Did you know that the number of social media users worldwide grew by only 3% YoY from 2022 to 2023 (+137 million users.)?

It shows social media is an important communication channel for modern businesses irrespective of industry and size.

Gone are those days when social media for business was optional. Instead, it is a must-have channel for businesses to reach out to their customers, gain valuable insights, and grow their brand value.

In 2023, it is estimated to be 4.89 billion social media users worldwide. Social media usage among internet users is at an all-time high of 151 minutes per day.

Social media marketing is one of the most powerful ways for businesses of all sizes to reach their customers. It’s so important that >around 92% of marketers use social media as part of their marketing efforts.

Social media is where consumers find, research, follow, and shop from brands, so if you’re not using sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you’re missing out! 

When done in the right manner, SMM marketing can impact your business significantly, by accelerating sales & lead generation and creating loyal brand advocates.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing (SMM) interchangeably used as digital marketing and e-marketing is defined as a marketing tactic that involves the use of social media and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

The main objective of social media marketing is to market products/services, and services, engage with existing customers, and reach new prospects. The social platforms on which users build social networks and share information help to build brand credibility, boost sales conversion, and drive website traffic. 

Social media branding provides companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones with the help of data analytics which allows marketers to track the performance success of their efforts and identify the gaps and other ways to engage. 

Key Benefits of Social Media Marketing?

As per Statista, increased exposure is the leading benefit of social media marketing, followed by increased traffic and more leads.

Social media marketing is a big way for businesses of all sizes and industries to reach out to their prospects and customers. It has become a vital aspect of the marketing strategy of many businesses. 

Some of the key benefits of SMM marketing to help businesses boost RoI are as follows:

1. Understand the Needs of the Target Customers

Social media platforms can help businesses significantly to reach out to their target audience. The platform acts as a medium to connect with potential audiences and understand their needs and expectations to reach them effectively.

By practicing social listening, you can closely monitor their social conversations, which can help you understand what’s important to your audience and the latest trends they are following.

When you understand what exactly your target audience is looking for, you can focus on aligning marketing efforts and resources to serve their needs and encourage them to buy your products/services.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

Social media platforms provide a great spectrum for businesses of all sizes to extend their reach to a broader audience and increase their brand awareness.  

Smart Insights states that over 4 billion people worldwide now use social media making it an excellent platform for businesses to connect with potential customers.

Social media platforms empower brands to connect directly with existing and future customers. The ability to collect real-time customer feedback and facilitate meaningful discussions with them makes it a great tool for increasing your brand’s face value and affinity.

Tip: Businesses can implement social media brand awareness strategies to inform paid efforts and vice versa. The analytics and demographics of the platform can help build a better brand awareness strategy.

3. Enhance Customer Engagement

Social media platforms offer businesses a direct way to communicate with their customers. By responding to comments and messages, businesses can improve customer engagement and build strong relationships.

When you acquire customer opinion on your products and services is easier for you to share new content accordingly. You can collect immediate feedback on the key offerings of your company and also know about what they are advocating on their accounts.

Social media allows both brands and customers an equal chance to express themselves. Engaging promptly with your followers on social media showcases you as a company and their needs by personalizing the interactions.

4. Boost Search Engine Rankings

Social media marketing has a significant impact on a business’s search engine rankings. When users engage with the content shared by the brand on social media, it notifies the search engines that the business is relevant and authoritative.

The Hootsuite report says, 90% of marketers say that social media has increased their business exposure, and 75% say that it has increased traffic to their websites. 

SMM marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness and engagement as compared to conventional marketing methods – per Sprout Social Report, 2020. 

5. Improve Website Traffic

Social media marketing has great power in diverting customers directly to your website. 

Irrespective social networks help in getting a good flow of traffic to your website, you need to keep a note of what to post and how often to post as well. Ideally, it is good to follow a set schedule for posting your content. It helps ensure your content is posted consistently.

You can use bit.ly to shorten your links and place them within your social media posts and profiles. When you shorten the links, it saves space and gives a complete view to the audience.

Key ways to reap website traffic more:

• Optimize your social profile to communicate your brand value proposition quickly.
• Use social proof/credibility like any review or testimonial to enhance your brand experience.
• Make use of less popular platforms as well to fast-track your website traffic.

6. Accelerate Sales Conversion Rate

When businesses invest in outlining an effective social media marketing strategy to market their products/services successfully, there is a positive impact on sales and conversion. The main goal of any marketing strategy is to drive conversions and social media meets that goal.

The number of leads acquired from social media marketing is considered top-of-funnel. As per Statista, the average person spends 147 minutes or nearly two and a half hours on social media each day. 

It means your content will be viewed by a wider audience and if it has value, it can convince the readers to explore the products/services by becoming customers.

7. SMM Marketing is Cost-effective

Social media marketing is highly cost-effective as compared to traditional marketing methods. 

Organic social media marketing is usually free. It means you can create social media profiles and post organic content for free.

Many social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer pocket-friendly advertising options. Businesses can easily leverage organic reach by creating engaging content that is shared and liked by their social media followers.

8. Improve SERP Presence 

By marketing your brand successfully on social media, you increase your SERP presence. You just have to keep a tab on what is trending and it will help you align your social content as per customer needs while maintaining the unique flair of your brand. 

You can brainstorm about your audience’s questions and how accurately they will present their questions in a search engine. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow you to make edits after posting. If you find more precise questions or keywords, you can update it later. 

Blog content is a great way to attract your audiences and can be posted easily on social media for your followers to locate. Businesses have to stay informed about their social media as it gives a complete view of customer interests and where your brand could improve to meet their needs.

9. Deliver Better Customer Service

The challenge of instant customer service remains as demanding as earlier. Social media channel for customer service allows businesses for immediate interaction and customer feedback. 

71% of consumers who have had a delightful experience with a brand on a social media platform said they were more likely to spread positive word of mouth to their friends and relatives. Hence, having a social media customer service strategy is extremely important.

As a business, when you offer social media customer service, customers also expect you to be prompt in addressing their requests, and being proactive and agile in handling customer concerns in real time results in building meaningful relationships with your customers.

10. Strengthens Customer Loyalty

If you get a chance to build brand loyalty for free would you let go of the opportunity?

Customers usually follow and stay connected with the brands they like. More than 90% of people say they choose to purchase from brands they follow on social media. It increases loyalty and traffic in the long run.

Here are some tips that can help to strengthen customer loyalty and delight:

• You can offer promo codes for discounts via social media to your followers.
• To know them better ask open-ended questions to your social customers.
• Organize giveaway events with things like shirts, sunglasses, and cosmetics that will encourage them to stick to your brand and increase their lifetime value (LTV).

Main Types of Social Media Marketing

Today’s customers learn more about, follow, and shop from brands that have a trusted worth on social media. Hence, it is more important than ever for the brands to be on social across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social Media Optimization (SMO) refers to one of the popular digital marketing strategies and is a buzz in the social media ecosystem. Its main objective is to focus on attracting website visitors from sources other than search engines. SMO leads to social media marketing efforts towards content management to improve the content that will drive search engine rankings.

SMO also leverages online reputation management (ORM). When unhappy customers update negative reviews about any brand, a well-planned strategy ensures that those reviews are not the first link to be displayed by the search engines.

A planned SMO strategy:

• Helps businesses use social media sites rightly to manage brand massaging and online presence at the same time it can be used to increase product awareness, connect with customers, and mitigate negative reviews. 
• The popular social media platforms that are used for digital marketing are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media marketing (SMM) is commonly known as digital marketing and e-marketing involves popular social media platforms to build social networks and share information. The information shared across these social networks helps brands in the following ways:

• To build the face value of the brand
• Boost sales conversions
• Increase website traffic

SMM marketing also provides customer engagement opportunities with existing customers and reaches new ones. The in-built data analytics within social media marketing allows marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify the gaps that can be improved.

It is very important to maintain consistency in your efforts to get good results. Businesses can make use of different online tools that help to keep posts consistent by automating and scheduling the posts. 

Types of Social Media Ads Management

Social media marketing is about more than just creating posts, sharing news updates on social channels, and responding to comments. It also involves running paid advertisements on channels like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin) that help businesses to witness immediate results. While local or brick-and-mortar businesses can benefit the most from Meta paid ads, corporates, and IT companies can take advantage of running LinkedIn ads.

Meta

Meta refers to an umbrella term that brings together our social apps and technologies under one new company brand. It focuses on bringing the metaverse to life and helping people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.

Facebook Ads Management

Facebook is one of the key sales channels for businesses. It has almost 3 billion monthly active users, and advertising on Facebook empowers you to reach out to a huge number of potential customers. Facebook Ads Manager is used for paid advertising across Facebook and Instagram platforms. According to a study, more than 37.3 million businesses take the help of a Facebook Ads Manager account to run campaigns on the advertising platform.

Instagram Ads Management

Instagram ads are social media ads that are visible in users’ feeds. Businesses invest to run these ads to promote their products/services. The first view of ads is similar to regular posts, but they can be easily identified by the “sponsored” label.

The nature of Instagram ad management can be creative or basic based on your preference. With organic Instagram posts, you can try out vibrant color combinations, imagery, video, and creative texts to grab user attention. The ads help in brand awareness, better targeting, and visual appeal. There are six different types of Instagram ads for supporting the marketing efforts of businesses. They are photo ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection ads, ads in explore, and story ads.

Key Features:

Facebook and Instagram, are both owned by Meta. They together have accounted for 23.8% of digital ad revenue generated for the whole year. Ads Manager provides advertisers with access to various features for marketing their business. It comprises of:

• Meta Business Suite: Provides a complete overview of everything that is happening across your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
• Audience Manager: Allows you to save an audience that targets Facebook users based on age, location, interests, and job title.
• Meta pixel: It matches all the activity happening on your website with a Facebook user. 
• Events Manager: Helps the brick-and-mortar stores to track the number of in-person visits to the store and make purchases.
• Creative Hub: Also known as Creative Studio, it can produce mock ad creatives before pushing them to a campaign. 

Linkedin Ads Management

LinkedIn is a global social yet professional network. LinkedIn ads can help businesses reach out to both professional audiences and launch business-to-business campaigns.

By using LinkedIn’s powerful marketing tool, you can build valuable leads, share content with your potential target market, and gain significant online recognition. LinkedIn ads also help you showcase your brand’s voice to an influential audience further helping them in quick decision-making.

Key Benefits

• LinkedIn ads help in reaching your target audiences on a global scale.
• You can connect with your target audience by directly sending customized content.
• It protects privacy while maintaining personalization.
• You can create a variety of ads such as Sponsored content, In-Mail, text ads, carousel ads, dynamic ads, and video ads.
• Helps to boost conversion rates of your sales campaign.

Twitter Ads Management

Twitter Ads Manager assists businesses in reaching out to the users existing on Twitter and its partner networks and promoting your products or services to users who are interested in the products/services offered by your brand.  

With its many ad types: promote ads, follower ads, Twitter Amplify, Twitter takeover, dynamic product ads (DPA), and collection ads, a business can use various ads with different campaign objectives to outline a campaign that is relevant and impactful toward the growth goals of the business. 

Whether your requirements are images, videos, or only text, Twitter Ads has all these options with its ad types. Businesses can promote entire campaigns, independent tweets, and key objectives like website conversions, video views, and app installations. You need to set a target audience for your ad campaigns to reach the right Twitter users. Using Twitter ads can help your business to stand out as Twitter users send millions of Tweets daily. 

Wrapping Up: Social Media Marketing is Extremely Crucial

Businesses that value social media at the top of their marketing priority list understand the value these platforms can offer great customer service and increase ROI. Nucleo Analytics Social media channels offer a powerful engagement and conversion opportunity for brands. Our social media marketing strategies offer significant business benefits such as increased brand awareness, boost customer engagement, higher website traffic, etc. By deploying the power of social media in the right direction, businesses can connect with their target audience, build strong customer relationships, and accelerate overall business growth and success.