Marketing And Social Networks
Think about the last time you saw an ad. Was it on the radio? No way. Maybe the TV? Probably not. Nowadays most brands choose to advertise in social media, because they have found here an affordable and effective option to reach their target audience, no matter how narrow it may be. This is the actual highpoint of digital marketing, and a chance that no company can reject.
As technology grows, the chances to find the perfect customer in social media grows, without having to do nothing but inverting a little bit of money in social media advertising. So, if you own a business and are ready to learn the best and most economical way to create an effective marketing campaign in social networks, keep reading.
The importance of social networks in marketing.
It’s no news that social network is the “next big thing” in the marketing world. Most experts and entrepreneurs agree that is a powerful tool that brands can’t miss if they wish to grow and reach more customers. It is true that social media was not created for business purposes, but both small and big companies have discovered the advantages of social media in a way that now is the main source of adds for a very large population. To understand the importance of social media in an updated and effective marketing strategy, we first must have some concepts clear.
What is social media? When we talk about social media, we are referring all the technologies that make easy the creation and share of content, like text, photos, videos, and many other forms of virtual expression and communications. This technology operates creating relationships between the different users, which makes easy to find people with similar interests. That’s how social media represents a very effective and low-cost tool to communicate easily with a large audience, almost immediately and ensuring that your message will be delivered to your exact target audience.
And even if its true that we cannot depend completely in social media to create our marketing plan, we have to find a way to integrate it, so we exploit the benefits of it to suit the needs of our business. Just to mention some of its benefits, we can talk about the following:
Benefits of social media marketing
- You will be able to provide a brands identity to your customer: You can take advantage of the customization to reflect your values and ideas through the design of your social media.
- Your brand will be more recognized: Thanks to the advanced algorithms that social networks use, your brand will be automatically shown to those that may be interested in it.
- You’ll save on marketing costs: The costs of the marketing in social media is so much lower than the traditional marketing. If you are a small or medium business, you can make a very good campaign with a tight budget. Most of the times you will only need to provide the basic information of your page and the algorithms will do the rest.
- Your customers loyalty will grow: A customer who enjoys the content of your social networks will tend to keep consuming your products not just because of the quality of this, but also for the user experience.
- You will be able to learn from your customers on real time. Your customers for sure will talk in social networks about the quality of your products, services or publications. If you are constantly checking what does they like and what they don’t, you will be able to learn from that and improve your brand until reaching the complete satisfaction and loyalty of your clients.
Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization
SMM or social media marketing is the branch of marketing that focus on the study of the different marketing strategies than can be effective to apply in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many other social networks. It primary goal is to produce good quality content that the customers will find attractive enough to like and share, so the company exposure will increase reaching more and more costumers. It has become more common thanks to the increased popularity of social networks, and it has created such impact that even the Federal Trade Commission had to update its rules to ensure that SMM is included
Hand in hand with SMM goes SMO, or Social Media Optimization, which is one of the essential keys to draw attention for your consumers. SMO works primarily using one or both of the following:
- Creating social media links to content so users can be redirected to the webpage or account of the company.
- Promoting activity uploading photos, videos, tweets, blogs, statuses, or any other kind of post that interests their clients.
The best way to create a Social Media Optimization strategy is hiring an expert consultant in this field. They have all the resources and tools to manage an effective campaign that will make your webpage more visible and attractive to your customers and possible costumers.
And how do I start?
Once you have a proper webpage fully functional, search for the option to link it to your social media. Have in mind that you must be aware of your target market to select your principal network:
- Facebook is the largest social network, so you will find almost every audience here. Nevertless, most of their users are young adults with 35 years old or less. Something really similar happens with twitter, in which most of their users fit in this rage.
- Instagram is full of a much younger audience, so if your product is related to a target audience that goes in the range of 13 – 25 years old, Instagram is your best option. Tumblr is also a good option for this audience, but it has less users.
- LinkedIn is a network designed to keep in touch with your coworkers, so if you have a product which target audience is in professional adults older than 35 years this is your best option.
Start with the one that mostly fits your audience, and you can and step by step you can cover other social networks until you reach your ideal marketing strategy applying the tips given here.
