Why You Should Care About Social Media Marketing

The digital space has changed how many things function. It has changed relationships and friendships, it has changed the worldview of many people, has improved connections between people far away from each other, and most importantly, it has changed how businesses work – for the better especially Social Media Marketing.

Social media has grown to become one of the most important parts of the digital space and its ability to bring together many people in a short time has changed marketing.

Digital marketing refers to the use of the internet and other digital communications to promote brands and connect with potential customers. Social media marketing, then, is the use of social media to promote brands and connect with potential customers.

The rise of many social media platforms has meant that social media marketing has become just as critical for corporates as field activations and other physical forms of promotions and campaigns. And social media marketing is here to stay, and here is why you ought to join the bandwagon.

Tell your own story

Many brands previously were often distant entities which we only thought about if we needed to buy their products. But the social media era has changed that.

Many businesses these days often have a presence on the most popular platforms in a bid to interact with their audiences and connect on a personal level by telling their own stories.

The potential customers will often get to learn more about you and your business without you having to pay top dollar to TV stations to run an ad, an ad that would probably not tell your story as best as you would.

This connection on a personal level is even more important to budding entrepreneurs, who get to learn about their customer’s preferences and feedback in real-time.

Cost-effective

Social media has become a great way of promoting brands to such an extent that many brands have hashtags (#) which they run to bring more awareness to their product.

Considering creating a social media page is free, social media marketing saves companies a lot of money since the company is able to leverage its ‘followers’ to create awareness among other people in the digital space.

Many companies have social media managers, who are in charge of creating posts for the company on their social media page which earn the most engagements. These engagements give the company visibility as many on the social media space comment, like, and share the post. Thus, the company grows its audience on a small budget, as social media managers are often individuals who don’t cost as much as an advertising agency.

Social media marketing also reduces the logistical nightmare of organizing countrywide activations. A company can reserve such ground campaigns for special occasions rather than being their only means to connect with customers.

Learn about competitors

As mentioned, many businesses are now on social media. As a business or as an entrepreneur, this provides you with the opportunity to understand your competition better and what strategies they are implementing to attract customers.

At the start of social media marketing, many companies used AI for their social media pages. However, as social media users increased, they began demanding more engagement from their companies. So, companies adapted using social media managers on their pages to provide consistently, personified, and at times funny and witty updates.

Many companies soon picked up on this, and today, it is not unusual to see pages of major brands tweet like regular people, making memes, jokes, and all that. The way that ‘personifying a company’ has spread is an example of how social media has companies learning from each other and trying to outdo each other.

Connects with target customers

When making an ad on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you will often fill in questions on what kind of people you are targeting. This might seem like it limits your reach, but what happens is that it helps you build a custom audience, people who will give you better ROI since they are people interested in your product or service.

In the past, TV and radio ads were often general, which then meant that they needed to run repeatedly and for long to have any impact. This made the cost of such marketing high.

However, right now, you can target your marketing to specific people who you know are interested in your product or services. This not only saves you money but also helps you connect better with customers who enjoy your product.

With proper communication with them, these target customers increase your brand awareness, through their comments on your post and even through word of mouth.

Social media marketing is no doubt the future, with many companies seeing more revenue generated online than through TV. In the US, for example, in 2018, online revenue grew by 21.8% from 2017 to $107 billion, at least 30 billion more than TV revenue. So, social media marketing is what businesses will be relying on in the future, and why, as a budding entrepreneur, you should take notice.