What Is Social Media Marketing? (5 Useful Tips)

In the past few years, social media has developed as a vital communication channel for numerous brands. That brings the question of what is social media marketing and why is it so important?

A report says that 90% of marketers think that social media marketing is an essential part of their marketing approach. While 78% believe that it is one of the most effective channels for their business growth. 

We are living in a world of communications, however, communications are made online nowadays. If you are a business owner, you have to be on social media. No matter what you do, people will look at your business’ social media profile first. That is why don’t underestimate the power of social media, even if you run a bakery shop.

If you see it as unnecessary, there is a high chance that you will be left behind by your rivals who have social media marketing plans.

So let’s take a look at the overview of social media marketing and what are its benefits.

Social Media Marketing – A Guide on the Basics

Basically, Social Media Marketing is defined as a process of gaining attention and traffic through various social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, or Twitter. So it is an effective strategy used by businesses to promote their products and services to their target audience on various social media platforms.

Today, there are several companies that use social media to communicate and engage with their audience through videos, content, icons, microblogging, polls, quizzes, discussions, and more. 

As discussed earlier, most brands use social media platforms to market their products and services. However, there are still many people and brands that do not value the power of engagement. Yet, social media management is something crucial.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Many articles are being written on how social media connects people. Be it a small company or a large enterprise, everyone wants to have a strong presence on social media. 

Undoubtedly, social media platforms offer the appropriate environment for businesses to effectively connect with their potential customers, increase their reach, and build brand recognition. 

Nowadays almost every big company uses social media posts to increase sales and brand awareness by creating content. It is not just about using social media as well, businesses should use analytics tools to get feedback, find ideal and potential customers.

Have a look at some recent social media marketing statistics to prove the importance and power of social media:

• 71% of consumers with good service experience on social media are more likely to recommend the company to others. 
• Approximately 50 million small businesses are using Facebook to connect with their customers. 
• 88% of companies use social media for marketing purposes.
• On social media, over half of all people interact with brands several times in one month.
• Creating videos matters! Around 72% of the marketers in the United States are confident in their ability to create videos to drive purchases, engagement, and views on select social media platforms.  

Now that we’ve understood the meaning and the importance of social media marketing, let’s learn how to get higher engagement on social media. 

5 Tips to Get Higher Engagement

If your business is on social media, one of your biggest aims should be to increase social media engagement.

It’s important to keep in mind that you cannot manage sales and conversions without effective engagement. An engaged audience is the one who trusts, likes, and knows your brand. 

Here are a few tips that you must follow to get higher engagement and a good social media marketing strategy:

1. Layout Your Objectives and Goals

To jumpstart social media engagement, it’s necessary to have plans, goals, and objectives. Remember, your social media goals should be aligned with your overall marketing efforts. When setting up goals, make sure they are achievable. 

Here are some examples of attainable social media engagement objectives and goals:

• Finding leads and nurturing them
• Getting feedback about campaigns or products. 
• Changing brand perception
• Educating people about the area in which your brand shines the most

These examples will help your business to define goals and benefit from social media engagement certainly.

2. Create Engaging and Original Visuals

As per the data shared by Wishpond, the average Facebook posts without images receive 120% less engagement than the ones with images. So, to increase social media engagement, make use of more visuals, which can be in the form of GIF, photos, graphics, or memes. 

There are unlimited options to create visuals to get higher social media engagement.

For instance, if you are planning to promote a post with interesting facts or any recent research findings, you can convert some important points into infographics. Also, you can create an image or logos to promote an event or a contest like the influencers do. This will help you to effectively engage with your audience. 

3. Produce More Video Content

Creating original images and graphics are a great way to increase engagement on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But how can you get higher engagement on a visual platform like Instagram, where you already post pictures? The key here is to produce more videos as they add uniqueness to the usual content. That is why the type of content matters.

You can take an example of GoPro’s Instagram. They post both photos and videos taken by their cameras. Their videos tend to get more likes than photos, showing that posting videos is one of the most effective ways to improve engagement. You can make use of this strategy on any social media platform.

Also, there are many video templates available online that you can use to create exceptional video content. 

4. Post Attractive Offers

To increase social media engagement, you don’t always have to come up with innovative strategies. At times, you can even use tried and tested methods to engage customers. Providing your customers attractive offers is the best way to improve customer engagement.

Here are a few offers that you can post on different social media platforms:

• Membership at a reasonable cost
• Free delivery/shipping
• Cashback
• Instant discount coupons

The above-mentioned offers not only help you to get higher engagement but also increases sales. You can try out different offers to find what your customers respond to best. 

5. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI)

With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, many businesses have experienced a great digital change, especially when it comes to social media marketing and engagement. 

AI is being used on social media platforms by various businesses to enhance the online customer experience. For instance, through data gathering and tracking, AI can help to reveal the actions and motivations of a customer.

Giving this information to the customer support team will improve the level of service provided to customers through different sites, thereby building long-lasting customer engagement strategies.

Also, actively working with customers and providing solutions to their answers helps in reducing the cost of customer care services.  

Wrapping Up the Post

When building a brand, every business should consider social media engagement. Engaging customers on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, can turn your audience into customers. That is why it is good to know what is social media marketing. Every business should not avoid having a social media marketing plan when there are billion people on the market.

All in all, devoting more time to building relationships with your audience helps to gain customer loyalty,  get positive reviews, and increase sales and conversion rates.