SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
- What is social media marketing
- Benefits
- Statistics
- Negatives
- How to
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
This is a form of digital marketing that leverages the power of popular social media networks to achieve marketing and branding goals. In other words, it uses social media apps as a marketing tool. There are 5 pillars of social media marketing: strategy, planning and publishing, listentnicng and engagement, analytics and reporting, and advertising.
An example of social media marketing done well is Spotify, with its #yearwrapped campaign. At the end of every year, Spotify lets users see the most important musical highlights of their year, such as how many hours they listened to music and who their top artists were. After the data analysis is shared, Spotify then encourages sharing your personal data on social media and to tag favorite artists as well. This campaign worked because Spotify took advantage of two psychological human triggers, which were personalization and the fear of missing out. People naturally want to learn about themselves as wells share their highlights with friends.
BENEFITS
- Opportunity to engage with a massive audience
- About 5 billion people worldwide using social media platforms (potential customers)
- Can humanize a brand
- Allows brands to tell a story
- No large budget needed
- Can connect and interact with customers, receive feedback, and build authenticity all online
STATISTICS
- 55% of people learn about brands from social media
- The average internet user spends almost 400 minutes per day online (much of this on social media)
- Almost 80% of people make purchases based on online or sisal media advertisements
NEGATIVES
- Time-consuming
- Negative reviews and comments are public knowledge
- Constant monitoring is necessary due to real- time responses
- What happens on the internet stays on the internet
- Low ROI
ADVICE/ HOW TO
The first step to creating a good social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. These goals need to be defined in order to measure success and return on investment. These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
The next step is to evaluate resources. Decide who is going to create content and maintain the social media accounts, as well as respond to comments and questions. There needs to be a designated person to be social media manager and the face of the business online.
Third, it is important to know who the audience is. It is essential to understand the target audience as well as that type of content they want to see and the information that is important for them to know. Without a clear picture of who you are specifically creating content for, the efforts may go to waste as it will not be getting the right attention to be effective.
The next step is to create content that will be effective, informative, and interesting. Then, you must integrate your marketing efforts so that they feed off of each other. Cross-promoting efforts so that they work together seamlessly will give great benefit and extra use of content.
It may also be helpful to create a schedule and set time aside to devote to the social media marketing so that it is not looked over. Adopting an 80/20 rule can also be helpful, which would consist of devoting at least 80% of time to social media activities that are not self promotional and no more than 20% of time on self promotional activities.
Focusing on quality rather than quantity is another essential tip. It is better to have a smaller amount of highly engaged followers than thousands of followers that will not acknowledge content. Also, giving up control and letting the audience take control of online conversations will aid in developing emotional bonds to the business. Lastly, always be open to continue learning. As social media and the internet changes daily, it is crucial to be able to adapt and learn new things.
Resources
https://www.business.com/articles/social-media-small-business-importance/
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7832-social-media-for-business.html
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/best-social-media-management-software/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-marketing-examples/380202/
CALL TO ACTION: Small businesses must begin to learn and utilize social media marketing as it is inter favor to create brand awareness and connections with consumers.
Category: Analytics, Integrating with Traditional Marketing, Personal Branding, Social Media Marketing 101