What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)? Everything You Need to Know
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is one of the efficient strategies of digital marketing that is used to engage with audience in order to promote brand, increase sales, drive web traffic etc. on social networking sites.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing (a form of digital marketing), is the utilization of social media networks to interact with customers to advertise products or services. It consists of creating high engaging and creative content to attract and retain customers. It is used to increase brand awareness, sales, web traffic, etc. People all over the world use social media which is the ultimate opportunity in marketing for businesses to grow their business online.
In 2024, Across 5.04 billion people around the world use social media. The most popular social media networks worldwide are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. which makes social media marketing an accommodating solution for companies to achieve their business and marketing goals.
Social media marketing has the potential to boost the presence of small businesses on search engine result pages (SERPs). The Majority of customers search for products and services on the internet before purchasing. High visibility on search engines helps businesses to build trust among customers.
Advantages of Social Media Marketing –
There are various advantages of social media that make it one of the most effective digital tactics of digital marketing for promoting your business online. Here, we have created some of the significant advantages of social media marketing –
1. Increases Brand Awareness –Due to the popularity and worldwide usage of social media, it allows businesses to promote their brand across audiences and increase brand awareness.
By creating high engagement content and impressive visuals on social media networks concerning your brand and products, you can engage audiences. By interacting with targeted audiences and making them aware of your products, you can build trust with them that will turn them into buyers.
Posting valuable content on social media makes your business noticeable and assist you in connecting and communicating with your target audiences.
2. Interacting Audience – Social media allows companies to interact with their target audience using various social media networks such as Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. You can share interactive content with your audience and understand their point of view on your company’s deals, sales, and updates. Companies can engage with their audience using various practices, such as hearing customer’s feedback, being responsive, collaborating with brands and running campaigns.
Social media gives businesses a chance to grow and engage with their followers in such a way that will perceive them that their company gives first priority to their customers. This will help companies build trust of their target audiences.
3. Drives Web traffic – By posting high quality and relevant content on social media accounts and providing a link to the post, you can engage the audience. With this approach, you can direct your audience which will encourage them to visit your website at least once, driving website traffic.
Companies can provide their site’s link in the bio section of social media sites that will encourage readers to visit your website. Organizing campaigns and creative content on social media will inspire your potential audience to turn into your regular visitor, increasing your web traffic and search engine ranking.
4. Targeting advertising – It is used to analyze customer’s data including demographic information, behavior, traits, etc. Companies want to display customized ads to their target audience, which can be achieved through social media advertising. Social media advertising is a powerful way for businesses to run personalized ad campaign based on customer preferences, interests, needs and more. You can use social media advertising to promote your website or blog to the category of people who you believe are interested in your content.
5. Inexpensive Advertising – The Majority of small businesses or startups prefer to invest in marketing techniques that are free or low-cost because of their low budget. Companies need to focus on the marketing methods that can provide them better results on their investments. Social media marketing is one of the inexpensive means of advertising, used by most marketers to reach their target audience. It includes channels that are free or inexpensive and even small businesses can use it to promote their brand online.
5 Best Social Media Platforms for Marketing
1. Facebook –
Facebook is not just a popular social media network; it is also an excellent means of marketing a brand. Companies of all sizes and industries use Facebook to market their products or services. As it is the most commonly used social platform, you can directly interact with your audience. You can use it to increase brand awareness, drive web traffic, increase sales, generate leads, etc. You can also use it for effective advertising – displaying customized and targeted ads.
2. Instagram –
There are many businesses on Instagram that share images and videos of their products or services with audiences. You can create highly impressive visuals to sell your products or services to attract potential customers and connect with them to discuss the latest deals. Instagram provides lots of features including reels, shopping, stories, live streams, built-in insights, etc., that help businesses to get new customers.
3. YouTube –
YouTube is a digital video sharing network and ranked as the second largest search engine in the world. It is an efficient tool of social media that can help businesses to get new customers by uploading significant video content. You can share demonstrations of your products or explain your services through videos on YouTube and respond the queries of your audience.
4. Twitter –
X (formerly known as Twitter), a free social media site, where users can publish short posts (known as Tweets) in the form of text, images, links, etc. Businesses can use Twitter to share information and communicate with their audience in no time. By using trending topics of Twitter in posts, businesses can increase their presence and grab the attention of new customers. You can use popular hashtags in your tweets that will help your content to show in search results.
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms with the objective of building businesses network. It is the best choice for B2B marketers to generate leads. Businesses can use it to reach their potential clients. You can use it to list jobs, connect with employees, expand your network, build credibility, etc.