Successful Social Media Marketing

So you’re not quite sure what Social Media Marketing (SMM) is. Well, simply put, it’s the use of social media platforms to connect with your target audience with a view to achieving the following:

• Building Brand Awareness
  
• Improving Customer Engagement
• Increasing Website Traffic
• Increasing Sales

There’s a saying that goes something like this, “People buy people before they buy products or services”. This is exactly what SMM helps you to achieve.

Social Media Marketing provides a platform for you to create a relationship with your target audience that goes beyond the sale itself. SMM creates a connection between your audience and your brand that builds credibility, loyalty and a delighted customer base eager and willing to refer you to others.

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Successful Social Media Marketing

Its natural to ask the question, how exactly will social media marketing help achieve these goals? Well, successful Social Media Marketing revolves around four (4) main activities. They are:

Publishing relevant and engaging content on targeted social media platforms - this builds Brand Awareness. Your Brand will become increasingly relevant to your target audience by posting content on a regular basis that provides specific solutions to the questions they are asking

Building a Community of Advocates - This will be achieved by interacting with your target audience and followers consistently and meaningfully

Gone are the days when companies relied primarily on “word of mouth” to share positive feedback

SMM provides your loyal customers with a platform to share positive reviews to literally hundreds of thousands of persons in real time

Engaging in social media advertising - this activity widens your reach and allows you to drill down as narrow as you like on your ideal target audience profile

Many of the social media platforms allows you to advertise directly to specific demographics based on their likes and preferences. So if you want to advertise to females over 35, single parents, working as teachers and like vanilla ice cream, believe me you can do that!

Analyzing the results of your engagement - we've all learned that plans should be "Specific and Measurable" and our SMM is no different. At the end of set timelines it's important to review what's been done and critically assess the results against the set targets. In this way you can tweak the marketing strategy as or if necessary and then move forward.

Its crucial to remember that Social Media Marketing is focused on maintaining social engagement with your target audience and providing workable solutions to their needs. Its about building a social connection. Sales will follow but remember, the social media engagement DOES NOT focus on the sale.

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Do You Understand Now Why Social Media Marketing Is Important?!

If you’re still on the fence let’s take a deeper dive into the importance of Social Media Marketing in today’s Online World. Here are a few fun facts:

• It was estimated that there would be 3.78 billion social media users in 2021

• Facebook is the most widely used social media platform with 2.32 billion active users monthly

• A report by Statista.com showed that 81% of internet users between the ages of 18-24 were influenced by social media when shopping or making purchases.

• In that same report Statista noted the most influential Social Media Platforms for persons between the ages of 18 - 34 were Instagram, Facebook and Pintrest (listed here in no particular order).

• The average person spends 2.5 hours every day on social networks

• 54% of persons browsing social networks use social media to research products

• 91% of all social media users access these social networks via their cell phones

• Most people eat at least 2 meals whilst browsing social media

Social Media has become an integral part of every day social interaction. Social Media has impacted almost every aspect of life - the way we live, work, play and do business.

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Building your Social Media Marketing Strategy

In today's world, any business development strategy would be considered incomplete if it didn't contain a Social Media Marketing component.

SMM has become an inseparable part of the way businesses are managed and operated in this fast paced online world that we live in.

Here's some key points to consider when developing a winning Social Media Marketing Strategy for your business:

1. Develop a Content Strategy
2. Set Clear Goals
   
3. Research your Target Audience and your Competition
4. Decide which SM Platform will work best for you
5. Create engaging Content and Schedule regular Posting
6. Choose Content for Advertising and Channels to be used
7. Analyze all results achieved

Your Content Strategy is key to developing an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy as it sets out the blueprint for a solid foundation.

Welcome to the world of Social Media Marketing. Its where you need to be if you want your business to grow and thrive.

PLEASE GIVE ME A LIKE IF YOU FOUND THIS INFORMATION USEFUL AND FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TOPIC.

Roberta