What is Social Media Marketing? and its Benefits

 If you will search on the internet about ways to earn online on internet, then you will definitely be told about how to earn money with the help of social media marketing. In such a situation it becomes necessary that you know in detail about social media marketing. That's why we will explain to you all the important points about it in this post on social media marketing

As you all must be aware of many social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. Millions of people are present on these platforms and are interacting with each other every day. You must also be on some of these platforms. In such a situation, you must have noticed that thousands of advertisements of products/services are shown on these platforms every day.

These ads are a process of marketing. Through social media, anything can be easily reached to millions of people. In such a situation, marketing on social media is called social media marketing. Today we will tell you in detail about this. Through this post, you will know all the points related to it and you will not need to go anywhere else. So let's know about it –

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a process in which the help of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. is taken to promote any product or service. Marketing on these platforms makes it easier to reach more customers.

It is also called SMM in short form. In today's digital age, all the startups and well-established companies are also resorting to social media marketing. Without its help, in today's time, no company or startup can take its business to heights. Now the Internet is mostly dominated by Graphics and Videos, so if you create unique content then you can easily do your brand building.

It is very important for you or your team to be creative in marketing on social media. In this, you have to target an audience so that they can become your customer from the visitor. For this, you have to attract their attention towards your product/company. This will happen only when you have unique ideas and creativity.

Types of social media marketing

Let us know what are the types or how you can use which social media platform to do social media marketing –

1. Social Networks

These three mainly come in social networks. The examples of social media platforms that I have given in front of them are according to me the best social media profiles that I have seen on these platforms till date. Do check them once so that you can have ideas -

• Facebook – Shopify
• Twitter – someecards
• LinkedIn – FreshBooks

With the help of these social media platforms, we connect with people and brands. If you are not using these platforms for your brand building and marketing then you are far behind. There are 430+ million active users on Facebook from India alone which share 10% of the total users.

If you run a business, then you have a population of more than 2 billion on Facebook alone where you can promote your product/service. This is the best medium of advertising between B2C i.e. Business to Customer. Through Twitter, you can improve public relations and customer service.

Apart from this, LinkedIn is used for business development and employment marketing. You can run ads on all platforms and also handle your customers and public relations by creating profiles on them.

2. Media Sharing Networks

These three mainly come in media sharing networks. The examples of social media platforms that I have given in front of them are according to me the best social media profiles that I have seen on these platforms till date. Do check them once so that you can have ideas -

• Instagram - Bewakoof
• Snapchat – Birchbox
• YouTube – HyundaiIndia

These three platforms are mostly used to search, watch and share photos, videos, live videos etc. So if you take the help of photos and videos for advertising or marketing on these platforms, then you can easily reach your brand to more audience.

The number of monthly logged in users on YouTube is 2 billion. It is best for business to customer. If you want to reach more and more people about your business and want to do brand building then this is the best. Apart from this, you can do social media marketing with the help of Instagram, the second most popular advertising platform. Snapchat, although it is rarely used for social media marketing right now, but in the coming times, this platform will also be crowded.

3. Discussion Forums

These three platforms are the most popular under the Discussion Forum. The examples of social media platforms that I have given in front of them are according to me the best social media profiles that I have seen on these platforms till date. Do check them once so that you can have ideas -

• Reddit – SpaceX
• Quora – Business Insider
• Digg

If we talk about Reddit, if you understand the users and their interest on this platform, then you can easily do social media marketing by creating a great business profile. People use these platforms to find, read and share news, information etc. You can easily do market research using these platforms.

People from all over the world share their opinions on these platforms and talk about almost everything here. In such a situation, you can do advertising along with market research related to your competitor or your niche. Quora is the best platform for social media marketing in my opinion. From here you can easily target your specific users.

4. Bookmarking and content curation networks

• Pinterest – Etsy
• Flipboard – Disney Parks

Pinterest and Flipboard are great platforms for visual advertising. You can take the help of these platforms to do social media marketing. For this, you have to first create a profile of yourself and target the users associated with your business. You can take the help of Images & Videos to spread awareness about your brand to the people.

The above brands generate millions of views a month on these platforms and increase their reach to millions of people. However, for this it is very important for you or your team to be creative, only then you will be able to survive on these social media platforms. You can mostly resort to infographics, how to videos, tutorials, etc. for branding.

With the help of Pinterest, you can send millions of traffic to your website. The condition is that your video or graphic should attract more and more people. You create website friendly account on Pinterest and start social media marketing

Benefits of social media marketing

Now that you have learned about what is social media marketing and its types, then let us now understand its benefits as well –

1. Brand identity is formed

The first point in the benefits of social media marketing is that with the help of this you establish the identity of your brand. For any business, its biggest goal is to promote brand recognition/awareness in the market. You can easily do this with the help of SMM.

99% of consumers prefer to buy only those products which they already know. With the help of social media, you can easily reach thousands of millions of people. However, you do not have to spend money only on advertising and marketing. Rather, you should try that your social media profile is completely different, professional and creative and at the same time properly endorses your business/brand.

2. Do Audience Research and Improve

Research comes first in Social Media Marketing. If you do not understand your audience and their needs then you will fail in this field. Only by doing Audience research, you can know which keywords users use more to find a product / service. Along with this, from which gender / country / browser your users are reaching you.

By doing all these research, you will go on improving your social media marketing strategy as well. With its help, you will be able to target specific users correctly and use your advertising budget properly. You can take the help of Quora and Facebook to do audience research. With the help of these, you will be able to understand your users properly.

3. You do not have to work hard for traffic generation

If you do social media marketing then you can easily send thousands of millions of referral traffic a month to your website/blog. For this, you have to link your business website in each of your ad campaigns. In today's time, there are many such companies who are driving traffic on their website with the help of social media only. Its biggest advantage is that you will not have to do Search Engine Optimization.

You just have to take care that you post things on a schedule. So that your users neither forget you nor are bored. So keep this thing in mind. If you take care of your users while doing social media marketing, then they will take care of your business and pocket.

4. It's absolutely FREE

Unless you do campaigning and advertising on social media platforms, these platforms are absolutely free for you. You can post good content by creating a great profile of yourself and create great reach without any marketing. However, it may be less than advertising.

There are many brands that did not campaign at all to increase brand awareness. They just kept their users engaged with attractive content and people kept on joining them. If you have a great strategy so that you can promote your brand in front of a bigger audience without spending money, then it is a good thing. If not, then you can advertise on Facebook and Instagram with a minimal budget.

5. You will always be connected to your customers or visitors

If you do social media marketing, you will always be in touch with your customers. The biggest advantage of this would be that you can get honest reviews/feedback from your users or customers. It is very important for any business to review or give feedback by people. With their help, you can make changes in your product/service and take your business to new heights.

At the time of traditional advertising, companies had to struggle to get feedback and reviews. But, social media has now made this task a lot easier. Now with one tap, you can write what you think about any product/service or express your product satisfaction by giving ratings.

Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing 

Every coin has two sides, just like social media marketing also has two sides. We told you about the benefits but it also has some disadvantages –

1. Brand Name does not take long to deteriorate

If you have looked at the recent events, then you must have found that it takes years for brands to become recognized and only a few hours to get spoiled. If by mistake you tried to hurt someone's sentiments or negative things on your social media profile or in campaigns, then you will be doomed.

Your business is for the people and if the same people are dissatisfied with any work for you then all your hard work will be wasted. You should do social media marketing very carefully. Try that you review everything personally and then let it come in front of the public.

2. It is time consuming

If you think that overnight you will build your brand on social media and millions of people will start following you then you are wrong. Even if you have enough money for marketing and campaigning, people will follow you only if they know and use the products/services you are offering properly.

So be ready to devote a lot of time to this work. Brand building is a long-term process that you should invest in this field keeping in mind.

3. Requires an experienced and expert professional

If you think that without any experience and market research you can easily do social media marketing then you are wrong. This work also requires a lot of technical knowledge and you will not be able to do this work alone. You will need to hire a qualified professional to handle it.

Apart from this, if you want to do it by yourself, then there are many people on the internet from whom you can learn this. You can also easily learn it with the help of learnsmm's website. 

Tips for social media marketing 

Let us now know about the essential tips for doing social media marketing –

Tip 1 – You should invest in your brand building, sales growth, traffic generation etc. through SMM i.e. social media marketing. Never be afraid to invest money in it. It will slowly give you good results.

Tip 2 - Run contests from time to time. In today's time, the social media tactic of almost all small and big brands involves running contests. Through these contests, you can give any award, coupon, tickets etc. to the winner. More and more people will join your profile.

Tip 3 - Make a schedule of posting on social media and publish the content accordingly. If you publish too much content then your audience will feel annoyed and it is not good for your brand building.

Tip 4 - Connect with your audience through multiple social media platforms. For this, you should always reply to their comments on your social media pages. Along with this, do answer their queries / appreciation on Twitter. With this, you build a relationship with your audience.

Tip 5 - Be sure to include Pinterest in your social media marketing strategy. For this you have to create attractive images and infographics. This is best for maximizing traffic to your website and for lead generation.

Tip 6 - If you create a Facebook group for your business, then you will be able to easily connect to a large audience. You must be aware that there is a very large amount of engagement in fb groups. So create a FB group that people want to join and you will be able to do social media marketing easily.

Tip 7 - Make the latest trends and topics a part of your content strategy. The best example of this I personally find is Bewkoof's instagram page where they pick up on every new trend. Do check it once and you will also get an idea about it.