What is social media marketing?
It is a daily companion: the smartphone. Social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or WhatsApp are very popular. Short for SMM by Abbreviationfinder, social media marketing starts right here. Be it a product placement in the Instagram stories of an influencer, a shoppable ad in the Instagram feed or a promoted pin on Pinterest, social media marketing describes strategic and tactical measures for interacting with users, communicating company messages and generating traffic for your own website . An important feature of social media is interactivity or many-to-many Communication . This is characterized by the special, collaborative writing style as well as the online dialog between users.
In social media marketing, reach and interaction are among the most important factors in measuring the success of content and advertising strategies. A distinction is made between “organic”, “earned” and “paid”. Paid media activities describe all social media marketing measures that involve paying for the generation of reach , such as classic image and video ads. Earned media describes the behavior when reach by users-Generated content, i.e. content that is created by other users, is created. Finally, there is also the organic reach, which tries to gain reach through free measures such as mutual reposts, high-quality content and generally the exchange with the community . Again and again it is debated whether organic marketing is not long dead due to the algorithm on Instagram, Facebook and Co. However, many experts agree that a good mix of all three measures is probably the best strategy .
8 benefits of social media for businesses
- seamless customer communication via messenger or direct messages
- Virality – possibility of reaching many people in a very short time
- Humanizing the brand
- Establishing your own community enables close customer loyalty
- Immediate exchange with customers on new products / services
- Opportunity as a company to increase the sympathy factor
- Generation of leads through special advertising formats and easy access
- Increase in sales through greater awareness
The possible virality of campaigns also prompts many companies and entrepreneurs to publish campaigns on social media. In a very short time, products and services can reach thousands of people or be chosen as the current trend . Influencer marketing still plays an important role here. That means: companies pay entrepreneurs with high-reach accounts to advertise their products or services. The big advantage: Products get a face. You can see their use in everyday life and the advertising conveys a different message than a bold billboard at the bus stop. It is not without reason that influencer marketing is also referred to as humanizing the brand .
Because social media advertising reaches people in the middle of everyday life, for example on the way to work or in the waiting room. With the right strategy , companies can increase their own sympathy factor, build a community and thereby intensify customer loyalty .
Lastly, it is also the ease of interaction with customers that makes social media marketing so popular. Messenger (bots) and direct messages enable seamless communication . Practical when questions need to be answered quickly. Customers can also give their opinion on certain offers immediately through comments and other interactions such as thumbs up. The situation is similar with advertising formats. Simple buttons and natural integration in the feed increase the interaction rate.
Social media advertising: these are the most important channels
Popular with many marketers: Facebook
Networking with people from all over the world and the many opportunities to interact with friends make Facebook one of the most popular social networks. Companies can set up their own Facebook page and keep customers up to date with regular postings.
Another plus point is the Facebook Messenger, which enables customers to get in touch with the relevant company directly and quickly . Messenger bots are a great time saver and help with common questions. Facebook groups are suitable for your own community building but also for many other marketing campaigns to strengthen customer loyalty. Whether open or closed and exclusively for customers depends on the respective marketing goal.
Finally, it is also the many different advertising options that make Facebook one of the most popular social media channels for companies.
Plays a leading role in social media marketing: Instagram
Over 600 million active users scroll through their Instagram feed every day. Most of them several times a day. Through a targeted posting strategy and cooperation with influencers, companies can increase their own level of awareness , build intensive customer loyalty and humanize their own brand. In the last two years, it has been shown, especially on Instagram, that stories in particular can achieve a large reach.
The photo app goes particularly well with products and services from the lifestyle sector and brands with a younger target group between 16 and 34 years of age.
LinkedIn and Twitter offer social media advertising for the B2B sector
Companies from the B2B sector in particular can position themselves as experts in their niche on LinkedIn, Xing or Twitter and collect valuable contacts. LinkedIn, for example, offers many exciting opportunities to publish relevant articles on topics from your own industry and to communicate with other users from the industry. On Twitter, on the other hand, companies can provide short updates on their own offers and thus draw the attention of new customers or the press.
Not to forget: Pinterest as a valuable marketing tool
Around 416 million users worldwide regularly look for the best ideas on Pinterest. Companies should continuously pin through third-party apps and use good visual language. For some subject areas, such as cooking instructions, it is worth creating video pins. A big plus point of Pinterest is that companies can generate traffic to their own site particularly easily through this type of social media advertising .
Also interesting for marketers: Youtube and TikTok
It is no longer a secret that the moving image has developed into the most influential advertising formats on social media in recent years . Video formats such as “Follow me around” or “Shopping Hauls” are particularly popular on YouTube. The cooperation with influencers is highly recommended here to generate coverage. TikTok has also blossomed as a marketing tool in the last year, but is more relevant for the younger target group .
This is how social media advertising works
Social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram offer companies a wide range of advertising options. Meaningful pictures or videos and short, crisp texts are essential here. If you have your own shop, it can also be interesting to upload your own products to Facebook.
Thanks to the connection between Instagram and Facebook, the products can also be marked on Instagram, for example in the stories. In addition to good social media advice from experts, companies should also familiarize themselves with the Facebook ad manager at the beginning in order to be able to scale the values correctly.
Cooperations with influencers are suitable for generating more reach, increasing trust flow and giving your own products or services a “face”. For example, product placements in an Instagram story with a direct swipe up to the respective product are very popular.
How many channels should you serve?
Instagram, Facebook or do you prefer everything? Many marketers ask themselves this question when it comes to the topic of social media for companies. There is no general answer to this, because depending on your own orientation, another channel is better suited. In principle, however, it is not recommended to use all social media channels at the same time, because then it becomes more and more difficult to maintain all platforms regularly – unless you have a separate department for social media or a social media agency. As a rule, it is more promising to concentrate on one to three channels and maintain them constantly.
