What Is Social Media Marketing and How to Utilize It for Your Business in 2019

Many people have asked the age old question what is social media marketing and how do I implement it into my business of choice? This is a question that has been asked more and more in the coming year and will continue to be asked more and more as the framework of advertising and marketing changes so drastically over the next few years.

We live in a day and age where we can communicate with one and other like never before, we are all so interconnected by this supercomputer in our hands. We often times don’t take the time to sit back and appreciate just how awesome our telephones are and how we can have internet access, a connection to this innerweb from anywhere in the entire world.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are many social media marketing strategies, one of the most prevalent is to use a service called buffer that allows you to schedule your social media marketing plans as a smaller business. It’s very important in your social media marketing strategy to be planning out exactly how you want to target social media.

You want to create posts that engage your audience, this can sometimes be with giveaways. Have them follow your brand, spread it around, like your image and have them get entered  in a giveaway if you’re in a retail sphere. Or potentially if you’re in a service sphere then you might offer for engagement in what you would hope to build the brand up you might potentially offer your services at a discounted rate.

You must always be there to respond to your customers or potential customers, it’s so important in today’s day and age that we have an engaging brand. As aforementioned we are interacting with each other in a way that we never have before, and especially faster, it doesn’t take long for a consumer to get annoyed and feel as though they’re not being heard by you.

Its very important in your social media marketing strategy that your customer is being heard, otherwise they just as soon purchase from someone else where they can get what they want and really what they need from a brand.

Another thing that has been increasingly popular in the past few years is the use of influencers, social media influencers however can be bang or bust. You know if someone has over 5k followers they will soon be seen as an influencer as it is believed they can influence and have an effect on a lot of people, and at that level generally all you would need to do is to show the person your product and send it to them for free.

They will review your product and sponsor it for you, little to no overhead here and it almost allows your customers to see your brand and your product without being so incredibly in their face about it.

We live in such a fast paced world that something like this will more influence them to purchase your product rather than just shoving an ad down their throat and hoping they purchase it.

Social Media Marketing Plan

Nowadays it’s incredibly important to have a social media marketing plan, so much of the media and marketing in years past will have been possibly through the traditional forms of media, whether that be through radio, tv advertising or just plain handouts, this system is long since dead and gone.

We are going to discuss a viable social media strategy for various different businesses depending on their size as a fortune 500 company will have a different social media marketing strategy than a small mom and pop donut shop, however one thing that’s incredibly important is to have a social media strategy.

The most important thing in social media is to maintain brand continuity, brand continuity is something that the best marketing companies do and we don’t even realize it. It wouldn’t seem right if all of a sudden the energizer bunny turned into blue and yellow instead of pink, you must maintain that brand continuity throughout all of the social spheres.

Another thing that’s important is you must do demographic research on what social media platform your potential customers will be using the most, for example if you’re targeting the age demographic of 45-54 you don’t want to be spending a ton of time on twitter planning out the execution and thinking that you’re hitting your target audience. It might be better suited to possibly reach out to something like facebook where that demographic is typically older.

The main social media spheres nowadays are the big four, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter and they all have their own specific plans on how to advertise and utilize them. The most important thing in a social media marketing plan is to make sure that you maintain engagement, if you’re sending out an ad make sure that there’s someone there to respond if you’re getting engagement.

We live in a day and age where companies are no longer just selling a product, they are selling an image an idea a brand. This is why you have seen so many companies as of late selling a message, most recently Gillette and Nike, it was very important to have a very responsive brand there that is willing to answer criticism and almost give you the inside scoop so to speak about what they were thinking in creating this advertising plan.

It’s incredibly important to remember all of the aforementioned subject matter in your social media marketing plan in order to have success. Good luck and go out there and kill social media marketing!