Know All About Social Media Marketing!

Considering the average time people spend on social networks, it is the most effective way of getting the marketers’ messages across their target groups. The best part of Social Media Marketing is that the marketers do not have to worry about the traffic on the social sites. The massive traffic is already there on such sites; brands just have to present their messages in the most appealing manner to grab the eyeballs of their prospective customers.

• Rise of Social Media:-

In the past few years, social networking has become a rage amongst the people of different age groups. The people are spending noticeable part of their lives on the social networking sites such as, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr,Yammer, Quora, Reddit, MySpace, and several others. As per the report of the Pew Research Center (US), the social networking sites have experienced massive growth in the last decade. Their report clearly stated that in the year 2005 only 7% adults used to access social media sites in the US, but by the year 2015, these numbers have grown to 65%, which is nearly tenfold in just a decade. Now, globally 28% of the total online time-spent is done on social networking sites.

• Social Media: A Trend or Necessity :-

There was a time when social networking used to be a trend, now it has become the necessity. The Americans as an average spend 37 minutes of their lives every day on the social networking sites. And, this is not limited to the States; people from other parts of the world are doing more or less the same. That is the reason, one the biggest social networking site Facebook now has 1.2 billion active users globally; which is definitely an enormous achievement for a company started by a student for university-level networking. Now, the people of various age groups from almost every corner of the world share their photos, videos, their thoughts, ideas and feedbacks online with others via Facebook. And, this is only the case of one social networking site; there are other social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Intagram, Pinterest, etc. which are getting remarkable time-spent and traffic from all over the world.

As per the recent Pew Research study (mentioned above), approximately 72% of the overall Internet users are also the social network users. The huge traffic, high time-spent, deep interest of people in social media and its exponential growth is responsible for the birth of Social Media Marketing concept. In the present era, it is one of the most popular and preferable marketing platforms for the advertisers and marketers.

• Social Media Marketing (SMM):-

Taking advantage of the social media fever across the globe, companies have started investing aggressively in Social Media Marketing Campaigns. The social media sites on the other hand, keeping the demands in-mind has made exemplary changes in their features to meet the requirements of advertisers and help them achieve high ROI as well as measure the results appropriately and efficiently. The social media sites offer over-the-top business prospects to the companies. Social Media Marketing not only helps brands to maintain their loyal customers, but also to acquire new ones.

• Businesses and Social Media:-

Presently, the Social Media Marketing is the foundation of the entire marketing strategy for companies, be it a start-up, small-scale or a well-known brand. It has been observed by the researchers that 46% of users explore social media platforms before buying; 37% of Twitter users buy the products of the companies they follow on social networks. This has also been noticed that B-to-B marketers spend 80% in social media for brand exposure; 69% to increase their web traffic and 65% to gain market insights. The social media is also coming-up as a strong research medium for the companies as they take direct feedback from the customers to evaluate their services and products.

• ROI on SMM Campaigns:-

The SMM has become a powerful catalyst to drive the revenues for businesses. According to a recent study done by Forrester Research, Instagram is one of the most interactive platforms for brands to connect with their customers. The other effective platforms are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The companies like Nike, Apple, Starbucks, Ford, Walt Disney and many other popular brands exercise Social Media Marketing tricks to elevate their brand image, maintain customer loyalty and push sales. A few landmark campaigns in Social Media are as follows:

1-Air Asia’s, ‘Friendsy’ campaign on Facebook.

2- Taco Bell campaign on Twitter.

3- Cancer Research, ‘No Make-up Selfie’ campaign on Facebook.

4- Avaya’s, ‘Social Listening’ campaign on Twitter.

5- Emerson Salon’s Facebook Marketing campaign.

• Future Trend of Social Media Marketing:-

The usage of Social Media is becoming an obsession. But, nobody could guess in a past that Social Media will emerge as one of the strongest and most effective marketing platforms in future. By the year 2015, the social networks’ ad revenues have reached the whopping amount of $ 8.4 billion. And, with the improved conversation tracking and advanced targeting features of the various social media networks, this revenue is projected to cross the mark of $ 11 billion by the end of the year 2017.

So, if we consider the numbers, the Social Media Marketing has great potential and companies are very much willing to explore it. The Social Media Marketing certainly is considered as the next-big-thing in Digital or Online Marketing world.