Social media for marketing has established itself as a new avenue. Its network has become a platform for socialization, a source of research for the market landscape, and revenue generation for brands. It is an ideal platform for brands to network and collaborate within themselves, with influencers, and with audiences.
It also allows the audience to find out about products, services, and brands easily. It interests them within the brand and increasing brand awareness and recognition. Social media reveals a lot about the digital market landscape, the competitors, their content and audience, the brand’s audience, and their preferences. It also acts as a source of social listening allowing the brands to enhance and attract more content and revenue generation.
The development of social media as a digital marketing platform is a consequence of the high usage of social media platforms among masses. Currently, 4.48 billion people are using social media all over the world with an average use of 2 hours and 29 minutes daily. Social media platforms primarily useful for brands and their audiences are Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Facebook leads the list with the largest audience of 2.93 billion active users, followed by Instagram with 1.38 billion users and 875 million LinkedIn users. Utilizing these platforms optimally and reaching large audiences with a strategic approach can benefit the brands for long-term growth.
Although social media platforms have a large audience, that should not be the sole decision-making criteria for businesses to select a platform for marketing. Every social media platform has its a unique perceived benefit– UPB, the brand’s short-term and long-term objectives for social media marketing– SMM, and its target audience base should all be considered while making platform selection for the brand. Selecting the most suitable platform can increase the brand’s return customers, bridge the gaps between the brand and the audience, and build brand trust, loyalty, and recall. These benefits can together lead to a boost in engagement, a rise in Search Engine Result Pages– SERP rankings, higher lead generation, sales, and better ROI for the brands.
Facebook:
Facebook has a large audience of 25-34 years old users, followed by 18-24-year-olds. Other than these users, almost 93% of global businesses actively use Facebook for various purposes. The platform supports all kinds of media, and its optimization algorithm promotes content that is more likely to connect people and raise conversations and interaction. That makes Facebook an excellent platform for businesses to connect and network. The Facebook community groups allow businesses to gain more industrial insights, competitor analysis, and B2C and B2B Marketing. Almost 82% of B2B primarily use Facebook as they retain fully engaged customers by 27%.
Instagram:
Instagram has nearly half its population age group ranging from 25-34-year-old users, and it is majorly popular for its visual media features. They enable the brands to entice the audience with their resonating content. It is highly useful for all types of businesses, essentially small businesses looking to increase their audience base by increasing their brand awareness and recognition. According to research, 90% of brands follow at least one brand. As the platform holds most of the independent and decision-making age group, the brands are more likely to expect an increase in sales and conversion rates from an efficient marketing strategy. 87% of the users have reported having engaged, followed, or converted with a business through Instagram.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform used by business professionals. Since the platform offers media and text sharing for professionals, it is the most credible and reliable source.
It is an ideal platform for B2B marketing. 79% of B2B marketers have confirmed it to be an effective channel, and 96% have used the platform and successfully driven traffic to their websites. The platform is witnessing growth amongst the younger generation of professionals, proving itself to be a continually potential and resourceful platform for existing and newer B2B marketers.
Each social media platform and its offered features cater to a specific audience and their user behavior, analyzing and leveraging the same as the foremost step is recommended for business to reach their social media marketing objectives.
