It was a long time ago when Social Media Marketing was only a tool that business owners twiddled with in their spare time, when SMM was a ‘nice to have’ marketing arrangement with zero or little investment on the tactic and approach on its implementation plan. We live in a day and age where it’s not about being social but how social. Whether you’re just a beginner, a trend-setting conglomerate or have been dotting the margins for a while- social media marketing is the catapult every business needs to multiply their reach exponentially and retain the existing ones for life.
While organizations are embracing the need to identify social media as a tool for marketing, very few understand the depths and horizons of its reach. Although, more and more organizations are beginning to have their presence of social media platforms, many lack the strategic approach to milk the benefits that these platforms have to offer; SMM is still treated at par with conventional marketing tools and hence a separate investment in strategy and approach is rarely encouraged.
Yes, Social Media is the technology that helps you connect with your customers, increases brand awareness and identifies a new target market but that is not the whole point; social media is much more.
What is Social Media?
The concept of SMM is nothing but promoting any business through social media channels that include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, LinkedIn and many more. A significantly low-cost promotional medium, it keeps the users abreast and updated not to mention lets them bond and communicate with the brand directly.
Is Social Media any different from traditional marketing?
Yes, Social media is about building relationships, being transparent, switching on the human mode and cultivating a community, an army of fans who will swear by your brand! And no, it is not a magic wand that will change things as soon as you register a company on a social platform; what is needed is a separate,tactical approach with goal settings, calendared postings, timely updates, active participation and steering clear of all the done to death marketing clichés. Although, it may seem like your organization is the pioneer with an outstanding strategy, you must realize that in a space that is becoming increasingly clustered, any content or approach is not full proof. Every single posting has to be an ‘out of the box’ one; there is no place for mediocre content because all that it takes for a competitor to steal your customer away is one solid image and a crafty caption!
The risk is bare minimum to none; so, why not take the plunge, get some profile space, touch some fans and expand your businesses real estate albeit online!
Article written by: Jennifer L Blair