough that your brand is only by a word of mouth. To gain customers you have to be popular and where is the place to increase your popularity? It’s none other than social media sites.

According to Gurau (2008), SMM allows businesses to utilize social media in such a way as gathering, recording, evaluating, and using customer feedback and data for more precise online audience targeting and message customization. Through these features, companies can decide and strategize how they want to be seen online or how they want customers to perceive their brand’s message.

To gain popularity, businesses should identify or know the profile of not just their target customers but generally the majority of users so they would know how to make posts that can appeal to them. For an instance, Oberlo (2022) Statistics says that 32.2% of social media consumers belong to the age group 20 to 29 years old. From this data, it is a must for business entities to make the right message that will encourage their target customers to inquire and eventually avail their products and services.

Gaining popularity attracts more potential customers and conversions. It also gives credibility to your brand which leads you to earn their trust and eventually you will be on top of their options in case they will need your product or services.

• Influences Purchasing Decisions

Well, the main purpose of SMM is to persuade people into availing of the products and services you offer. You have to create content that will influence their purchasing decisions. According to Forbes (2012), 78% of customers say company posts on social networks influence their purchasing decisions. As per Stackla Statistics report, 56% of consumers asserted that they are currently more influenced by social media posts and videos than they were before the pandemic when they purchase online. Likewise, after viewing other consumers’ social media posts, 66% of customers have been motivated to buy from a new brand. Referrals from social media also increase purchase likelihood for consumers by 71%.

The data presented proves that using social media to promote has an impact and can directly influence buyers’ decisions. You can do many things to promote such as using influencers, using e-commerce features online, making engaging posts, and more.

• Reaches Customers

The COVID-19 pandemic that occurred separated businesses from their customers. In the worst cases of lockdown and quarantine, their business permanently closed their establishments because of the losses. However, some companies continue to prosper and use the circumstance to their benefit so they can continue operating what helped them? SMM. Even though their offices are closed they are still able to provide services for their customers online, for months and years because of the pandemic things continue to work online.

Even if far away, companies can communicate with their customers without having to see each other because unlimited information can be posted anytime. This has a significant advantage over other modes of communication because the amount of information that can be provided is much greater than in any other communication method.  Most notably, the information can be provided in a format that customers can easily process and comprehend.

• Increases Conversions

Getting to the point, the main purpose of online marketing is to convert online engagements into inquiries and sales. By creating an effective post in no time you will reach your target return on investments. In 2015 Business Insider reported that Facebook accounted for 50% of overall social referrals and 64% of all social revenue. This platform has been helping businesses earn by advertising and making transactions online. 

Furthermore, not only Facebook that can help you hit your target return of investment. Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, and other applications have recently made their applications e-commerce friendly where you can easily post content and sell your products instantly. Ouellette (2022) stated that in comparison to outbound marketing, SMM has a 100% greater lead-to-close rate, and 66% of marketers who use digital platforms for at least 6 hours a week report receiving more leads.

Using SMM can be enticing with its proven benefits however this can be only successful if you will be able to produce engaging and effective social media posts thus you will need experienced and strategic social media marketers. 

Why is social media marketing important?

Social Media is what connects everyone in the world, even if you are a thousand kilometers away from each other with just a click you can get in touch. Social Media marketing is important because it is giving brands an ideal platform to let people know about the products and services they offer. It creates a sphere of community where businesses and customers can communicate with each other as they transact. 

Social media marketing for small businesses is a great tool that can help them create brand awareness, reach their target customers and convert their ad posts into sales.

Everest Online Marketing Services

We offer online marketing solutions to help your business get ahead of your competitors and it includes social media marketing services that will assure you that your brand will have satisfactory performance and will be more competent. If you need help starting your business grow online just click here.

Start growing your business on social media now!