Social Media Marketing What It Is, How It Works, Pros And Cons

13 Nov 2022
by A. S. Hassan

With over 80% of consumers reporting that social media especially influencer content significantly impacts buying decisions, marketers across industries are driving the evolution of social media marketing (SMM) from a stand-alone tool to a multipronged source of marketing intelligence on an increasingly important and growing audience.

Within 18 years, from 2004 (when MySpace became the first social media site to reach one million users) to 2022, the dramatic growth of interactive digital channels took social media to levels that challenge even the reach of television and radio. By Q1 of 2022, there were 4.6 billion social media users globally over 58% of the world’s population an increase of over 10% in one year alone.

As the use of social media trends upward, marketers are perfecting strategies to capture the significant competitive advantage that engagement with this key audience can deliver even more rapidly and more effectively than traditional marketing.

Key Takeaways:-

Social media marketing (SMM) uses social media and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to market products and services, engage with existing customers, and reach new ones.
The power of social media marketing comes from the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.
Social media marketing has transformed the way businesses are able to influence consumer behavior from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting personal data that makes messaging resonate with users.
Because social media today is so ubiquitous, marketing techniques using these platforms are extremely important for businesses

What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

Social media marketing (SMM) (also known as digital marketing and e-marketing) is the use of social media the platforms on which users build social networks and share information to build a company's brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In addition to providing companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, social media marketing (SMM) has purpose-built data analytics that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Powerful?

The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.

Connection

Not only does social media enable businesses to connect with customers in ways that were previously impossible, but there is also an extraordinary range of avenues to connect with target audiences from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like Facebook) to microblogging services (like Twitter)

Interaction

The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media whether direct communication or passive “liking” enables businesses to leverage free advertising opportunities from eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) recommendations between existing and potential customers. Not only is the positive contagion effect from eWOM a valuable driver of consumer decisions, but the fact that these interactions happen on the social network makes them measurable. For example, businesses can measure their

social equity

social equity a term for the return on investment (ROI) from their social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Customer Data

A well-designed social media marketing (SMM) plan delivers another invaluable resource to boost marketing outcomes: customer data. Rather than being overwhelmed by the 3Vs of big data (volume, variety, and velocity), SMM tools have the capacity not only to extract customer data but also to turn this gold into actionable market analysis or even to use the data to crowdsource new strategies.

How Social Media Marketing Works

As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, social media transformed not only the way we connect with one another but also the way businesses are able to influence consumer behavior from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic, and personal information that makes messaging resonate with users.

SMM Action Plan

The more targeted your social media marketing (SMM) strategy is the more effective it will be. Leading software provides in the social media management space, recommend the following action plan to build a SMM campaign that has an execution framework as well as performance metrics:

Align SMM goals to clear business objectives
Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
Conduct a competitive analysis on your competition (successes and failures)
Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)
Create a calendar for SMM content delivery
Create best-in-class content
Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed

Customer Relation Management(CRM):

Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing has several distinct advantages, including the fact that SMM has two kinds of interaction that enable targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools: both customer-to-customer and firm-to-customer. In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value primarily by capturing purchase activity, SMM can track customer value both directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product referrals).

Shareable Content:

Businesses can also convert the amplified interconnectedness of SMM into the creation of "sticky" content, the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at first glance, gets them to purchase products, and then makes them want to share the content. This kind of word-of-mouth advertising not only reaches an otherwise inaccessible audience, but also carries the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts which makes the creation of shareable content one of the most important ways that social media marketing drives growth.

Earned Media:

Social media marketing (SMM) is also the most efficient way for a business to reap the benefits of another kind of earned media (a term for brand exposure from any method other than paid advertising): customer-created product reviews and recommendations.

Viral Marketing:

Another SMM strategy that relies on the audience to generate the message is viral marketing, a sales technique that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth product information. Once a marketing message is being shared with the general public far beyond the original target audience, it is considered viral a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.

Customer Segmentation:

Because customer segmentation is much more refined on social media marketing (SMM) than on traditional marketing channels, companies can ensure they focus their marketing resources on their exact target audiences.

Tracking Metrics

When a business is trying to determine which metrics to track in the sea of data that social media generates, the rule is always to align each business goal to a relevant metric. If your business goal is when a business is trying to determine which metrics to track in the sea of data that social media generates, the rule is always to align each business goal to a relevant metric. If your business goal is to grow conversions from an SMM campaign by 15% within three months, then use a social media analytics tool that measures the effectiveness of your campaign against that specific target.

Even in the digital age, people appreciate the human touch, so don't rely only on social media to get the word out.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

Tailored social media marketing (SMM) campaigns that instantly reach a range of target audiences are clearly advantageous to any business.

But like any social media content SMM campaigns can leave a company open to attack. For example, a viral video claiming that a product causes illness or injury must be addressed immediately whether the claim is true or false. Even if a company can set the record straight, false viral content can make consumers less likely to purchase in the future.