What is social media marketing?

What is Social Media?

Social media refers to websites and apps that allow users to create and share content. Social media content can be text, photos, videos and shared in real time across a private network of family and friends or openly to all users.

Friendster, the first social networking site, was the first to be created. It was launched in the USA in 2002 and allowed users to find and connect with their friends online.

Social media was first introduced in the late 1970s when users could log on to their personal computers using bulletin boards systems (BBS).

Social Media & Brands

Social media began as a way to communicate. You could update your family about life's events, keep in touch with old friends, reunite or reconnect with them, or even make new connections by joining online communities. Social media's original form was personal and individualistic. Users created profiles that included information about themselves, their jobs, places, hobbies, and other details.

Social media became more popular and its purpose started to shift. Marketers began to pay more attention to social media's potential to transform the marketing landscape. Brands began to explore social media in the hope of building deeper relationships with customers. Myspace conducted a survey of their users in 2008 and found that 14% believed that brands were more creative and friendly on social media.

McDonald's was one of the first to adopt social media. Their 2008 campaign "Big Mac Chant", which celebrates their 40th anniversary, shows this. This campaign was to celebrate the 40th anniversary their iconic Big Mac product. It asked customers to remix a well-known jingle that is used in Big Mac advertising. Through Myspace banner ads and Myspace music pages, the competition generated over 1,000,000 page views within 3 weeks.

The data was still being stored and poured into social platforms. Later, social media site creators like Mark Zuckerberg realized they could make a lot of cash. With a partnership with JP Morgan in 2006, Facebook made its first foray into digital advertising. This included banner display ads that were served to users.

In 2006 Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook under the condition they would be the sole provider for their sponsored links and banner ads. In 2007, Facebook Ads was created. This is how social media marketing became what it is today.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing refers to the use of social media to connect and build relationships with your audience, increase revenue, and create brand awareness. The Brands must create genuine content this  is relevant to their People and get engagement rates using analytics. This one can be used to continue improvement in social media marketing.

Social media marketing was used to drive people towards websites of companies in an attempt to sell products or services. Today, social media profiles can be seen as extensions of a brand's site. Content should be written for and published to a social platform in order to increase user engagement and satisfy social media algorithms.

Two types of branded content can be found on social media:

1.Organic content

Brands need to make use of the free resources and tools available on their platforms in order to maximize organic content. This includes a brand profile page that includes a profile photo, description, cover image, description and links to your website. ; company updates as text, photos, videos, or GiFs; a brand group or community page; live video content; and many more.

Social media algorithms determine how organic content is seen by users. They sort posts based on relevance and publishing date. Algorithms determine how likely it is for a user to see your content. Categories, past interactions with your brand and # tags all play into organic content making it onto a user’s feed.

2. Paid content

Paid social media can boost your organic content and generate leads for you company through down-the-funnel advertisements campaigns. Social media marketers know the effects algorithms have on their reach. Despite having thousands of followers organic posting can sometimes seem to be lacking in quality. Paid social advertising or "sponsored" content, as it is identified by a user in their feed, can boost your reach and help you deliver your content to an even wider audience.

Social media marketing is a skill that brands can master. They use both organic and paid content and ensure that their strategy undergoes research, planning and optimization at each stage.

1. Increased brand awareness

2. Increased Inbound Traffic

3. Improved Search Engine Rankings

4. Conversion rates higher

5. Improved Customer Satisfaction

6. Increased brand loyalty

7. More Brand Authority

8. Cost-Effective

9. Get Market Insights

10. Think Leadership

1. Strategy:

Use the Smart guidelines to clearly define your goals and objectives.

To determine the right platforms for your marketing efforts, conduct thorough research on your target audience.

Learn what your audience likes and how to create it. Also, learn about the equipment and training that you will need.

2. Planning and Publishing:

A monthly content calendar should be created, with at least two months' notice.

Make sure to be aware of holidays and important dates that will drive engagement and plan content accordingly.

A/B testing the tone, timing and frequency of posts.

3. Listening & Engagement

Social listening tools can be used to monitor keywords and brand names.

Respond quickly to comments and DMs from users

A.I. Automation to increase response times

4. Analytics

You can track your performance over time using key metrics like Reach, Engagement and Video-views.

Analyze your failures continuously and make plans to improve performance.

Assess the variation of your performance platform-to-platform.

5. Advertising

Stick to your budgets.

To create highly-targeted audiences, use market segmentation.

To optimize your spending, keep up to date with the latest trends and developments in social media.

Social media marketing can be a powerful tool that offers many benefits to your company. It should be part of your Digital Marketing