Information technology is constantly evolving and social media platforms, being an essential part of it, are also following through. Social Media platforms have been extremely advantageous in multiple aspects, especially for businesses and brands. Social media platforms have provided techniques and technology to businesses to be able to sell their products and services more effectively. This guide will explore how the benefits of social media marketing have allowed it to grow over time.
Types of Social Media Marketing
there are many different forms of social media marketing you will see all over the social media platforms;
- Content marketing; businesses and brands use this tool to educate and inform customers about their products and services, by creating content to engage with them
- Influencer marketing; businesses use social media influencers to endorse their products and services and get their mentions to spread information about their services to the influencer’s dedicated following.
- Social Media management; as the name suggests, this process requires analyzing social media audiences and developing strategies that are targeted to attract them towards the businesses’ products and services
- Paid media/Advertising; creating sponsored and paid marketing to target their specific audiences
These are just a few of the types of social media marketing adopted by brands that want to reach out to their target customer through social media platforms.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Businesses and brands know that to use social media platforms to market their products and services, they need to adopt strategy and creativity. Because if you look through the results presented by Statista, you’ll find that around 92% of the marketers have been successfully using social media platforms as a part of their marketing tactic. But there are some businesses that do not use social media platforms (40% of them), and that is extremely concerning considering how advantageous social media marketing is for building their businesses.
Clearly, they need to learn how to introduce their business to the ever-evolving social media platform to make use of the benefits, some of which will be explored below;
- Brand Recognition. As soon as businesses and brands join the social media platforms, they are literally putting themselves on the map. Social media has leverage over traditional media because it helps brands reach out to their target customers much quicker and easier.
- Generate Conversation. Businesses can also use social media marketing to generate conversations about their brands’ products and services. A simple hashtag trend or a post about the services can announce the availability of brands’ products and generate feedback as well. Businesses can use social media platforms to engage with their customers.
- Target Customers’ Interests. If a brand wants to reach out to their target customers, they need to do so effectively. Customers’ social media interactions about the brands can be monitored, which is called social listening, where brands can learn to understand what is important to their audience; what about their services keep them interested, and what they are struggling with.
- Customer Service. Another advantage that social media marketing has over traditional marketing is that it can build a meaningful relationship between a customer and brand in a convenient way. 71% of the customers have stated that they have had a positive experience with customer services on social media platforms.
- Potential Collaborators. Social Media platforms like LinkedIn can help brands reach out to potential business partners or collaborators. They can also find the same opportunities in other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Reaching out to potential partners or collaboration allows for an increase in customer base and generating revenue.
- Cost-Effective. Social media marketing is mostly free, as compared to traditional marketing. Businesses only need to create a social media profile and create relevant content to target audiences. However, if a business wants to go the extra mile, they can always go for a paid promotion that will help in increased exposure.
Keeping all these in mind, social media marketing has come so far from the traditional form of media and helping brands expand their businesses. It is also giving a chance to everyone to try their hands at running their own start-ups.
Though the one other thing that makes social media marketing stand out from traditional marketing is that brands need an internet connection to manage their presence on social media platforms. Our recommendation is Xfinity Internet, which also recognizes the need for internet plans among its customers, which is why Xfinity has designed multiple levels of internet plans for brands to choose from according to their financial and other requirements. This will even help the ones who are just starting now.
Summing Up
The benefits of Social Media marketing alone point towards how more and more businesses need to use or are using information technology to attract customers towards their products and services.