What is Social Media Marketing? How Does it Boost Business Growth?

In 2009, Coca-Cola launched its ‘Share a Coke’ campaign on Facebook; it printed commonly used names (for example, Chris, Alex, Mary) on the bottles and asked similarly-named customers to share the pictures of these bottles on social media. Apart from being disruptive, it was the first social media campaign on Facebook, and Coca-Cola’s social media page likes grew by 39%. In a way, this campaign helped brands realize the immense power of social media marketing and how it can scale their popularity. That is why it has become important for companies and executives to learn more about what is social media marketing and how it can be leveraged to boost business growth.

Social Media Marketing Introduction

Social media marketing means promoting or advertising products or services on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube. It’s all about reaching out to a larger audience, getting more customers, and boosting revenue. The end goal of social media marketing is to engage with your target audience and communicate your brand’s proposition.

ALSO READ: How to Get Started on a Career in Social Media?

Social Media Marketing Examples

Here are a few popular examples that will help you understand what is social media marketing.

Spotify’s #yearwrapped Campaign

Spotify’s #yearwrapped campaign is a classic example of social media marketing. Spotify created a personalized story for all its users to view all the songs they played throughout the year and their favorite artists or albums on the app. Spotify asked people to share their #yearwrapped story on social media, tagging their favorite artists. This resulted in millions of people engaging with the stories and playing their #yearwrapped playlists. A lot of social media users even created their own version of #yearwrapped posts seeking inspiration from Spotify and posted them on social media. This campaign increased Spotify app downloads by 21% in 2020.

Apple’s Shot on iPhone Campaign

In most social media marketing campaigns, brands collaborate with influencers or celebrities to promote their products. However, Apple’s yearly #shotoniphone campaign is a brilliant example of consumers promoting a brand on social media. Apple launchess a ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign on Twitter and Instagram, asking iPhone users to post their best iPhone camera shots on social media. Millions of people participate in the challenge leading to increased brand awareness.

United Nations TikTok Campaign

Another great example of how social media marketing can be empowering is the United Nations’ (UN) Women Australia #EmpowerMoves TikTok campaign in 2021. UN posted a short and simple dance routine on TikTok as a part of this campaign. The dance moves were easy self-defense techniques that women could remember and use in case of danger. Many celebrities joined the campaign and posted their dancing videos on TikTok. This campaign got over 130 million views on TikTok and had an 85% engagement rate. It reached over 5.2 million new users in Australia and the UN Women Australia page gained nearly 7,000 followers in five days.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has different benefits for businesses. These include:

Increase in Brand Awareness

Social media marketing gives an opportunity to brands and small businesses to create their identity and engage with a large audience. This helps them generate more customer leads, increasing business revenue.

Cost-Effective

One of the greatest advantages of social media marketing is that it requires less investment in comparison to traditional advertisements like billboards or TV advertisements. It helps small businesses to grow without investing a lot in marketing.

Gain in Customer Trust

Increased brand awareness and engagement on social media help businesses gain the trust of consumers. It increases brand loyalty and customer retention rate.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

What is social media marketing without a strategy that is simple, effective, easy to implement, and goal-oriented? Here’s a step-by-step process to create a social media marketing strategy:

Step 1: Set Clear and Small Goals

You should set clear social media marketing goals. These could be engagement, brand awareness, or promotion of new products, among others.

Step 2: Figure Out Your Target Audience

Understanding your audience base is key to developing a successful social media strategy. Social media apps are no longer mere platforms where you post pictures and promote your services. They are a virtual community. You have to understand your audience’s preferences to prepare a useful social media strategy and this requires a certain amount of trial and error. 

Step 3: Select Social Media Platforms

The next step is to do a social media audit. This refers to analyzing the engagement on your posts, understanding what type of content performs better, and which platforms are popular with your niche audience. For example, if you provide business consulting services, you should focus more on LinkedIn marketing.

Step 4: Brainstorm and Seek Inspiration

Now, you need to think of social media campaigns. You can seek inspiration from other brands. Ensure a consistent copywriting style across all your posts. 

Step 5: Create a Monthly Social Media Calendar

It is important to create a social media content calendar to maintain consistency. This helps to get more engagement. You can also use social media marketing tools to schedule posts.

How to Do Social Media Marketing

Learning social media marketing can be tricky, especially if you are a beginner. However, here are the core pillars that will help you understand what is social media marketing and how you can use it:

1. Strategy: Have an effective social media marketing strategy in place to achieve your goals.
2. Planning and publishing: Plan the timing and frequency of content you want to post on social media and publish videos or pictures.
3. Listening and engagement: Listen to your audience’s demands or needs by conducting regular surveys or asking for feedback. Offer them a safe space to talk. You should also engage with social media users or different brands by commenting and replying to comments.
4. Analytics and reporting: Use social media performance analyzing tools to get insights on how your content is performing, and whether you are able to achieve your goals. 
5. Advertising: If your social media account is not getting enough engagement, you can also get sponsored ads to make your content reach a large audience.

ALSO READ: What is the Best Social Media Marketing Salary and How to Earn it?

Top Social Media Marketing Tools

Here is a list of the top social media marketing tools that can enhance your marketing strategies by scheduling posts, analyzing engagement, and market research:

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Sprout Social
• HubSpot
• Canva
• Mention
• Sprinklr
• eClincher
• Social Pilot

Social Media Marketing Course

Social media marketing is one of the most sought-after careers today. However, it is also a highly competitive field. You must have popular social media marketing skills such as copywriting, design, marketing, and data analysis. Pursuing social media courses is one of the best ways to enhance your skills.

In addition to skills, social media marketing courses can help you learn what is social media marketing and its multiple facets, as well as the latest industrial trends. These programs can also teach you how to conduct market research, read case studies, and drive effective social marketing campaigns. If this excites you, explore Emeritus’ online digital marketing courses to boost your career in social media marketing.

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