Why You Need Social Media in Your Marketing Strategy
Social media plays an important role in modern marketing, with more than three billion people using social media every month, according to Marketing Insider Group. The popularity of social media platforms is an opportunity for you to connect with your audience in a way that is quicker and more personalised than ever before. By fully embracing social media in your marketing strategy, you can stay on top of trends, receive quick and informative feedback from your profiles, and create a sense of trust and authenticity in your business through a robust online presence.
Direct Communication With Both Current and Potential Customers
Social media is an opportunity for you to grow your business to a new audience, while keeping your existing audience interested in your brand. People need to know who you are and what you do before they can become customers, so creating engaging content that grabs their attention is a key part in growing through social media.
Some of the best performing content on social media is written articles or blogs, videos, and images. These types of posts have the highest chance of grabbing people’s attention, but you aren’t going to be the only ones posting this content. You have to make sure that the quality of these posts is high so that people are engaged, and want to click on them.
Stay on Top of Trends
Trends come and go in every aspect of life, and social media is no exception. With new platforms, ideas, styles and jokes going in and out of fashion daily it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-changing social media crazes. Effective use of social media in your marketing strategy will allow you to strike while the iron is hot and make the most of whatever is currently popular.
Some trends may only last a few days, while others may develop into long term trends or permanent transformations in the market. By investing in your social media presence, you will be able to get in on the ground floor with these trends and gain the advantage of being a first mover.
For example, if the trend only lasts a few days and you see it and are ready to react to it on day one, then you will be able to exploit it for longer than your competitors. If the trend lasts longer, for example a few years or it becomes a permanent factor in the market, then you will be more experienced and have a better understanding of how to best utilize it to your advantage and get a leg up on your competitors through knowledge and expertise.
Discover more about the marketing trends to watch out for in 2022 here.
Quick and Informative Feedback
Social media platforms can provide some of the most immediate feedback of any segment of marketing, and this information can be processed and put into action quickly and easily. Social media can track metrics such as engagement, awareness, return on investment or conversion, and customer metrics. Many social media platforms have tools and features that allow you to track these metrics and see your follower’s demographics, when your followers are online, what kind of content they engage with, and many other useful pieces of information.
Engagement metrics are the simplest to understand. They are the statistics related to people interacting with your posts. These often come in the form of likes and favorites. A follower engaging with your content shows that it has value to them, and this should be used to inform future posts and content.
Awareness metrics are indicators of your current and potential audience. It can be tracked through statistics such as impressions, mentions, and links. Awareness can also be measured through reach, growth rate and share of voice.
Conversion metrics show the number of people that take action after engaging with a post. Conversion metrics include conversion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), and conversation rate. These metrics measure the effectiveness of your message and the rate at which customers not only engage with the content but also take the desired action in relation to the message.
Customer metrics measure the opinion of your brand amongst your active customers. They are measured by customer testimonials, customer care rate and times, and net promoter score or similar surveys.
Authenticity and Trust
People are increasingly growing tired of the corporate style of social media posts. By creating a persona that reflects your brand’s personality so that people can connect with you on a more personal level, rather than seeing you as just another business.
Trust is another key aspect of social media marketing. By having a presence outside of your own website customers will be more inclined to feel that they can trust you. Many customers have seen or been caught out by scams before and will often use a Google search to find information on a company before choosing one to use as the solution for their problem. Your social media platforms will act as a backlog of information and proof that you can be trusted to deliver a product when the customer chooses you.
Social media marketing is a large and growing portion of the marketing world. By implementing social media into your marketing strategy, you can make sure that you have the best chance of staying ahead of the competition by having direct communication with your current and potential customers. You will also be able to stay up to date on popular trends, enabling you to exploit them more effectively than your competition.
Fast and helpful feedback will enable you to gauge customer response and adapt to best grab your customers attention. Developing a brand personality and creating posts to reflect a more authentic online presence will allow you to engage with customers in a more personal context and help you stand out from the crowd of corporate accounts
Image Source: Shutterstock (1380687470)
