Marketing is a way of communication between a business and potential customers for presentation and promoting values of a certain product or services. The main goal of marketing is to sell. Take advantage of Social media marketing is to enjoy the benefit of the social networks. It helps businesses realize some of the marketing goals such as promotion and establishing a relationship as well as trust with customers etc.
Social media marketing is used to present business through social media and use this as a way to communicate a message to potential customers. Social media refers to different websites that allow interaction among users and the exchange of information through a variety of channels. Content can come in the form of blog articles, presentation, videos, e-books, etc.
Below are some of the most important social media websites:
- Facebook- it is seen as the most popular social network and also a network with the largest amount of potential customers. Facebook pages are for celebrities, businesses and institutions. A page can have several administrators/managers. Facebook groups are for users who share the same interests. It is also for college students etc. it can be closed/open or secret.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is regarded as the largest business professional network. It allows sharing of posts and profiles.
- Twitter: short messages called tweets is form of microblogging. It uses hashtags.
- YouTube, Vimeo: these websites host video files. Videos can be promotional, instructional or you can start a video blog. You can promote a video by sharing the link on other social channels.
- Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr: these 3 websites are visual-content sharing platform. It allows images and short videos for online stores, decorators, clothes manufacturers etc.
- Foursquare, Yelp: Most times, tourists make use of these social networks for reviews on places visited.
Blogging is a form of social marketing which uses blogs to create and publish content while establishing a relationship with the readers. Blogging is an interactive form of publishing content on the web. The act dates back to 1990s till around 2000s. It comes from the word “weblog” and publishes content which is useful, practical and engaging.
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform. Others are Tumblr, Blogger. For a successful blogging activity, choose a suitable design, be consistent, interact with the readers and analyse your performance.
Tips for using social media for marketing
- Customization: you need a profile image, description of the business, cover image, business urls, and lastly your business location.
- Social Media Optimization: it entails that if a visitor inputs your business name on a search engine, it should be easy to find within seconds.
- Follow social media guidelines: adhere to the guidelines on texts, posts, and URLs in the cover photo to avoid limitations
- Evaluation: It requires monitoring and analysis to evaluate your performance and determine if results are satisfactory. Change the approach and methods if results are not up to the mark.
When you intend to use social media for promotion, there are 2 major divisions of promotion for social media. Paid and free adverts are the two ways to pick.
Paid adverts allow direct promotion with paid ads. It also can track conversion and flow of a paid campaign. A free version, on the other hand, allows you to create and manage a social account and online promotion by posting engaging content on social media account.
Tools for managing Social Media.
- Tools for planning include Google calendar, post planner.
- For managing your social channel- Hootsuite, Tweetdeck
- For monitoring- Google Alerts, Google Analytics and Social Insights.