Why Social Media Marketing Is ESSENTIAL (And Which Platform Is Ideal For Your Brand)
Did you know that over 93 percent of marketers use social media for business?
This, in itself, is a big tell-tale that social media platforms have long foregone their incepting days, becoming even a bigger asset for the business owners than web-toyers.
Not just a supporting role, in fact, social media marketing has become the biggest backbone of countless companies— engaging prospects, building brands and driving direct sales.
If you’re looking to get more traffic to your website and connect with the target audience better, it is nothing but imperative to have a decent presence on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Do you want to grow and sustain your business?
There are over 2.3 billion active social media users; 1 million new active mobile social users are joining the scene every day. Meaning, there’s an unending pool of prospective customers out there for you, waiting to be capitalized on. How are you connecting with them? Are you even doing that?
Social media marketing is your go-to avenue to attract more eyes to your brand. It doesn’t matter whether yours is a content-centric business or if you have limited budget or if you offer product/service just for the local consumers— there’s something for everyone on social platforms to grow and sustain by following the right strategies.
Those Who Have Aced Social Media Marketing
There are few brands, businesses and individuals who have mastered social media marketing with fine accuracy. Buzzfeed is one of the foremost inductees in this esteemed group.
A globally recognized Media company, on average, Buzzfeed enjoys 7+ billion content views every month. And 75% of its traffic comes from social media platforms, which is manifold of its search traffic. It consistently produces compelling contents that are high-sharable and often trends across social platforms.
The otherwise traditional companies like Coca-Cola and Levi’s too have mastered social media marketing with unique and highly engaging campaigns that strategically communicate, empathize and convert the audience.
When it comes to individuals, names like Neil Patel, Jason Falls, Brian Clark and Jeff Bullas are considered the best social media marketers who have successfully started, fostered and sustained their multiple businesses leveraging social platforms.
Celebrities, too, have built their credible personal brand following the same path; Dwayne Johnson and Kardashian sisters being the most notable.
Should Businesses Be On Every Social Media Platform?
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try and target everyone, everywhere. That is not only quite difficult but also requires lots of efforts and resources, which is not always worth it.
So to put it in simple words, when crafting your social media marketing strategy, few selected platforms should have most of your attention over others. And, aside from their popularity, this handful of platforms is usually those that are more suited to your individual business, its needs and goals.
Here’s a breakdown of 9 popular social media platforms and what kind of businesses and target audience are they more relevant for:
1. Facebook
Monthly Users: 2 Billion
Facebook is the largest social media platform that recently crossed the mammoth 2 billion mark. Regardless the business type and audience base, being on this platform is a must.
Who Should Use it- Everyone to share all kind of contents.
2. Twitter
Monthly Users: 328 Million
While Twitter is much behind Facebook – and its other competitors – it is proudly in the big league. The platform is quite open, encouraging crisp and direct communication with the prospects.
Who Should Use it: All those who want to engage audience and grow business.
3. Instagram
Monthly Users: 700 Million
Instagram is the largest photo- sharing platform, mostly appealing to a young audience. Under the wings of Facebook, it is fast-growing by every passing day.
Who Should Use it: Businesses in fashion, lifestyle, food, and other luxury brands to share interesting visuals.
4. Snapchat
Monthly Users: 255 Million
Snapchat is a new-age social media app, very popular among teenagers and those in their 20s. While started as a photo-centric platform, today it boasts large video contents.
Who Should Use it: Non-necessity brands targeting young audience segment with unique campaigns.
5. LinkedIn
User Base: 500 Million
LinkedIn now touts half-a-billion user base. A home to largest number of professionals, the platform is ideal for networking with others in the industries.
Who Should Use it: B2B providers to network with others, employee research and recruitments.
6. YouTube
Monthly Users: 1.5 Billion
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. About 400 hours of videos are uploaded on this platform every minute.
Who Should Use it: Businesses with video contents (ideas) to deliver visually-rich, interesting and promotional contents.
7. WeChat
Monthly Users: 889 Million
Not Facebook, WeChat is the largest social media network in China. It highlights a very wide range of features that foster interesting and relevant communication.
Who Should Use it: Every business targeting audience in China.
8. Pinterest
Monthly Users: 175 Million
An emerging photo-centric platform, Pinterest is away from the algo-juggernauts, highly favoring fresh or recent contents.
Who Should Use it: Businesses in travel, design, fashion, food, and everything DIY to share creative visual contents.
9. Reddit
Monthly Users: 250 Million
Reddit is a community-based platform with a vast user-generated content. With a young audience in 18-29 years of age who are tech-savvy, it is fast-emerging to be go-to for countless brands.
Who Should Use it: Micro-niche businesses that have specific audience community to share personalized messages.
Social Media Software To Aid Your Marketing Efforts
Handling multiple platforms together is not only time-consuming but equally hectic, which subsequently transcends into inefficient and poor-converting social campaigns. Problems double if you’re limited in manpower. This is where social media software comes to play messiah with their rich features.
There exist a range of such solutions in the market. A handful of them is quite popular and freemium that one, even when limited in their budget, can go with to give their social media marketing strategy the wings to fly high.
Here are 5 Social Media optimization and management software that you can go with:
· Hootsuite
· Buffer
· Wildfire
· PageLever
· Sprout Social
Conclusion
So if your business/brand isn’t already on social media platforms, you’re leaving a great deal of revenue on the table. Whatever niche you’re in, you have thousands and millions of target audience lurking the corridors of social media. It’s your task to attract, engage, and convert them.
It’s simple, not easy. But on the course, you have countless resources, experts and software to help you reach your goals, quickly and easily.
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