Social media usage has embedded in our daily lives so much, marketers cannot simply stay away from it.
What is SMM is not the question to ask any more. It is more about how to best utilise social media to reach out to the audience and using what channels will the reach to audience increase most.
As per a 2019 study by Brandwatch – total worldwide population is 7.8 billion and there are around 3.7 billion active social media users.
Social media presence all over the globe has grown even faster than the internet itself and so have the opportunities that comes along with it.
Today literally everyone is on social media be it any platform, people have grown a tendency to make sure that they are out there sharing their own thing with the world.
And all this makes one wonder the vast possibilities of social media as a marketing platform and a more effective way of reaching out – more than television, more than print, more than any other form of marketing channel; because that is where all your customers are.
So what is Social Media Marketing or in short SMM?
It is the usage of social media platform to reach out to wider audience to promote your product, tell a story, build your brand or to simply sell a product. Simply put, there is this huge audience out there using channels like Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. and using these platforms reaching out to the prospective consumers to market your brand. SMM is the easiest and fastest way to identify the right segment of audience and strategically targeting them to drive them towards your goals.
Benefits of SMM
- More Inbound traffic – Social Media is a huge asset when it comes to inbound traffic. Without it you are just reaching out to same old usual customers and your website ranks only on basis of keyword search. There is whole other segment of customers out there active on social media which has affinities exactly matching or like your offerings. Missing out on this audience is missing out on a bigger chunck of market.
- Connect – Social media is a great way to build connect with people. The 2013 Superbowl and Oreo story is a great example of this. After the blackout during the Superbowl tournament in the entire city, Oreo launched an amazing campaign on twitter and gained headlines.
- Findability and relevance – If you think of a brand which has leveraged SMM to its advantage it is Zomato. The way the brand posts humorous tweets on Twitter or marketing campaigns via Instagram to garner followers is simply amazing! Zomato uses relevant memes and trends amongst it target audience and has garnered loads of customers using this social media marketing strategy.
- Brand Loyalty – Another benefit of SMM is once you develop a base on social media and consumers get hooked to your brand or follow on social media they’ll always be updated on the latest developments with your brand or product and never miss out on new launches. This in turn builds loyal consumer and goes a long way to develop brand resonance in their minds.
- Full usage of audience generated content – Netflix India is an example which channelizes viewers feedback and involvement on social media in a creative way. It regularly keeps an eye on what people are talking about on different social platforms and uses it to create content which relates to its users. It’s Instagram presence during release of Sacred Games season 2 created a lot of chatter especially via photos and memes and generated much of viewership during its launch.
Types of Social Media Marketing
- Reviews – sites like TripAdvisor, Airbnb, MakeMyTrip keep their consumers engaged via taking their reviews and rank brands accordingly. Reviewing has increasingly become an effective mode of building credibility for brands and increase ranking compared to competitors. They are not exactly social media platform but increasingly becoming active hotspots to share customer reviews and experiences.
- Content Creation and Marketing – Content marketing is another form of social media marketing and the most effective way to generate huge leads. Medium is one such platform which generates readers loyalty via posting blogs ranging from beauty to technology covering anything and everything. YouTube is another platform for influencer marketing and many famous youtubers generate subscribers leveraging their content marketing skills to promote their brands.
- Geolocation meetups – Meetups via social sites are another effective way to generate leads. Every year TCS organizes walkathon to drive awareness for social causes. They utilize media platform like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube to promote it extensively and people participate in great numbers. It is a perfect example of generating content via organizing local meetups.
TCS SMM strategy is to promote its walkathon by sharing user experiences on Facebook and other media platforms (*source – Facebook)
- Community buildup – Slack is a professional networking site and an excellent platform for community buildup. You can be a part of different groups and follow news and trends and check what people are taking about. Udemy uses slack effectively to engage with users who undergo their courses and further connect with them via slack.
What is SMM and how can we do that?
After reading above you might a got a good understanding about SMM. The format and channel would depend on what your goals are. There are various channels that namely –
- Youtube
- Medium
- Snapchat
- Reels etc. to name a few..
Your SMM strategy would depend on your budget, target audience, content you want to share and various other metrics. For knowing more about it read our blog – ()
Conclusion
Social media is an effective way to know your audience personally and in real time. Brands all over the world use these platforms to connect with audience and reach out greater untapped marketing. If you want to understand how to do it and learn how social media can help your brand get in touch with us at – Rendrr
