Inbound Marketing Series: What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)? 5 Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing.

“Social Media Marketing” one of the most popular terms and medium that has helped various small and big businesses in showcasing their product in front of 3.48 Billion users. In today’s high-tech world everyone is aware of the size of social media. 

Users are shifting from desktop browsing to mobile browsing and because of that, there is an immense increase in the active mobile social media users. From the bar chart, you can analyze the global digital population as of October 2019.

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Every year social media users are increasing i.e. in the year 2018 there was a total of 3.196 billion social media users. Later in the year 2019, there was a growth of 9% making it a total of 3.48 Billion active social media users.  

People use social media because of the funny and informative content that are shared on these platforms. Through social media, users find it easy to stay connected with their friends and family. And that is the reason why every year there is growth in active social media users. 

sfwpexperts.com-Social-media-platforms-Social-Media-Statistics 

Other than Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing is also an important part of Inbound Marketing.  That has helped many brands and businesses in reaching their potential audience. We have provided stats and reports of social media that will help you in analyzing how social media is transforming the marketing world.

In this article, we will be focusing on:

  • What is Social Media Marketing
  • 12 Most Popular Social Media 
  • Five Core Pillers of Social Media Marketing
  • How Social Media can boost your marketing campaign? 
  • Why small businesses rely on social media to gain web traffic?
  • How to Boost Social Media Marketing Strategy? 
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
  • Conclusion

What is Social Media Marketing?  

In simple words, Social Media Marketing is all about advertising & promoting a brand and product on various social media platforms to boost sales, drive more website traffic and build brand authenticity.  

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Facebook, Twitter, google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, tumbler, Reddit, Snapchat, etc are the well known social media platforms among users. The main aim behind using these platforms is to share an enticing content that can be shared by social media users to help an company in gaining more brand exposure. And Facebook is considered to have the maximum users i.e. 2.45 Billion.

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Every year unique mobile internet users are increasing and that is encouraging mobile users to divert more on social media platforms. By looking at the below stats you can figure out the total number of active users on various social media platforms.  

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Most of the business i.e. from a small to widely Known big brand find social media to be the most vital platforms in engaging customer, spreading awareness and creating a brand identity.

There are small businesses that are selling their products on social media to generate good revenue. By using  Hashtag, engaging content, sharing curated links, tracking competitors, social media ads help in generating good ROI.

12 Most Popular Social Media Platforms 

  • Facebook

  • Google+

  • Instagram

  • You Tube

  • Linkedin

  • Reddit

  • Snapchat

  • Pinterest 

  • Tumbler 

  • Medium 

  • Quora

  • Periscope

Five Core Pillars of Social media marketing

1. Social Strategy

If you are planning to publish something on social media then the first thing we will advise you to do is make a social strategy. Now you might be wondering how to devise a  social strategy. To create customer-centric strategy You need to ask yourself a few questions like: 

  • What are your goals? 
  • Which social media platform will help you in achieving your goal?   
  • What type of content will attract your audience?  

2. Planning & Publishing 

With the increase in the number of social media users. Evey business are concentrating on showing their consistent presence on social media. This technique is helping them in showcasing their brand to their potential customers.

Publishing an attractive & informative content is as simple as sharing pictures or videos on your personal social media profile. But if your goal is to promote a business or product on social media then you should do focus on planning a strategy for your post. You should be aware of things like:

  • When your potential customers are active on social media? 
  • Analyzing the reach of your post? 
  • Check whether your post is engaging or not
  • Craft your social media post carefully

3. Listening & Engagement 

In the early phase, your business page may not have many followers that can interact with you through comments and direct messages. But when you start posting engaging content  you may find growing 

When your social media followers grow you may find that they will start talking with you through comments and direct messages, tag you in their social media post. And if you are consistently posting engaging content then there are chances that they may start sharing your content.

So, always listen to your audience by checking your comments and direct messages. If they are facing some issue then try to resolve it and if they are giving some positive feedback and compliment about your brand and product then appreciate them. 

4. Analytics and Reporting

Analytics and Reporting one of the main metrics of every online marketing channel. If you own a business page and consistently posting content on it. then you should be aware of how your post or your page is performing? Every company look for some report that can help them  in analyzing

  • Whether there post has more reach than last month or not
  • Total number of positive mention they get in a month 
  • How many users are using their hashtag and company name 
  • How many users are sharing, commenting and liking their post
  • Increase in the followers compared to last month

5. Advertising

One of the well-known parts of social media is social ads. When you are ready to invest in social media then use social ads to spread awareness about your brand. It will help you in reaching the maximum number of users and displaying ads to your targeted audience. 

How Social Media can boost your marketing campaign? 

  • Social media can help in increasing brand awareness 
  • Helps in Creating a brand identity and positive brand response 
  • Through Social Media, you can increase your website traffic 
  • Best platform in improving communication and interaction with key audience 
  • Social media can boost your conversion rate.  
  • Promote your product or company videos on social media. 

Why small businesses rely on social media to gain web traffic?

– Most of the Customers are on social media 

At the beginning of the blog, we have mentioned social media has 3.4 Billion users that mean most of your potential customer hangout on these platforms. And that is the reason why small business prefers social media platforms to advertise and sell their products. 

If we talk about stats then 70% of the US population has at least one social media profile and by 2021 social media users are likely to increase by  3.7 Billion (source: Statista).  

– Customers are more likely to consider and accept your products on social media platforms 

Nowadays social media users are more interacting and responsive. Gone are those days when users used to ignore messages and ads of social media. If you are having a good product that is likely to make a difference in today’s busy world then there are maximum chances that social media users will divert on your content and ads. SFWP Experts an award-winning company in Los Angeles has helped many small businesses in building a strong relationship with customers through social media and other marketing channels. 

Even if you are a social media user then you must have followed a business page that is producing some awesome content. And that is the reason why small businesses like to invest their time and money in showcasing strong social media appearance. 

– Social media allows small business to be more Conversational

One of the reasons why small businesses like to market their products on social media because it allows them to show their different side of the brand. By producing informative and educating content they try to show their knowledge and experience. it helps their business page in gaining more followers and building an interactive audience. Increase in social media also helps in  

– Social Medial Post helps in driving targeted traffic

A study says that 65% of American adults (18 to 24-year-old) are on Facebook, 75% of them use Instagram and 43% like to use Twitter. And 35% of the older age people (65 and above) are having an account on social media platforms.

From the numbers, you can figure out that most of your traffic uses social media. By producing high-quality content on social media platforms you can boost your website traffic. There are small businesses that have improved their search engine ranking through social media.   It may take some time in building a social media audience. But if you are looking for strategies to boost your traffic then contact SFWP Experts a highly experienced marketing agency in LOS Angeles. 

– Social Media Marketing is Cost-effective

More than investment social media marketing requires efforts and creativity. That’s why most of the small business relies on social media marketing. Even if you spend a few hours in a week creating an enticing content then that will give you a good result in improving your brand loyalty. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers were able to generate higher traffic by spending six hours of their time in a week.

– Marketing on Social media helps in getting a higher conversion rate

Compared to other outbound marketing tactics social media has a higher conversion rate. All the creative post and interaction that you make on your social media helps you in converting a lead into a customer. By posting a video, text, infographic content you try to improve the trust and credibility of the brand that helps in getting a higher conversion rate. Posting conversational content on social media pages has helped companies in showcasing their personality, humor, and warmth. 

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 How to Boost Social Media Marketing Strategy? 

  • Understand your Goal 
  • Make a social media content publishing plan 
  • Analyze your market then produce an enticing content
  • Try to build a consistent brand image 
  • Start sharing curated links in your social media post 
  • Keep a track of your competitors 
  • Use Social media to promote articles, videos, Infographics, etc. 
  • Instead of focusing on promoting your post lister to your customer problem & Suggestions. 
  • Keep a track of your social media posting 
  • Make an engaging post that can make the users comment on your post 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

Advantages:

  • Social media marketing helps in reaching a large audience.
  • It helps in creating a direct connection with your audience 
  • You can create & post your organic content for free
  • Helps in building brand authenticity through the social business page 
  • Your content can become viral on social media
  • You can provide in-depth knowledge of your product

Disadvantages:

  • If your product is not performing well then you may receive a lot of negative feedback
  • Your content can create embarrassment 
  • It requires time to build an engaging audience 
  • You should spend a lot of time monitoring your campaign.
  • Business gets into legal trouble by sharing other content.

Conclusion: 

For small and large scale businesses, social media is considered to be the best platform in creating brand awareness.  By developing a comprehensive social media strategy, you can increase the visibility of your brand, build a good relationship with your potential and establish two-way communication with your customers. 

With this, you can understand that social media has got a lot of advantages. And if you own a business that can ease user’s life then start promoting your business on the social media platforms. Be consistent and publish high-quality content that can educate and entertain your audience. 

SFWP Experts, an award-winning company in Los Angeles has helped many brands and businesses in creating a customer-centric marketing strategy. Contact us if you are looking to make your business visible to a wider range of audience and want to boost your marketing campaign.