Before we dive into this topic, you should know the meaning of social media.
So what is social media? It is a computer-based technology made up of virtual networks where we share info, ideas, thoughts, news, and communication.
We have different social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, Tik Tok, Twitter, Snapchat, etc., where you’ll find more than half of the world’s population. Such presence of masses on social network sites makes new media a powerful marketing tool.
From one corner of the world to another, you can communicate with anyone at any time within seconds and market your firm’s products and services globally efficiently.
So, we can say that social media marketing is a powerful marketing tool in which we use various social media apps, including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Linked In, Instagram, and others. Ian Somerhalder was on point when he states that “Social media is changing the world, and we’re all here witnessing it.”
Through social media marketing, you can build brand awareness, improve brand identity, increase your site traffic, and boost your overall sales.
Additionally, the internet provides statistics about their customer and their products’ usage to the firms, unlike printing marketing tools in which you have to wait for days and months to get the statistics.
Like every field and profession has jargons, SMM also has these terms, which are defined as follows:
Content –
Content is simply a text, an image, or a video. Each social media platform has a different need for content. For example, if you are using Pinterest, it is better to use an image; if you use a video, you can use YouTube, TikTok, or any other app. However, Facebook is the king when it comes to social media marketing.
Context –
Media context has a significant impact on the customers. For example, a joke or a quote has a significant influence on the reader.
Hashtags –
Hashtags is a metadata tag that helps the users to find more about the topic. Consequently, people can quickly identify and share the content. It is used on almost all social media platforms. For example, on Twitter, you can see hashtags that show the trending topics.
Shares –
Sharing your content in the media will give you bread. Of course, liking, commenting and other engagements are important, but sharing your content is the bonus.
How Social Media Marketing Works?
Here, you do not need to print anything. All you need is a laptop, tablet, computer, or mobile to design your marketing plan and strategy. You can use apps like adobe creative cloud, Canva, Sketch, etc., to create eye-catching and innovative designs.
According to Buffer, there are five pillars of digital media marketing:
Strategy –
The first thing that you do before uploading anything on social media is planning a strategy.
You should know the real goal behind your marketing. For example, some firms use marketing for brand awareness, while other users create more sales.
After you know your goal, you need to select social platforms to upload the content like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Linked In, etc. You should choose those applications that are used more by your targeted audience. This way, your products will reach the customers immediately.
Next, you should know the content you are sharing, whether it is a blog or image, or a video, and also the content you are sharing is informative or entertaining.
Planning and Publishing –
Now you know what your content will look like, it is time to work for your blog, image, or video. Done with planning and designing content? Great! Now it is time to publish.
You’ll publish your content on your website and social media apps that your targeted audience uses.
The content that you are going to publish should be unique, attractive, and clear of plagiarism. Furthermore, the planning of the content should be done ahead of time.
Listening and Engagement –
Once you’ve published your content on social media, people will share, like, and will comment on your posts or message you.
Responding to your customers’ comments and messages will make your customer pleased by answering their questions or thanking or complimenting them.
When you engage with the customers, this makes a customer happy and helps create credibility.
Analytics –
It gives you data about the post you’ve uploaded on different social media platforms. It tells you people’s engagement on your post, shows how many people liked it or shared it with others, and gives info on how many people used your hashtags. Analytics also helps determine the increment or decrease of the customer engagement of last month to the current month.
Advertising –
In social media marketing, there is a branch called social media advertising. In this, you can advertise your ads on social networks, and you can choose whom to display your ads.
Nowadays, you’ve seen lots of advertisements between the video and also on Facebook. These are social media advertising campaigns, which help the firm advertise to a large mass audience.
