Considering social media marketing for your business?
Wondering if it’s worth the time or money?
All over the world, people spend close to 700 million minutes per month on Facebook. This is exactly the same time it takes a student to earn a standard four-year degree.
And, Facebook is just one of many social media websites on the internet! There are many others like Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Quora – the list is endless.
But, why is social media so important?
Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell. ~Seth Godin
Your product may be good, but the way you make it look on social media is way more important.
Post overview video.
Looking at the marketing career graph of famous marketers, they have focused more on social media than anything else, because they know the effect it has on people. This is how they’ve become good marketers. Let’s substantiate this with an example.
Have you seen the “Don’t Go There #LiveThere” commercial for Airbnb? While the entire video speaks of a very general thing – staying in a hotel – the way it has been presented is phenomenal. You see the video and you feel like “I need to stay in Airbnb at least once.”
That’s how you can influence people’s minds and thoughts.
Pacman to the Print Media
Remember that game Pacman we used to play as a child? Social Media and the internet have done exactly this to the traditional print media: eating up the Print Media. To put it in simple terms, social media has taken over print media to a great extent.
For me, if I want to read the news, I don’t even think about the newspaper. I just pull out my mobile phone and start browsing social media or the internet. In fact, most of the news I’m looking for is all there on Facebook.
The number of people opting for the traditional print media is going down considerably. Facebook pages of Fox News, Washington Times, buzzfeed, and other popular pages, have all the news people want. Then why buy the newspaper when you can get the information right when you need it?
Did You Know: The famous and most-read encyclopedia, Britannica, is wrapping up its print edition after a long 244 years? Whoa! I’m sure social media wasn’t a boon for this company.
Little Investment and Huge Profits
There are a huge number of Facebook and Instagram pages which are selling something through the platform. Per Facebook, there are around 40 million active small business pages, and the number is growing! On Instagram, there are close to 1 million advertisers.
One of the coolest things is that it’s an inexpensive means to reach a large target audience in a limited time. Even stores like Adidas, Nike and Puma are using social media to promote and sell their goods – and why not? When buying a product, the first thing people do is check for the price online. In fact, Forbes reports that 94% of businesses are using social media, and most of them agree to it helping their expansion.
Opening doors to so many customers
According to the figures, more than half of the world’s population is registered on various social media platforms. This makes it even easier for businesses to target and acquire the required customers. In fact, businesses acquire a massive number of customers through social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the others. Social media opens doors to so many customers that would not have been possible otherwise.
You’ll know your customer so much better
Social media has made it much easier for businesses to interact with each other. Whatever your business is, you can answer all the customer queries and it does not even take your much time. Some of the most common ways which businesses use to interact with their customer are Question and Answer Polls and comment games. These help to generate a two-way conversation between the customers and the buyers. It also helps in improving the customer engagement and building the customers’ trust.
A Recent Experience: A day at the Shopping Mall
Quite recently, I was on a shopping spree with my parents. I had with me a t-shirt to exchange due to improper fit. However, the sales person at the showroom refused to accept my exchange request due to certain “reasons.” I was instantly irritated and told him that I would report the incident on social media and tarnish the store’s reputation. After that, the store manager came to me and told me that it was a “technical mistake” on their part and I can exchange the thing I had come for. THIS is the POWER of social media.
Of course, I substantiated my argument and then threatened to tarnish the reputation on social media, but without this powerful weapon it would not have been possible.
Social media is now a very prominent part of our day-to-day lives. Can you imagine waking up without scrolling through Facebook? Or having a life where you no longer stalk your favorite celebs on Twitter? It might work out for a day or two, but beyond that – nope!
So we are saying… “Social media is not part of the internet, Social media is the internet.”
I am sure social media is a part of your life as well.
What do you feel about the most powerful weapon on internet? Do you feel it has made a difference to your life – and business?
Please leave a comment about social media marketing as regards your business.
Nahid Hasan says
Great article Sahiba. I am totally agree with you that “Social media is not part of the internet, Social media is the internet.” It is becoming the number one channel for customer based communication. It helps brands to create relationship with their customers in easy way. I am getting 30% of my leads from social media and it is increasing. Thanks again.
Louise Myers says
Great to hear, Nahid! Continued success to you.
Nahid Hasan says
Thanks Louise, I am waiting to get more content from you.
Jaime says
Great article! I never had much luck with social media marketing, might have to give it another shot. Anyone interested in making some good money should definitely look into affiliate marketing though. Its actually pretty easy and since I got into it my income has literally multiplied and my life has completely changed for the better 🙂
Louise Myers says
Yes, I love affiliate marketing. Don’t you use social media for it though? I do.
Cori Ramos says
Hi Sahiba,
It’s nice to e-meet you. Thanks for sharing these reasons why we should have a social media marketing plan.
I agree with everything you said here. Social media is the place to be if we want our business to grow.
I’ve stepped up my game on social media and I see a difference in the engagement and the number of followers grow. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this. By the way, I didn’t know Britannica was no longer going to print…that’s wild!
Have a great week ladies!
Cori
Louise Myers says
Thanks Cori, appreciate your shares too!
Aishwar Babber says
Hey,
I also believe that Social media marketing is a must for business nowadays, as social media sites like FaceBook has a massive amount of users and is always in trend, this gives marketers a huge opportunity to showcase their brand and product to their targeted audience.
Thanks for sharing this article,
Have a great day ahead.
Louise Myers says
Thanks Aishwar!
Julian says
Hi Louise,
Great article! It’s amazing how social media is needed. Now when people want to research the company website is up high on the list but next is social media. If I want to read some reviews I go to Yelp, Facebook, Twitter & Google to see what people are saying. This is such a great thing for consumers because their voice will be heard.
Louise Myers says
So true. Thanks for your comment, Julian!
Hazel Lude says
A successful social media marketer can take his business to the top. In this post, very useful stuff is explained which is really beneficial for every reader.
Katie says
Simple but really effective points in this article. Yes social media is really important to improve our website traffic. I started few campaign regarding awareness and services which worked really well for me. I also do advertisement campaigns to give a little starting booster for new concept. Thank you so much for the wonderful tips.
Louise Myers says
I bet you place a lot of comments for SEO as well. But I don’t allow that here.
David says
It’s a nice blog about social media marketing. Nowadays social media is becoming one of the most important platforms for showcasing our product or service. A successful social media marketer can take their business to the top. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter have massive numbers of users.
Louise Myers says
Nice try with the links but I removed them.
Tisha Tahnin says
aaaa.. Outstanding! I was looking to start social media marketing for my business as I am suddenly feeling that my targeted customers are mostly interconnected with social medias. Social Media marketing is really important for business. like: FACEBOOK,TWITTER, PINTEREST,INSTRAGRAM etc. I am planning to establish a strategy for trial. Before that I am roaming in the blogs for getting some ideas about Social Media Marketing. I hope your one made something clear for me. Thanks!
Mike says
Really nice article, Louse! Thanks. Agree with all your points, especially when you said “Social media IS the internet”, so true! I think so many businesses ‘failed’ with their social media marketing because they fail to differentiate that social media marketing has both short-term and long-term benefits, and each must be approached in different ways. Not all industries will benefit from social media on a short-term basis, yet patience is virtue, I believe ALL will benefit long-term.
Louise Myers says
Well said, Mike. Thanks for your comment!
Kenny Tripura says
Also sharing video content helps with social media engagement and marketing. Makes the job easier.
Louise Myers says
It helps engagement, but is more time consuming to create.
Ella Hayes says
I liked your this saying “Social media is not part of the internet, Social media is the internet.” Really social media is now become a very crucial part of our life. We can not think out of it. Thanks for your great article.
Louise Myers says
Thanks for reading and commenting, Ella!