Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing. It involves using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to connect with your audience. There are many advantages to social media marketing. In fact, social media can play a pivotal role in building brand awareness, increasing sales, and driving website traffic. In this article, we’ll take a look at what social media marketing is and why it is so important for small business to have a social media marketing strategy.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the process of using social media platforms to achieve business goals. some of the most popular social media marketing channels in the UK are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Over the years, these free social media platforms have attracted a very large numbers of users. They has also developed a large number of useful (and entertaining!) features. This has been great for businesses, as it has given them a free way reach and connect with potential customers.
What Features Do Social Media Platforms Offer?
Facebook is the largest social network in the world, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users. It allows users to create profiles, share posts, join groups, follow pages, watch videos, play games, and use various apps. Facebook also owns Messenger, a standalone messaging app that integrates with Facebook, and has over 1.3 billion users. Meanhwile, Instagram is a photo and video-sharing app that also allows users to create stories, reels, and IGTV videos. It has various features such as filters, stickers, polls, quizzes, and shopping. Instagram is also owned by Meta (Facebook), and has over 1.4 billion users worldwide.
But Facebook and Instagram aren’t the only option for small businesses! As video content becomes increasingly popular, more and more businesses are turning to channels like YouTube and TikTok. YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows users to upload, watch, comment, and like videos. It also has features such as live streaming, shorts, stories, and YouTube Music. YouTube is owned by Google, and has over 2.3 billion users worldwide. Meanwhile, TikTok is a short-form video app that allows users to create and share videos of up to 60 seconds, with various effects, music, and filters. It also has features such as duets, stitches, live streams, and trends. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, and has over 1 billion users worldwide.
What Are The Different Types?
There are two main type of social media marketing – organic and paid. Organic social media marketing is when you use a platform’s free features to build an audience an promote your brand. For individuals, this could include things like connecting with other users, sharing social media posts, commenting on social media posts, and (where possible) participating in social media groups. For businesses, it could also include things like creating a business page, curating relevant content, sharing company updates, and more. Paid social media advertising is when you leverage a platform’s advertising tools. These features are usually reserved for businesses, like yours, who want to promote their products and services.
Why Is Social Media Marketing Important?
As you can see, social media marketing is a great (and free!) way to find more customers and increase your sales. It is gives you easy access to a huge audience. It also gives you a platform for sharing your content and engaging with new audiences. Here are a few other reasons why social media marketing is important for small businesses:
- It increases brand awareness: Social media marketing can help you share information about your business in a quick and cost-effective way. With organic social media marketing, it is possible to build a whole community around your brand, completely for free. You can use it to grow your social media accounts, find more followers for your business, and get more sign-ups. With paid social media marketing, it is also possible to expand your reach and find new audiences. You can use it to increase brand awareness and share your content with thousands of people.
- It boosts your website traffic: Social media can also help you achieve other marketing goals. One great example of this is your website traffic. Creating social media posts and running social media ads can help you drive traffic to your website. You can use social media platforms to promote your blog content. You can also use them to promote specific pages, products, and offers. This will enable you to get more people to visit your website and possibly even make a purchase.
- It offers goods and services for sale: Some social media platforms have introduced features and tools that enable social shopping. A few great examples of this are Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping, Pinterest Shop Tab, and TikTok Shopping. These features allow you to sell your products or services directly through social media, without redirecting customers to an external website. What a great time-saver for customers! This means that social media can now also enable you to you increase your sales, reach new customers, and provide a seamless and convenient shopping experience.
- It establishes and strengthens relationships: Social media is not just a broadcasting tool for your business. It’s also a relationship-building channel for your brand. You can use social media platforms to interact and engage with your audience on a more personal level. For example, you can use them to respond to customer comments, questions, feedback, and requests in a timely and friendly manner. This will help you build strong long-term business relationships.
- It tracks marketing progress: Social media platforms also provide analytics tools that allow you to measure your performance and results. You can track metrics such as reach, impressions, engagement, clicks, conversions, and ROI (return on investment). You can also try using third-party tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite to access more advanced analytics and reports. By tracking your progress, you can start to get a better feel for how you target customer use social media. You can also help you improve your strategy and achieve your overall marketing goals
Final Thoughts
Social media marketing is an easy way to reach new audiences, engage with potential customers, and generate more leads. If you’d like to find out more about social media marketing, and how it can potentially help your business, feel to reach out anytime.
