When you think of the term “social media,” the things most often brought to mind are sites like Facebook and Twitter, where people can connect with friends and family and communicate with others in a casual and socially-engaging atmosphere. Even if you’ve done some research on the impact of social media for marketing purposes, you still might not consider social networks to be viable tools in your marketing arsenal.
Before you scrap the idea of marketing via social media and stick to more common online marketing avenues like landing pages, sponsored advertisements, email newsletters, and web page pop-ups, you might want to rethink your marketing strategies and increase your presence within the social media sphere. Quit wondering what social media can do for your business and start seeing the results of using an incredibly powerful marketing tool. The sky’s the limit for how far you can go with your marketing efforts. If you’re not confident pursuing this avenue alone, you can easily outsource this area to a digital marketing agency in Melbourne who has the experience and knowledge to drive results for your business.
As you know, the Internet has changed the face of marketing and placed a global audience at your fingertips. You are no longer restricted by geographic boundaries when it comes to your potential for acquiring leads, increasing conversion rates, and generating sales and profit through online advertising and marketing. Social media has expanded that reach, not through the expansion of figurative boundaries but through the expansion of your ability to connect with your target audience.
Social media networks had an aggregate user base of just under one billion in 2010, and by 2015 that number had doubled. That means that more than one in every four people on Earth, not just in developed or technologically advanced countries but worldwide, are using social media, and that number is expected to steadily increase over the next several years.
When social media first entered mainstream consciousness as more than an Internet fad, it was primarily used for people to connect with friends and family. Now much more than that, social media networks are also being used as barometers for public opinion with regard to which companies to patronise, which services to obtain, and what products to buy. Many people consult with their social networking peers to receive impressions and opinions before making consumer decisions, and this has created the need for more dynamic marketing strategies by those companies who wish to capitalise on the potential profitability presented by social media marketing and advertising.
Many social media networks provide companies with the opportunity to create and distribute advertisements that are displayed to specific audiences based on demographic selections by the social network or the advertising company. Some, like Facebook, display ads to users based on the in-network browsing habits of those users or their stated preferences. The use of hashtags as a way to “tag” or label specific content to appear in hashtag searches has migrated away from Twitter, where hashtags were initially and primarily used, and is now being seen on several other social media networks. Other social networks like Pinterest give companies the chance to deliver marketing content with visual appeal.
You can use social sharing options on each platform to give your visitors a way to like, follow, and distribute share-worthy content. Not only does this expand your reach and potential for visibility, but it also frees up more of your time to focus on fine-tuning your marketing strategies to reach and connect with the biggest audience possible on a global scale.
Social media marketing should no longer be considered an option for your marketing strategies – it should be viewed as an essential marketing component that has the ability to maximise your brand’s potential.