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The benefits of social media marketing and how to use it to your advantage

Picture of William Bacchus
William Bacchus

Published: October 10, 2022

Last updated: November 21, 2022

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Social media has redefined the way people share content, receive news, and interact with the world. In July 2022, it was estimated that 59% of the world’s population use some form of social media. If you know anything about marketing, you will instantly understand how important an audience that is to market to. If you don’t, have no worries! This article will explain how you can use social media to market your business and the many benefits you will gain from putting your brand onto social media.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is using a social platform to advertise your business by creating and sharing content online centred around your brand or company. This can be as simple as sharing some of your latest articles on Facebook, or as complex and hands-on as creating and uploading YouTube videos to talk through your new product. Whilst many may think that social media marketing is a young persons game, the truth is that it’s a lot simpler than it looks, especially if you’re looking for an easy way to grow your business to a large audience.

Social media marketing is a great tool that can help expand your company’s reach

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

If we hadn’t sold it high enough already, social media marketing is one of the best ways to promote yourself and grow your brand. Here are some of the top reasons why you should sign up for an account today:

Building brand awareness

If you’re aspiring to have your brand name as recognizable and well-known as Apple or Google, putting yourself onto social networks for the world to see is by far the best way to do it. When consumers are looking for products or topics based around your brand, seeing your brand name and logo frequently is a great way to help people remember who you are. One of the benefits of marketing online instead of traditional forms is that you reach people faster and easier. By establishing a presence on social media, you’ll be able to advertise yourself 24/7.

Reaching the right audience

One of the many great things about social media is its algorithms. If someone likes a tweet about cakes then the chances of your bakery’s Twitter page are going to increase. Through the use of hashtags, keywords, and other tools, you’ll find it so much easier to reach a global audience who are interested in what you have to say. Furthermore, being active on social media will indefinitely increase your growth and reach to potential customers. By regularly posting and interacting through comments and maybe even DMs (direct messages), you’ll become even more prolific online and help yourself reach and maintain a loyal customer base.

Gather data about your audience

Audience research is key if you want to grow quicker. On most social media platforms, you’ll be able to see insights into what your customers are searching for, clicking on, and how people interact with your account. For example, if Facebook insights tell you that your audience are consistently searching for dogs, why not find a way to incorporate a puppy into your next Facebook post? Obviously, remember to stay on topic, no one will care if your local supermarket is commenting on what Will Smith did at the Oscars.

Most social media allow you to view analytics and data about your audience

Drive traffic to your website

Social media marketing won’t just help grow your brand on that platform. Many social media give you the option to include a website in your bio, giving you a great opportunity to direct interested and potential customers through to your website. It provides a more diverse and easier inbound traffic stream than search results, and you can never have too much traffic to your website. There are a number of strategies you can use to point customers in the direction of your website. One of which is by not being too revealing. If you publish a new post, why not post the first paragraph and add something like “For the full article, click the link below” to the end of your post? This allusive language is a great way to hook customers and encourage them to go to your prime place of advertising yourself.

If you somehow don’t have a website for your business, you need ELITEWEB.Co. They offer the best website hosting plans, domain names, and security and marketing add-ons to help you create your dream website. Worried that you don’t have the technical know-how to build a website? Worry not, since Elite not only has plans and options for all abilities, but they also have 24/7 support available if you do need the extra boost!

Satisfying your Customers

As opposed to responding to emails, constantly answering phone calls or even live chat features on your website, social media offers a way for you to respond to customers’ comments, complaints, or queries. Through quick (maybe even less formal) responses in comments and DMs, you’ll be able to build a strong and loyal relationship between you and your customer base. One great thing about comments is that they tend to be public, meaning one response to a customer can be viewed by far more than just one person. Not only can this help clear up a problem for more than one person at the same time, but it will also publicly show how brilliant your customer service and satisfaction is!

Marketing on a budget

Perhaps one of the best features of social media marketing is how cost-effective it can be. Whilst you can choose to have paid advertisements on most social media sites, it’s completely free to sign up to almost any social media network. However, a common misconception is that free accounts equivocate to free adverting. In truth, when people see text and images that sound like advertising (i.e giving too much promotional detail) they’re likely to click away more than if they saw a more informative, relaxed post that is simply spreading the word.

Now that you know how important and beneficial social media marketing can be, let’s take a look at how each social media platform can benefit you in different ways.

How different social media can be utilized in different ways

It’s important to understand that not every social media platform can help elevate your brand in the same way. Some will put emphasis on images and videos, whilst others prefer lengthy text. Here’s a quick guide as to how you can use each social media effectively. Remember, it won’t hurt to sign up to all of them, as long as you can manage them all and understand how to tailor your content toward each network.

Facebook

With over 4.1 billion registered users, Facebook sells itself enough by being the most popular social network out there. But why do people use Facebook so much? And what makes it so effective for advertising your business? Well to start, Business Insider claims that Facebook accounts for 20% of all time spent online, meaning it’s incredibly easy to reach a mass amount of people through the site. If you’re looking to pay for advertising, Facebook ads are also incredibly cheap coming in at as little as $5.99 per 1,000 views.

In addition to this, you have the tools to target a certain audience, whether that be by age, gender, interests, or other classes. The previously mentioned Facebook insights tool is a free way to monitor your analytics and work out what is or isn’t working for your marketing strategy. Furthermore, Facebook is a pretty flexible platform in terms of sharing different forms of content. This means if you wish, your Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other social media posts can all be regurgitated onto Facebook – maximizing your outreach across platforms.

Instagram

If you’re looking to engage and reach out to a younger demographic, Instagram is without a doubt the best way to do so. Over 60% of Instagram’s users are under the age of 35, which is useful to know if you’re promoting a product, service or anything that you wish to reach a younger, more impressionable audience. The most unique part of Instagram is its visual nature and prioritization of images. This makes the site ideal for those promoting a more visually appealing brand – such as a design or art-orientated business. Although you can format your own images to include a small or large amount of text too, if the 2,200 caption limit doesn’t work for you (or if you want a more imaginative style of writing).

For example, take a look at the post below from ELITEWEB.Co, who are taking advantage of using an image to display text, as well as a clever hashtag and the company’s @ on Instagram:

Elite uses both the image and the caption effectively to maximize the information displayed

Twitter

Twitter is undoubtedly the best way to share quick news and updates. With over 6,000 tweets posted per second, you’ll find there’s a large audience on Twitter that will eat up any and all content they can find. Twitter can also be incredible effective if you style and design your Tweets and account in the right way. Some brands choose to use a conversational tone of voice when communicating via Twitter, as it helps brands blend in with the userbase whilst still maintaining authority over other users. It’s an incredibly easy and quick way to offer customer support, even if it’s only a redirect to a help page on your website. Above all, Twitter is about conversation, making it an effective way for you to get your name in the conversation – and soon become the topic of conversation!

Pinterest

Possibly one of the most underrated social media sites for marketing, Pinterest can be extremely effective for driving traffic to your website. Much like Instagram, Pinterest puts a heavy emphasis on visual content, particularly that which is aesthetically pleasing. One of the most simple, yet brilliant, features of Pinterest is the ability to click-through live links, making it far easier to increase your potential web traffic. Pinterest boards also make it incredibly easy to categorize content, allowing you to layout your Pinterest account to your liking.

Linkedin

Linkedin is a brilliant way for you to increase brand awareness and build business relationships with other professional-minded people. The professional social network works well for both new or inexperienced businesses looking to gain an insight into their profession, but also for professionals themselves who are perhaps looking to share their content with people who need it. With over 2.9 million groups on the platform, you’re bound to find the right audience to market to!

Tiktok

Whilst this final social media platform may seem a little left-field, new-kid-on-the-block TikTok can open some unexpected doors for your marketing strategy. 74% of TikTok users say that the so-called addictive app has enabled them to discover a new product or brand; and with other brands getting in on the action, why not join in? However, unlike the rest of the social media on this list, images and pictures won’t cut it on TikTok. Be prepared to get creative with the apps signature short, vertical video content. Whilst this does involved a little bit of artistic effort, the videos have proven to pay off. Users love to see brand accounts get involved with silly, entertaining trends and provide some entertainment to appeal to a younger audience. Whilst TikTok is probably the biggest gamble on this list, if done effectively it can definitely have some incredible pay offs!

To conclude

If it hasn’t been made clear enough, social media marketing is a no-brainer if you’re looking to expand your brand with an easy and cheap marketing strategy. With a potentially massive outreach, there’s no reason not to get your business onto social media today and start reaping the benefits!

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Picture of William Bacchus
William Bacchus
Will joined the Elite team in 2021. He has a background in content writing as well as a keen interest in media journalism. His interests include taijutsu and a immense passion for film and television. He aims to inform as many people as he possibly can about the vast and often confusing nature of web design!

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