What is Social Media Marketing & Why is it Important?

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing involves creating content to promote your business services or products via a social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social media marketing has become an extremely popular way for businesses to connect with their audiences because each platform reports millions, sometimes billions, of daily users. 

Why is social media marketing important?

Social media marketing has become a reality for all modern businesses that wish to connect with customers online.

Some of the benefits of social media marketing include:

1. Social media marketing increases brand awareness. 

In 2022, there were over 4.59 billion people on social media according to Statista. What does this mean for your business? It means that there were 4.59 billion opportunities to get your brand in front of new customers. In reality, would that many new people use your products or services? While it depends on your product or service, just imagine if only a fraction of that many people became your new customers.

Social media increases brand awareness through engagement. You increase brand awareness when you create a business page for your company and engage with other social media posts. Social media can also send new visitors to your website through posts, shares, and comments.

“[Social media] is one of the best word-of-mouth tools out there… All you need to do is get your audience to share to their friends, [and] if you plan your campaign content correctly, you can do that.”

Jon Lee, CMO at ana tomy

2. Social media marketing boosts lead generation and conversion.

Promoting and sharing content on social media is a great way to generate more sales leads and successful lead conversions because you are actively promoting content to people who have already indicated interest. And let’s face it – who does not want to make more money?

Facebook and Instagram have a shopping feature that allows social media users to buy directly from a business without leaving their respective apps. This feature helps businesses easily close sales by reducing customer friction and making purchasing easy and convenient. 

The Bottom Line for your business? Social commerce is a powerful growing force considering that Statista estimates sales will reach $2.9 trillion by 2026.

3. Social media marketing builds personal relationships with customers.

Customers desire to genuinely interact with small businesses, and this is why social media marketing is very popular. Before social media, customers often felt distant and detached from brands. Social media provides brands and businesses the opportunity to directly connect with customers providing a more human touch. Companies can participate in social media trends, chat with customers, and remind customers of their human side.

4. Social media marketing helps businesses analyze their competition.

If you use social media for business, it is highly likely that your competitors also use one or more of the same networks. Social media gives businesses a unique opportunity to see what competitors are doing—including what works for them and how to avoid making the same mistakes they do. 

It is important for businesses to pay attention to social media marketing campaigns run by competitors including how they interact with customers and how they promote their products or services. This allows you to ensure that campaigns for your business are unique to your brand.

“Starting with a competitive analysis may help you discover some holes in your competition’s strategy and show you channels they may be missing out on.”

Jason Myers, senior VP of Public Relations & Social Media Marketing at The Content Factory

5. Social media marketing gives businesses more brand authority.

A regularly updated online presence goes a long way toward establishing your business as a brand authority. Additionally, regular customer interaction shows that you are committed to your customers, and you truly care about their satisfaction. Social media makes it easier to resolve customer issues. Since your commitment is visible, prospective customers will feel more comfortable doing business with you.

In addition to being a vital marketing tool, businesses can also use social media to improve customer retention because positive social interactions build relationships, trust and loyalty.

Social media marketing glossary of terms

Social media marketing is a unique category with specific terms.

Here are some of the social media marketing terms it is helpful for you to know:

• Content. Content is anything you post, create, or share on a social media site. Create content yourself or share content from another user or platform.
  
  
• Engagement. Engagement is a general term for how many people like, share, or comment on your content. Engaging your audience on social media is your number one social media marketing goal.
  
  
• Follower count. Your follower count refers to how many people follow your account on any given social media site.
  
  
• Click-through rate. The click-through rate (CTR) is a ratio that shows how many people have seen and clicked a link to your content, whether through an ad or another social media post. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of times your ad is shown by the number of clicks it receives.
  
  
• Platform. “Social media platform” is another term for “social media site.” Facebook and Twitter are two examples of social media platforms.
  
  
• Share. A share is when someone views your content and posts it to their profile or account, increasing the number of potential views for your content.
  
  
• Traffic. Traffic is how many people access your site via your social media channels. For example, someone who clicks on a Facebook post you shared and is redirected to your website would be considered digital traffic.

Need help with your social media?

From setting up your accounts to managing and posting content on your behalf, Digital Netword can help you promote a consistent image online through social media campaigns and connecting with your customers.

Connect with us today to see how we can help you connect with your online audience!