Social Media Marketing

Do you know what Social Media Marketing is? Look at how social media has changed the way online marketing works and the impact of social media on consumers.

Checkout this book on Social Media Marketing Strategies

The use of social media platforms and websites for promotion of products and services if referred to as Social Media Marketing. It is a form of Online Marketing that involves creating and sharing content on social media in order to achieve your marketing and branding goals. It includes posting text and image updates, videos and other content that drives audience engagement, as well as paid social media advertisement.

Social media usually feeds into the discovery of new and updated content such as news stories, and “discovery” as a search activity. Social media can also help create links that in turn support SEO efforts. Many people also perform various searches at social media sites to find new social media content. Social connections and engagements may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either within just a social media network or even at a ‘mainstream’ search engine.

One of the key components and an integral aspect of Social Media Marketing is Social Media Optimization (SMO). Like search engine optimization (SEO), SMO is a tactic for drawing new and unique visitors to your website. SMO can be done in two ways: adding social media links to the posted content, such as RSS feeds and sharing buttons -- or promoting user activity through social media by updating statuses, tweets, or blog posts on various platforms.

SMM allows a company to get direct feedback from customers while portraying the company as more personable. The interactive aspects of social media give customers the opportunity to ask questions or voice complaints or opinions and feel like they are being heard. This aspect of Social Media Marketing is referred to as Social Customer Relationship Management. While using social media for marketing is a great way to leverage your own unique, original content to gain more and more visitors, it also provides an opportunity to link to outside articles,blogs etc. Don’t be shy about linking to other sources, if they provide great, valuable information you think your target audience will enjoy.

Important Aspects of Social Media Marketing

Using Social Media platforms for marketing is not as easy as it sounds. It includes a process and a set of key aspects that need to be followed. The effectiveness of the Social Media Marketing Campaigns is determined based on how well these components are used.

Social Media Content Planning: Building an integrated and organized social media marketing plan is very essential. Consideration of keyword research and competitive product research will help brainstorm content ideas that might interest your target audience. The primary set of questions a digital marketer should ask himself are “What are other businesses in your industry doing to drive engagement on social media?” or “What is their conversion and success rate?

Great Social Content: Consistent with all other areas of digital marketing, content reigns supreme among them all when it comes to social media marketing. Making sure you post regularly and offer valuable information that your ideal customers will find helpful and interesting ensures customer satisfaction and retention. The content that you share on your social media platforms can include social media images, videos, info-graphics, how-to guides and much more.

A Consistent Brand Image: The use of social media for marketing purposes enables your business to project your brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique environment and voice, the core identity of you business, whether it's fun, friendly, or trustworthy, should always stay consistent.

Social Media for Content Promotion: Social media marketing is a perfect channel for sharing your best site and blog content with readers. Once you build a loyal following on social media, you'll be able to post all your new content and make sure your readers can find new stuff right away. Plus, great blog content will help you build more followers.

Social Media Marketing Platforms

Here's a brief overview about how to use social media for marketing according to each platform’s unique user base and environment:

Facebook: Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy. Start by creating a Facebook Business Fan Page.  You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. If you want to advertise on Facebook, the first thing you need to know about is the Facebook Business Manager tool. This is a hub for managing your advertisements, pages, and people.It gives the user a single place to worry about all marketing statistics rather than having to jump from tab to tab.

Instagram: If there is one social media platform that represents the pinnacle of influencer marketing, it’s Instagram. The reason for this is that it’s very visual and its users haven’t yet been annoyed by overloads of advertisements. Today, 65% of brands engage in influencer marketing. These generally include use of hashtags, questions in text form, and photos of products in posts and stories to promote offers and increase engagement. Along with Influencer marketing and brand pages, companies can also use Instagram for sponsored advertisements that come up on the user’s feed as regular posts.

YouTube: YouTube is the number one place for creating and sharing video content, and it can also be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral,” but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive “how-to” videos. These how-to videos have also the added benefit of improving video rank in the search results of Google. YouTube Ads can also be used for marketing. Depending on the type of ad you choose to use, viewers will either be able to skip your ad after a few seconds or YouTube will make them watch the entire thing.

Twitter: Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields, and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return. Mix up your official tweets about specials, discounts, and news with fun, brand-building tweets. You can retweet when a customer has something nice to say about you, and don’t forget to answer people’s questions when possible.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-minded individuals. It's also great for posting jobs and general employee networking. Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations makes your business appear more credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of LinkedIn; providing answers helps you get established as a thought leader and earns trust.

Pinterest: Pinterest is the number one social media platform for marketers who want to target women. You can either use influencers to market in Pinterest or buy pins. The influencer marketing in Pinterest works pretty much the same as Instagram. But if the company does not want to hire influencers, they can buy pins which lets them run advertisements on the platforms and target a niche market.

Tumblr: Huge in some industries and completely unnoticed by others, Tumblr is sort of a mix of a blog, Instagram, and Twitter. Its owners call it a microblogging platform. This platform is primarily useful for curating images. Users can easily re-blog and like these images sort of like retweets and favorites.Marketing on Tumblr might not be as effective as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, but it helps the company to reach a distinctive audience in a unique manner.

Reddit: With more than 2 billion page views a month, Reddit has farfetched social reach, but marketers should be wary that only truly unique and interesting content is welcomed here. Posting on Reddit is like playing with fire since submitting spam or overtly sales-focused content will get your business berated by this highly tech-savvy community.