TOP 5 BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)

What is social media marketing(SMM)

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. 

 MAJOR PLATFORMS USED IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

1 ) Social networking websites

Social networking websites allow individuals, businesses and other organizations to interact with one another and build relationships and communities online. When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly. That interaction can be more personal to users than traditional methods of outbound marketing and advertising. Social networking sites act as word of mouth or more precisely, e-word of mouth. The Internet's ability to reach billions across the globe has given online word of mouth a powerful voice and far reach. The ability to rapidly change buying patterns and product or service acquisition and activity to a growing number of consumers is defined as an influence network. Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to "retweet" or "repost" comments made by others about a product being promoted, which occurs quite frequently on some social media sites. 

Social networking websites are based on building virtual communities that allow consumers to express their needs, wants and values, online. Through social networking sites, companies can keep in touch with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience. Social networking sites also include much information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. 

In 2014, over 80% of business executives identified social media as an integral part of their business. Business retailers have seen 133% increases in their revenues from social media marketing.

Some examples of popular social networking websites over the years are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, MySpace, LinkedIn, and SnapChat. 

2) Mobile phones

More than three billion people in the world are active on the Internet. Over the years, the Internet has continually gained more and more users, jumping from 738 million in 2000 all the way to 3.2 billion in 2015. Roughly 81% of the current population in the United States has some type of social media profile that they engage with frequently. Mobile phone usage is beneficial for social media marketing because of their web browsing capabilities which allow individuals immediate access to social networking sites. Mobile phones have altered the path-to-purchase process by allowing consumers to easily obtain pricing and product information in real time. They have also allowed companies to constantly remind and update their followers. Many companies are now putting QR (Quick Response) codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart phones. Retailers use QR codes to facilitate consumer interaction with brands by linking the code to brand websites, promotions, product information, and any other mobile-enabled content. In addition, Real-time bidding use in the mobile advertising industry is high and rising due to its value for on-the-go web browsing.

Mobile devices have become increasingly popular, where 5.7 billion people are using them worldwide. This has played a role in the way consumers interact with media and has many further implications for TV ratings, advertising, mobile commerce, and more. Mobile media consumption such as mobile audio streaming or mobile video are on the rise – In the United States, more than 100 million users are projected to access online video content via mobile device. Mobile video revenue consists of pay-per-view downloads, advertising and subscriptions. As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone Internet user penetration was 73.4%. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90% of Internet users will access online content through their phones.

Top 5 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

1.) Effective Brand Recognition & Increased Brand Awareness

• Gaining effective brand recognition is one of the premier marketing goals of businesses as consumers want to buy brands they easily recognize. Admiringly, social media marketing allows you have that kind of brand recognition. Social media benefits for business are huge and that is why it is one of the most powerful digital marketing methods that are used to syndicate content and increase your brand’s visibility and awareness.
• Implementing a target-oriented social media strategy will greatly increase your brand recognition, as this will help you be engaged with a broad audience of potential consumers. It has great benefits over traditional media as with its help, marketers can highlight their brand in front of people in quickest possible fashion.
• Just by investing a few hours/week, over 90% of marketers claimed that their social media marketing efforts greatly increased exposure of their brands. To get started, you firstly need to create social media profiles for your business. Once you are satisfied with your page, begin interacting with others. This can result out to be one of the important benefits of social media for business. 
• You need to pay attention on cover photos of your company’s social profiles, then you can ask employees, acquaintances, friends, business partners, and sponsors to “like” and “share” your social page. Interacting with your content on your social profiles will increase brand awareness and help you build a profitable reputation for your brand.
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2)Improved Brand Loyalty & Customer Engagement

• According to Convince &Convert’s study report, 53% of customers who follow particular brands on social media are more loyal to those brands. Different posts that you make on a social media platform are an opportunity to convert your customers. Benefits of using social media for business are empowering as social media helps you have a following on social media and let you have better connection with new customers, old customers and recent customers.
• By engaging with customers on social media, you influence them to be more loyal towards your brand. As per a report of Forbes, 70+% of consumers who receive quick responses on social media say they will recommend that brand to other people too, which increases your fan base.
• Every blog post, status update, image, comment or video, or comment you share on your social media page create a chance for someone to react that ultimately increases your site visits. Social media is considered as the best medium to generate conversation, increase customer engagement, and positive interactions that can ensure conversions.
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  3) Increase in Conversion Rates

  • Social media marketing lets brands be more humanized by interacting with audiences through social channels, which influence prospects convert and be loyal customers. Benefits of social media marketing result in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways as social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate compared to outbound marketing.
  • Social media followers tend to have more trust in your brand, which influences them visit your site to enjoy your products and services. For example, if your target audiences are students, you can offer some social media benefits for students in your social updates that will attract and influence them to use your products or services.
  • Having a strong social media marketing strategy will help you generate result-oriented conversation about your brand, related products, and services. Once you start interacting with your audience and make them feel that they are an important part of your business, you can expect conversion from your social media marketing strategy.
  • Human interaction plays an important role in developing an emotional connection with prospects. This plays a significant role in establishing a productive relationship with prospects. Benefits of social media in business include some of the most lucrative opportunities to establish human interaction with the prospects that can increase conversion rates.
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  • 4) Identification of Target Audience, Geotargeting, Advanced Targeting & Result Tracking

    • Social Media Marketing benefits aid marketers identify who their target audiences are, as social media is so data-rich, you can easily use data analytics tools to analyze your competitors, understand preferences of your consumers, and target different segments and find your target audience in the most competent and conversion oriented fashion.
    • Benefits of social media in business also include Geotargeting, in which marketers target people who are within a certain mile radius of their business location. Social media is amongst the very few advertising mediums that can pinpoint people within a 10-mile radius of your exact business location that aid businesses attract more walk in customers and drive more purchases.
    • Advanced targeting is another powerful benefit of social media marketing. This helps you target different people with different approaches. This will help you target individuals who follow certain brands On Twitter, while on LinkedIn; you can target people who work in particular kinds of industries. You can even target individuals who search for different keywords with promoted pins on Pinterest.
    • One of the prime benefits of Social Media Marketing is its tracking feature. This is how social media marketing benefits businesses track convertible customers and ensure better conversions. Result tracking feature of social media helps marketer measure sales, email subscriptions, website traffic, and effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns.

    • 5) Cost-Effective & Better Customer Satisfaction

      • One of the most notable benefits of Social media marketing is its cost-effective nature. It is possibly the most cost-efficient part of any internet marketing strategy. Signing up and creating a social profile on different social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. is free, and even if you go for paid promotions on them, they are also relatively affordable than other marketing tactics.
      • Social Media Marketing is very good in ensuring higher ROI for internet marketers, and it is amongst the very few marketing techniques that not only retains customers but also retains budget and business expenses. To your advantages, it is quite result-oriented in ensuring customer satisfaction.
      • With paid advertising on social media, you should start small and then as you start reaping expected benefits, you can fine tune your strategy and increase your budget. Having adept professionals to interact with customers on social media also helps you understand your customer in better fashion and ensure better customer satisfaction.
      • By acknowledging your customers, and letting them get personalized messages whenever they make a comment on your social pages, you can ensure better customer experiences that ultimately translates into customer satisfaction. Customer interactions on social pages are opportunities to highlight your compassion for your consumers that enhance customer satisfactions.