What Is Social Media Marketing?
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Socialrnmedia marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention throughrnsocial media sites.
Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may providernradically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social siterndesigned to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook,rnin contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharingrnupdates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities.
Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such asrnnews stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also helprnbuild links that in turn support into SEO efforts. Many people alsornperform searches at social media sites to find social media content. Socialrnconnections may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either withinrna social media network or at a ‘mainstream’ search engine.
Facebook
Facebook is big. As the largest socialrnnetwork in the world, it has more than 2.23 billion active users. Do you havernidea how many users log in to facebook daily 62%.
Facebook was unknown a decade ago but billions ofrnpeople are using it today.
And perhaps more importantly, with thatrnmomentum, do you think there will be anything that will stop it? Will it gornfrom billions of active users to millions or even thousands over the nextrndecade? Probably not. Facebook is here to stay.
And with such a large user base, ignoringrnFacebook really isn’t an option for most marketers. You can bet your idealrnmarket is using Facebook nearly every day. The question is: how do you targetrnall of those users with your marketing?
The good news is that the Facebookrnadvertising platform allows to target by location, demographics, and interests.
How Can You Market on Facebook?
rnrnFacebook has three tools (pages, ads, andrngroups) that can be used by anyone. Each of these options has its own purpose,rnand they can be combined for greater reach.
Pages
Facebook pages are similar to profiles, butrnfor businesses, organizations, and public figures. Users can “Like” a page,rnwhich means they’ll automatically receive updates from that page in their newsrnfeed. Users also have the option to “Like” a page but not follow it. (Usersrnalso can follow some profiles.)
While profiles require a mutual relationshiprnbetween friends, pages can be liked by anyone, without a requirement for thernpage creator to accept a fan. They also don’t have a restriction on the numberrnof friends/fans they can have (unlike profiles, which are limited to 5,000rnfriends).
Advantages: Pages are free and easy to setrnup.
Ads
Facebook offers a fantastic targetedrnadvertising platform. You can create ads targeted at specific geographic areas,rnages, education levels, and even the types of devices used for browsing.
Linkedin
LinkedIn isn't just for professionals and jobrnseekers. Sure, millions of professionals use LinkedIn every day to grow theirrnnetworks and their careers, but did you know you can use LinkedIn to grow yourrnbusiness, too? From making connections to generating leads, establishingrnpartnerships and creating better brand awareness, LinkedIn makes an invaluablernaddition to your digital marketing strategy.
At its core, LinkedIn is a professional social network. It's allrnabout career development, professional connections, industry discussions andrnother types of business-related activities. It's not like other social mediarnmarketing platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram; there, businessesrnhave direct access to consumers that they can easily market to with statusrnupdates, images and other casual posts.
Moreover, unlike LinkedIn, brand followers on thesernother social networks already expect or are at least aware that companies usernthe platforms to sell their products and services. This is definitely not therncase on LinkedIn, where blatantly pushing your business, spamming and obviousrnhard selling is highly frowned upon. Because the network consists of a totallyrndifferent audience, LinkedIn marketing requires a different type of approach tornget the results you want.
Instagram
Instagramrnis a social media marketing platform used for growing brand awareness andrnintroducing products. 70% of Instagram users have spent time looking up a brandrnon the platform. Instagram allows you to promote your brand and product in arnfriendly, authentic way without directly selling to your customers.
Okay, sornyou’re officially fired up about Instagram but maybe you’re unsure about how tornget started. No problem! We understand that a visual, in-the-moment platformrnlike Instagram can be a little intimidating at first. That’s why we’ve createdrnthe ultimate Instagram marketing guide.
· rnINSTAGRAM HAS 700 millionrnmonthly active users.
· rnOVER 95 million photosrnand videos are shared on Instagram every day.
· rnMORE THAN 75% ofrnInstagram’s user base consists of people living outside the U.S.
Twitter
What is Twitter?
Twitter is an information network made up of 280-characterrnmessages called Tweets. Millions of people, organizations, and businesses usernit to discover and share new information.
• It has approximately 307 millionrnactive users who send around 500 Million tweets per day. Immediate connections
• No apps or groups, just conversation
• No barriers to engage inrnrelationships
• rnIt’s a great way to get to know people!
What can Twitter do for my organization?
rnrn• Provide a way to receive feedback
• Direct traffic to your project
• Provide information about your work
• Connect you to your target audiences
• Raisernawareness about your campaigns
How is Twitter different than Facebook?
• More immediate
• More “newsy”
• More concise
• Better for finding out informationrnabout you
• rnFewer barriers to entry
YouTube
• rnYouTube has massive traffic and viewers whichrnonly validates the fact that video marketing is a growing trend.
• rnIn fact, in the last few years at least 80% ofrnall internet traffic was video.
• rnVideo is where the web is going. The moverntoward video has reached critical mass, a tipping point where the momentum willrnswing and things will all start to speed up.
• For online and offline Business owners andrninternet marketers, YouTube Marketing is an essential strategy to takernadvantage of the web’s massive shift toward video.
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