Social media marketing is a versatile tool that can benefit businesses of all sizes. According to research, people spend two and a half hours on social media per day on average. Social media power users can spend half of their waking time sharing content and interacting with their followers and friends.
Multimillion dollar brands have been launched on platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. All of them use similar strategies that help them build trust, increase conversions and revenue, and keep their customers raving about their products and services.
Getting Started With SMM
Social media marketing is the art of brand building using social media. SMM experts promote products and services using various platforms and tools to find new audiences, expand user bases and gather data to launch ad campaigns and improve offers.
Content is at the heart of social media marketing. Platforms allow different forms of content to be posted and shared. They include short texts, longreads, pictures, GIFs, videos, carousels and reels. A well-crafted piece of content gets promoted by social media algorithms, becoming viral.
Two Forms of Content
- Organic content is published for free for the brand’s audience to share and interact with. It’s often used to improve brand awareness and warm up cold leads.
- Paid content can reach a much wider audience. The brand also has more control over who sees a paid promo and how many times it is shown. Almost any piece of content can be amplified using paid methods as long as it conforms to the platform’s ToS.
IMPORTANT:
A successful SMM strategy employs a mix of organic and paid content. Creating such a strategy requires thorough planning, constant testing, and studying your audience. It can be further optimized to reduce your spending or increase conversions.
Reasons To Use Social Media Marketing
On average, 9 out of 10 marketing managers use at least a few social media marketing tools. Social media marketing is one of the most affordable and cost-effective ways of promoting your business.
1. Building Trust and Brand Awareness
Cyber-crime is on the rise. Potential customers avoid buying even from legitimate e-stores due to risks of their sensitive data being stolen or manipulated. New online businesses often find it hard to convince buyers to make a purchase.
Social media is one of the most useful tools to alleviate the fears of your potential customers. An active, organic social media presence can convince most visitors that your online business is legitimate and safe.
- To increase trust, make sure that all your branding and design elements are consistent across multiple platforms.
- Your business pages and messenger accounts should provide a secure link to your main E-commerce site.
- Leave replies to comments and answer questions.
- Use your profile to share reviews, videos and other content generated by users of your products.
- Keep the same tone of voice on social media and your business website.
IMPORTANT:
Cross-linking content from your website to social media and having a website widget that shows recent posts or user comments is a great way to build trust.
2. Increase Customer Satisfaction Through Better Service
You can respond publicly to comments and user posts or privately through direct messaging. Make sure that your brand personality and voice stay consistent in your communication. Use a check-list to address most common concerns and questions. As a general rule, you should answer at least within an hour after your profile gets mentioned by a user.
Using chat-bots with machine learning and A.I. can help you automate 80% of user queries.
3. Transforming Communities Using Brand Values
Buyers increasingly want to be represented by your brand. If your brand values represent a certain group of people, build a community devoted to their interests, concerns and personal stories. Sharing stories about using your products and the benefits they bring to people reinforces identity loyalty.
Successful brands like Nike or Starbucks have large loyal audiences that serve as brand ambassadors to their friends and family members.
IMPORTANT:
Your brand community should remain a safe space for its participants. Focus on real people and their experiences and let them tell their stories as freely as possible.
4. Keeping Up With the Trends
Understanding the trends, fads and viral challenges your audience engages in is a sure-fire way to make your content go viral. Monitoring popular topics and hashtags can give you insight into what’s hot right now. New memes appear and fade into oblivion fast, make sure that you stay timely and relevant.
5. Using the Power of Social Shopping
According to experts, 7 out of 10 buyers browse through a brand’s social media before making a purchase. In-app stores, widgets, shoppable images and other E-commerce tools can be integrated with social media platforms to increase conversions and revenue.
Press Release Distributed by The Express Wire
To view the original version on The Express Wire visit 5 Ways Brands Can Benefit From Social Media Marketing
