Social Media: The most popular buzzword we hear these days.
Nowadays, it is very rare to find people without any social media account; be it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn. Social Media has become the biggest source of communication all over the world.
So, what’s a better place to reach your target audience than a platform with active members?
That is why, Social Media Marketing came into picture.
Business Companies started using Social Media as a platform to promote their products and reach a bigger audience.
How is SMM different from Traditional Marketing?
While Traditional Marketing works by publishing ads in Traditional media like TV, Print magazines, Newspapers etc., Social Media Marketing allows the advertiser to publish their ads on various social media platforms.
Cost
Traditional Media Marketing can be quite costly if you choose to advertise on any broadcast platform. The amount traditional media marketing costs can be as much as small businesses invest in their company. That is the reason only large organizations are able to publish ads on Traditional media.
Whereas, in social media the platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offer free public profiles and can reach maximum audience. Also, the advertisement cost on Facebook and promotion cost on Twitter are very less.
Reach
Traditional media allows marketing to a huge mass of people which results in lower Return of Investment(ROI).
But Social Media is one-on-one Marketing platform which targets marketing to relevant target audience based on their account data. This has a higher chance of turning them into sales rather than Traditional media.
Customer Engagement
Traditional media offers only one-way communication which include the advertiser promoting his product in an innovative way. There is no chance for a customer to clear their doubts right then and there. Customers are usually subjected to call the organization to understand the mechanism of the organization.
Whereas, in Social Media, Customers are allowed to pose questions through various mediums like comments, or direct messaging. They can contact officials directly and clear their issues. This seems to be effective because customers become sure about what to do about your product further: buy it or not.
Implementation Process
For Traditional Media Marketing, the advertiser must go through several tasks like creating an ad, organizing the ad, and then executing it. The officials must talk with the media owner, explain the idea to them, discuss about the pricing and policies before actually displaying the ads.
In Social Media Marketing, it offers a free platform so anyone can publish any kind of ad and reach out to their target audience.
Note: However, you should keep in mind that the Traditional Media has its own advantages and is the most preferable in many cases.
Strategies to Advertise on Social Media Platform
Even though, Social Media Marketing seems and looks pretty easy on the outside, companies input a lot of efforts to create an alluring content.
Set Business Related Goals
The foundation of a social media post of a product must be the clarity. Clarity of what you actually want out of the post.
Firstly, let the audience know what your company is actually about. Increase awareness on your brand so there are actually people might be interested in what you.
Transparency is the key, most of the times.
Secondly, create content which attracts the audience. People on Social Media live on a different tangent altogether. Talk about buzzwords, relate your product to the current trend or create your own trend.
Research Your Audience
Considering your product, research for your target audience on the social media platform.
Assuming your target audience can be a little disastrous to the advertisers hence they’re advised to analyse the customer data before setting the target audience.
Check which category of people use which platforms. According to your product, publish or display the ad on the ideal social media platform.
Establish Engaging Metrics
Engaging Metrics are usually derived based on enhancing the customer relationships.
They can be available in lot of forms: posing questions about the brand, creating various challenges like “The Kiki Challenge” by Drake to promote his new song.
Make sure the engaging techniques interest the audience or it may backfire.
Also, along with the engagement, keep track on likes, shares, clicks, user sentiments, hashtags and reach. This will help derive certain strategies for further ads.
Be Responsive
The biggest advantage of Social Media Marketing is that it is a two-way conversation.
Many customers reach out to the official page of your product to ask any doubts or lodge complaints regarding it. It makes it easier because customers don’t necessarily enjoy calling the helpdesk for every single thing.
In these cases, being responsive will increase the customer loyalty since most of the times B2C customers look for good customer service along with the quality of product.
For instance, Wendy’s twitter page is famous for their sarcastic tweets and savage replies. It has its own cult with all those iconic replies they give.
They are really responsive regarding all the queries, issues, and complaints of the customers with their trademark sass earning them huge exposure online.
Check Your Competitors
Checking your biggest competitors strategies also work most of the time because you will have a clear idea of what they are doing.
Most of the times, companies usually check their competitors social media to analyse the data, content, and their techniques and compare them with their own.
This doesn’t imply to copy someone else’s strategies or follow them. It helps the companies to analyse their whole procedure, see what their companies are doing wrong and then correct it with the right measures.
Final Word
Marketing on Social Media is not always successful. Sometimes, people might get offended with the campaign. Sometimes, it may not be that effective to customers or sometimes, you might be focusing on the wrong target audience.
However, there is so much to learn from every case. Consider your mistakes and make subtle changes in your marketing strategy to improve it without really changing the ideology of your product.
Very good article. Wish to use this.