Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of digital marketing. SMM literally means marketing by using Social Media tools like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It uses social networking websites to create potential customers. Social Media marketer works on creating viral content that a viewer can share again and again. This helps to reach a wide variety of audience and increase the company's brand exposure.
How is SMM helpful?
Social Media is gaining popularity as a profitable marketing tool. Businesses can't afford to miss it nowadays. It helps a company in the following ways:
Brand Awareness
SM is one of the easiest ways to start networking with current and potential customers. By creating an effective SM strategy, the visibility of your brand can increase. With regular use, the user experience will be better and brand recognition will increase.
Cost Effectiveness
The ROI on ads through social media is high. However, if you're using paid ads it is always advisable to start low. You can find your niche audience and increase consumer base thereafter. Conversions and lead rates provided by SM are unmatched.
Engagement
SM is the best way to set up a two-way communication system with your audience. The interaction and engagement rate increases by regular usage of SM. Consumers are much more satisfied. You can address their grievances and reply to their queries. It also helps to grab the user’s attention and spread your brand message. Higher the engagement, higher will be the chances of conversions.
Brand Loyalty
One of the main objectives of a brand is to have a loyal consumer base. When you have an SM presence, your customers find it easy to connect and interact with you. SM can be used for promotional campaigns. Using these platforms to form a direct communication with your audience helps in customer retention and loyalty.
Customer Satisfaction
SM is important for networking and forming connections with your audience. Customers appreciate when they receive customized replies instead of the computerized ones. It makes them feel like the brand values them and their satisfaction is maximized.
Marketplace Insights
SM helps with gaining knowledge of the industry. You can be aware of what your customers' needs in reality are. For that, you need to track their behaviors and interests online, which would not have been possible without SM. Once you establish an audience, you can use other demographics for a wider reach. This is the most valuable tool of SM.
Increases traffic on your website
By posting regularly, you are giving your customers an easy click to your website. This increases the traffic on your website. Depending on the quality of content on your website, you can increase the number of people viewing your website.
Some important statistics on SMM:
Viral videos, posts, blogs, news feeds have the power to generate a healthy turnover of ideas. It keeps the visitors engaged and seeks their attention.
• As per Forbes, 94% of all enterprises with a marketing department used SM as an integral part of their platform.
• According to Pewinternet, 45% of customers in their 20s spent more than 12hrs a week on SM sites.
• As per Blog.hootsuite, 60% of firms have reported increased sales after using these platforms as part of their marketing.
Who does top Social Media Marketing Company in Houston helps?
Customers
Customers are called the “King of the market”. They anticipate the rate of demand for a product in a market. As a result, the production process gets affected. The promotional Ads on Social Media help attract potential customers. It is a two-way process. So, it's equally of advantage to the buyers who can just find what they are looking for by a click of their cell phone.
Middle Men
The platform on which marketing is being performed is an advantage too. The platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest etc are gaining their popularity. These SM websites are being frequently visited because of the availability of attractive ads.
Brands
There is a rise in the brand value and it helps establish goodwill among the buyers. It definitely boosts the sales because of broad global consumer coverage. The product ads are executed keeping in mind the diversified age groups and their taste patterns.
What are the main Social Media platforms?
One of the best platforms available today. No matter what the age group of your audience is, they can be targeted on FB. A monthly average of 2 million people uses it actively. What sets this platform apart is the targeted digital advertising. You can effectively target the consumers that are most likely to buy your product. This saves a lot of costs. It also provides e-commerce integration. It is super easy for your customers to make a purchase using FB!
Instagram is widely popular and still growing as a platform. Studies suggest that 50% of users follow brands on IG. It's very easy to tell your brand story in a way that's visually appealing. With the story feature important updates, news and BTS of the company can also be shared.
Owned by Microsoft, it is best used for making connections with professionals. Hence, it is most suited for B2B sales. It provides the best opportunity to engage with decision makers across the world.
It is more than just an image sharing platform. Pinterest is a catalog-based idea of inspiration that helps people to start a new project. You can share recipes, DIYs and other range of stuff online. As data suggests, it is mainly used by women. So, if your company is looking to target women, no better place than Pinterest.
It is the go-to place for news updates and trending topics. Twitter has a whopping 328 million active users. Some of its valuable features are the use of hashtags, tweeting on trends, etc.
YouTube
Acquired by Google, studies suggest that around 74% of people watch brand channels weekly on YouTube. This makes an excellent opportunity for companies to consider posting on it. It is an affordable platform to post video content to drive more engagement.
What are some principal SMM activities?
Setup of an attractive page
To start the promotion process, it is first important to set up a page. You can choose Facebook, Instagram, etc or a mix of these channels. You need to create a profile and provide your description as required. The page should be made attractive enough to hold the attention of the viewer. At the same time, it should also provide with relevant information.
Regular Posting
Regular posts in the pages are a sign that your business is functioning properly. It is a way of showing the different creative mechanisms you have applied to the business. This is because people do not want to view monotonous content.
Page follow and Post like
A high number of Page and Post followers are a way to show the popularity of your brand. It lets people know how popular you are among the masses. Hence, they check your profile to find out what has made it popular.
LinkedIn Connect
LinkedIn connects, Customised messages and Inmails are a way of interacting with your customers.
Posting and circulating YouTube videos
Posting YouTube videos is a way of promoting the job. It speaks of how differently you are working as compared to other similar organizations.
Ad campaign planning
These are a series of advertising steps. They are performed to promote a single idea or the product. These are small ads which provide a broader view of the company and what it does. Thus, it helps to realize the utility of the brand.
Social Media Insights
Periodic SM analysis is required for ensuring proper functioning. Keeping a check on the way ads are running is very important.
Tools used in Social media marketing:
Hootsuite
It is a Social media platform. It supports the company’s integration with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram.
Woobox
It is another SMM platform. It helps to run effective advertising campaigns and organizes polls, quizzes, and games.
Wishpond
It’s a Social media and promotion platform which allows creating content and campaigns. It supplies many alternative tools such as email automation, landing pages, retargeting ads and paid ads on SM.
Short stack
It makes you learn about your followers. It’s a highly customizable app for detailed branding. Only aggregate information that you can use to segment your customer base to target group.
Buffer
It is an SMM application that allows SM campaigns. It also allows for finding articles and tweeting them, posting news updates, and tweeting our blog articles.
Meetedgar
It keeps your page active throughout the day. It regularly adds content online.
TweetDeck
It schedules your tweets on Instagram and keeps a check on the posts per day. It makes promotion handling very easy.
Iconosquare
Iconosquare is another such application that keeps track of the posts on SM. It regularly updates the user to post the promotions in time.
Softtek, Houston Social media agency expertise in execution of special SM promotions
Giveaways of coupons and instant win campaigns.
Giveaways and Instant wins can be a sense of surprise to your viewers. This pleasant surprises will encourage other people to participate too.
Coupons, instant win, sweet take and pick a winner
The contests of this type comprise impressive giveaways. The prize is much like a sample of the product. It helps the customers to get acquainted with the quality of the services.
Photos, video and hashtag contests
These tactics bring a sense of competitiveness amongst the viewers which can mount to increased likes and shares. Consequently, they lead to a successful promotional campaign.
Photo contest
The viral photo contests are a way of promoting events and brands related to business.
Video contest
Instagram has evolved as an amazing platform for video contests. These efforts bring competitive zeal in the audience. It's a successful strategy for promoting your product.
Polls, Queries, and Games
They bring accuracy in the estimation of demand in the market. These strategies are specific to a service or commodity. They give a broad statistics as to how much is the demand in the market.
Poll Posts, Personality and Trivia Quizzes
These assist the company in estimating consumers' wants. With the objective of market demand analysis, they focus on the lifestyle requirements of the customers. Demographics have to be defined for its successful implementation.
Houston Social Media Marketing agency, Softtek have a dedicated team working towards solely SMM at our office. We understand the need for it and have the required skills up our sleeves. Contact us if you need any help.