What it is, how it works, pros and cons

What is social media marketing (SMM)?

Social media marketing (also known as digital marketing or e-marketing) is the use of social media (platforms where users build social networks and share information) to build a company's brand, increase sales, and improve website content. It's about driving traffic. SMM not only gives companies a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, but also allows marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify ways to engage with more customers. It has dedicated data analysis.

In the 18 years from 2004 (when MySpace became the first social media site to reach 1 million users) to 2022, the dramatic growth of interactive digital channels has seen social media surpass the reach of television and radio. It has reached a level that even challenges people. As of the beginning of 2023, there were 4.76 billion social media users worldwide, representing more than 59% of the world's population.

Why is social media marketing (SMM) so powerful?

The power of SMM is driven by social media's unparalleled capabilities in three key marketing areas: connections, interactions, and customer data.

connection

Social media not only allows businesses to connect with customers in ways never before possible, but also from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like Facebook) to microblogging services.

Alternating current

The dynamic nature of social media interactions, whether it's direct communication or passive favors, means companies can benefit from eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) recommendations between existing and potential customers. You can take advantage of advertising opportunities. Not only is the positive contagion effect of eWOM a valuable driver of consumer decision-making, but the fact that these interactions occur on social networks makes it measurable. For example, companies can measure social equity, a term that describes return on investment (ROI) from social media marketing campaigns.

customer data

A well-designed social media marketing plan provides another valuable resource for improving marketing results: customer data. Rather than being overwhelmed by the 3Vs (Volume, Variety, and Velocity) of big data, SMM tools should not only extract customer data, but also provide the ability to turn this gold into actionable market analysis and even transform that data into It has the ability to leverage new data through crowdsourcing. strategy.

How social media marketing (SMM) works

As platforms like Facebook, It has transformed the way consumers and businesses influence consumer behavior.

SMM action plan

The more targeted your SMM strategy is, the more effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management field, recommends the following plan of action to build his SMM campaign with an execution framework and performance metrics.

• Align SMM goals with clear business objectives
• Know your target customers (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
• Conduct a competitive analysis of your competitors (successes and failures)
• Audit the current SMM (success and failure)
• Create a calendar for SMM content distribution
• Create best-in-class content
• Track performance and adjust your SMM strategy as needed

Customer relationship management (CRM)

The fact that, compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing has two types of interactions in SMM that enable targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools: both customer-to-customer and business-to-customer. There are some clear advantages, such as: In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value primarily by capturing purchasing activity, SMM can track customer value directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product introductions).

Shareable content

Companies can also translate the enhanced interconnectivity of SMM into creating sticky content, a marketing term that refers to engaging content that attracts customers at first glance. This allows users to purchase products and share content. This type of viral advertising not only reaches an audience that would otherwise be inaccessible, but also conveys the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts, making the creation of shareable content an important part of growing social media marketing. is one of the most important ways to promote

earned media

SMM is also the most efficient way for companies to benefit from another type of earned media (a term used to describe brand exposure through methods other than paid advertising): customer-generated product reviews and recommendations.

viral marketing

Another SMM strategy that relies on audiences to generate messages is viral marketing, a sales technique that causes the rapid spread of product information through word of mouth. When a marketing message is shared with the public far beyond its original target audience, it is considered viral and is a very easy and cheap way to drive sales.

customer segmentation

SMM provides much more sophisticated customer segmentation than traditional marketing channels, allowing companies to ensure that their marketing resources are focused on their precise target audience.

tracking metrics

According to Sprout Social, the most important SMM metrics to track are customer-focused. Impressions (how many times a post is viewed); Reach/Virality (number of unique views on an SMM post); Share of Voice (how far a brand reaches in the online realm). Referrals (how a user comes to your site); Conversions (when a user makes a purchase on your site). However, another important metric focuses on business. It's response rate/time (how often and how quickly a business responds to customer messages).

When companies try to decide which metrics to track among the massive amount of data that social media generates, the rule is always to align each business objective with a related metric. If your business goal is to increase conversions from his SMM campaign by 15% within 3 months, use social media analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns on specific targets.

Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing (SMM)

advantage

The introduction of social media marketing has brought new benefits. Social media platforms provide powerful channels to reach and engage with large audiences, helping to increase brand awareness and awareness.

Engaging with customers through social media channels helps build stronger relationships and foster customer loyalty. It is often a cheaper option than traditional advertising methods, making it more attractive to small businesses and startups.

The nature of social media marketing also has many benefits. Sharing links to your website or blog on social media will increase traffic to your website and increase your chances of conversion. Additionally, social media provides a way to collect customer feedback in real time, allowing for instant interaction and simplified communication.

Social media marketing has the advantage of being both broad and targeted. Social media helps businesses reach a wider audience and increase engagement through shares, likes, comments, and other forms of interaction. This is especially true given that many customers forward content to friends and family who are not customers. Social media platforms, on the other hand, offer a wide range of targeting options, allowing businesses to pinpoint specific demographics, interests, and behaviors and deliver personalized content to those audiences.

Cons

While there are many benefits to social media marketing, there are also some drawbacks and complexities. Building a strong social media presence takes time and effort, and often requires business owners to consistently engage and create content.

Effective social media marketing requires a deep understanding of different platforms, the ability to create engaging content, analyze data, and make data-driven decisions. Each platform is often specialized and requires its own understanding. Additionally, social media platforms are constantly changing their algorithms and policies, which can make success difficult to predict and maintain.

While social media facilitates communication with customers, it also provides a platform for customers to air their complaints and grievances publicly. This can have the unintended consequence of opening a public forum, which can damage a company's reputation if not handled properly.

Finally, it may be difficult to clearly quantify the benefits of social media marketing. Measuring the effectiveness and ROI of social media marketing is difficult because it often involves tracking multiple metrics, analyzing complex data sets, and making assumptions about why consumers behaved in different ways. There may be cases.

conclusion

Social media marketing (SMM) uses social media platforms to interact with customers, build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. As the use of social media via both computers and mobile devices increases around the world, the ability to drive sales from specific user populations has become a business filled with competition for views and clicks.