Can Social Media Marketing Really Influence Business Growth?

In this modern world, it is challenging to find someone without a social media account. Nearly half of the world's population is active on social media platforms. It is the fastest way to connect with a wider audience. Therefore, it has become an ideal platform to conduct any marketing and advertising campaign. Be it a small business or an established multinational company; any organisation can reap the benefits of high profits and more customers through social media marketing. Read below for a complete guide to social media marketing and how it can help you expand your business.

Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that includes formulating and sharing different forms of content on social media platforms. The primary reason is to achieve your branding, advertising, and marketing goals. The content posted online should be unique and curated according to the social media platform it is posted on. Thus, this will ensure a high audience engagement.

1. Enhanced Brand Awareness

One of the most cost-effective digital marketing methods to increase brand awareness is by using social media. By implementing a profitable social media marketing strategy will significantly boost your brand's visibility and allow you to connect with a greater target audience. Over 91% of marketing professionals claim that social media has extensively helped them get exposure. Every post shared on these platforms will reach your followers that they will then share with other potential customers. Slowly a whole network is built, heightening your brand's awareness and your profits.

2. SEO Rankings

More than a majority of the population uses Google or any other search engines to look for products and services. Thus, your page must have a good SEO ranking to it can be on the number one page of all search engines. There are many tricks to increase your SEO scores, and one of them is using social media. Although social media doesn't directly impact the SEO scores, 58% of marketers say that within one year of using social media, the SEO scores have improved vastly. While creating content for social media, use targeted keywords, pictures, infographics, and videos to make your account look credible and intriguing.

3. Budget-Friendly

Any business venture - be it small-scale, mid-scale, large-scale, or even startups - looks for economical ways to carry on their business. Social media has so many features that can be used for free to advertise your product or service. Paid promotions on social media are relatively low in comparison to other marketing strategies. Furthermore, many applications like Instagram also give you an analysis of each post so that you can measure the success of the implemented strategy.

4. Building Relationships with Customers

Social media allows businesses to be available to their customers 24/7 and have one on one conversations with them. As a business owner, you can interact with them through comments on your posts and solve their queries to Direct Messages. Consumers feel acknowledged and appreciated when businesses make the time and effort to engage with them and quickly solve their problems. Moreover, you can also have monthly giveaways and organise other types of contests to enhance engagement and build a meaningful relationship with your target audience.

5. Boost Profits

Social media has become an online mall for Gen Z. Anything you want to sell- social media will help you make it possible. Your business's social media profile plays a critical role in persuading potential customers. Therefore, you should make sure it is informative and aesthetically pleasing to look at. Social media platforms have become the backbone of e-commerce businesses. The frequent updates of social media have significantly made it easier for even startups to kick start their sale profits. About 73% of small businesses already use social media platforms as effective marketing tools to increase their sales. In this digitally evolving world, businesses must evolve their marketing strategies accordingly to stay in the competition.

6. Increased Brand Loyalty

Creating a strong community of loyal consumers is vitally important for a business to overturn profits and be successful in the long run. Studies have shown that 62% of millennial generation customers are more loyal to brands that have any type of direct engagement with them on social media. Hence, to hold on to that type of target audience, businesses must continue to connect with customers and have direct communication with them. These loyal customers will further introduce your brand to other potential customers, and thus, a word of mouth advertisement chain is formed.

Here's a simple 5-step guide to creating a profitable social media strategy:

Step 1: Set your goals.

At the beginning of any project, you must set accurate goals and objectives. Set your social media goals according to your business objectives. Without setting them, it is difficult for you to measure ROI (return of investment) and success. Your goals should be S-M-A-R-T:

S- Specific
M- Measurable
A- Attainable
R- Relevant
T- Time-bound

Step 2: Target your audience.

Knowing what type of content your audience wants and likes is a critical thing. It helps you boost your social media engagement and persuade your followers to become customers. Learn everything about your target audience and how well they respond to social media. Do meticulous research to find out statistics and other valuable data about your target audience.

Step 3: Learn about your opposition.

Conduct a competitive analysis to understand who your competition is and why they are doing well. You can apply similar marketing strategies for your business. Learning from your competitors is a golden opportunity that cannot be missed. It helps you understand the niches of the industry and help you spot opportunities to overtake them.

Step 4: Filter your strategies.

According to all the data collected until now, filter all your marketing strategies and implement the appropriate ones. This will help you understand which strategies are most likely to work. It will further cut down the time and cost required to implement the strategy.

Step 5: Create a calendar.

Consistency is of great importance while posting on social media accounts. It assists in maintaining a stable relationship with your audience and makes your page look lively. Create a calendar to spread out your content evenly over the month and follow it religiously.

Step 6: Evaluate.

To conclude which strategy gives you more profit and success, you must evaluate them regularly. Utilise various parameters and analytic tools to measure your success and understand your shortcomings. This will further help you tailor your strategy accordingly.

Now that it is established that social media can help you grow your business, below are some essential tips that will help you make effective marketing schemes:

1. Consistency

It is the key to maintain popularity and engagement on social media sites. Ensure that you timely post relevant, informative, and helpful content for your consumers. However, consistency doesn't mean you spam your followers. Make sure you post sufficient and regular content every day/every week and maintain that flow.

2. Variation in content

Social media is a place where you will find several new trends on a daily basis. You must stay updated on these trends and develop content accordingly to attract consumers. Furthermore, expand the types of content you post as viewers and consumers tend to enjoy it. They can range from photographs, memes, short videos to helpful tutorials.

Social media is a place for people to come together and share similar interests. While you are already posting uniquely curated content, there's no objection to sharing foreign links that your target audience may enjoy. Any relevant and useful information shared by you- will be appreciated by your consumers. Further, other brands will return this gesture by sharing your content and connecting you to a wide range of audiences.

4. Tracking competitors

It is beneficial to keep an eye on your competitors. You can observe their social media marketing techniques and get valuable information to update your own. By keenly tracking your competitors, you can come across profitable keywords and get some practical marketing insights for your campaign and strategies.

Almost all social media platforms have some sort of algorithm that will analyse your marketing strategy to measure its success. Platforms like Google Analytics also provide in-depth and understandable data to measure the success of your marketing policies. It helps you understand which marketing scheme works and which schemes to discard.

Also read:

1) What is Social Media Marketing?
2) Social Media Ideas For Business.
3) Which of the Social Media Platforms is Important for Marketing?
4) How to Learn Social Media Marketing? A Complete Guide.

FAQs

Ans: Instagram is one of the best social media apps used to launch clothing stores. It acts as a mini personalised website of their store. The app has several features to boost engagement and expand clientele.

Ans: Canva is one of the most favoured apps used by social media marketing specialists to edit and curate content. The app has different layouts and editing options that can be used by beginners too.

Ans: Each app has different peak hours in which audience engagement is the highest. The time differs from app to app and depends on various factors. The best time to post on three major social media platforms are:

1. Facebook- Wednesday, 1 pm and Friday, 11 am
2. Instagram- Wednesday, 3 pm
3. Twitter- Sunday, 11 am

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