Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (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, SMM has purpose-built data analytics that allows marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.

• Social media marketing uses social media and social networks—like Facebook, X (formerly 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 can 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.
• Social media marketing is often more cost-effective with great exposure, though it requires ongoing maintenance and might have unintended negative feedback consequences.

Why is social media so powerful?

The power of 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 previously impossible ways, 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 .

Interaction

The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media—whether direct communication or passive liking—enables businesses to leverage free advertising opportunities from (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—a term for the return on investment (ROI) from their social media marketing campaigns.

Customer Data

A well-designed social media marketing 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.