Social Media Marketing

"color: red;">Communication, in the 21st century, has undergone a sea change. Today we are always connected via social networks. As of 2019 Facebook is used by 2.38 billion people, Twitter is used by 336 million people worldwide. People don't flock to their televisions anymore, neither is reading newspapers a trend today. These things are replaced by the internet and social media. In the business perspective, all these people are potential customers. So to reach out to these people, businesses today engage in social media marketing, they advertise their products, try to create buzz words about their company and convinces them to visit their website and ultimately buy their products. Marketing and promotions these days are incomplete without social media marketing.

Image by William Iven from Pixabay

Why Is Social Media Marketing Gaining Traction -

Traditional marketing platforms like TVs or newspapers are gradually losing their sheen. Social media these days are the preferred choice of marketers. Here's why -

Interaction and Engagement - 

Traditional marketing platforms offered a one-way process of advertising products. There was no way to gauge the sentiments of the buyer. Social media bridge the gap between the buyer and seller. A buyer can and does point out the shortcomings of a product directly to the manufacturer. If you open the facebook page of any telecom service p[provider, you will see many complaints against its network. Companies use these complaints as feedback and improve their products. So it is a win win for both the customer and the company.

Cheaper and More Effective - 

Social media marketing is a cheaper and more effective way of advertising a product. There is a term called CPC in the online marketing world, which means Cost Per Click. In  CPC mode of marketing, an advertiser only pays for the ad when it is clicked on. So an advertiser can be sure that his money is being spent on reaching only the interested customers.

Easy To Increase Brand Awareness -

 Earlier a brand has to plan for an elaborate advertising campaign to be known to the customers in the whole country. Today with the help of social media marketing, brand awareness can be increased without any trouble.

New Customer Creation - 

One important aspect of social media marketing is Keyword management. An advertiser sets some Keywords that relevant to his products. Whenever a person searches for something by typing words that match the keywords, or whenever a person’s profile seems relevant to the keywords, the advertisement of those products is served to him. This way businesses can gain new customers.

Drive Traffic To Company Website - 

With Call To Action feature, advertisements on social media can convince a potential buyer to visit the website of the advertiser.

Better Timing - 

Social media advertising is flexible. You can pause and resume your advertisement anytime you want. This is useful in cases where an advertisement fails to remain relevant after a few days.

Some Tips -

Once you realize the potential of social media marketing, it is natural that you get excited and start spending money on advertisements. However, you should take care of some things before starting to pay for advertisements on social media. Keep in mind that all your customers do not have the same interests and dislikes. Suppose you sell replicas of cricket players’ jerseys online. If you are going to promote these jerseys on social media, you have to make sure that the replica of Ricky Ponting’s jersey is shown mainly to his fans and not the fans of any other player. How to achieve this targeting? We have keywords for that. Social networking sites have sophisticated artificial intelligence that can analyze whether an ad is relevant to a particular user.

    Stay away from controversy while campaigning for your products. Do not use any political or religious innuendos while campaigning. The negative publicity will be detrimental to brand awareness. Also, remember that there will always be toxic customers who will abuse the company. Do not get into arguments with these customers.

    The photos in your advertisement should be yours and you should own the photos. Dont get into legal trouble by using copyrighted photos. Also, remember that photos in your advertisement should be attractive and should have the ability to drive home the message that you want to convey. If there are texts over the photo, they should be readable - use proper colour and contrast.

    Do not bore your potential customers by bluntly showcasing the product features. Showcase the outcomes that one can get if he uses your product. If you are promoting your paint products, do not just show a tin of paint, rather show a beautiful house whose exteriors are painted exquisitely.

    Users of social networking sites have less attention span. Advertise your products in such a way that a few words and a simple picture or a short video of 30 seconds can convey your message and convince the potential customers.

Social media marketing can be a great tool to boost sales and drive traffic. Use it smartly and see the magic.