Social media: Yay or Nay?

If you are an avid user of social media, you have probably seen an ad or two while scrolling through your feed.

As the digital era is beginning to grow, more people are becoming reliant on technology as their main source of information.

With many trends constantly evolving, social media marketing is now the trend. In 2019 alone, over 75% of small companies have begun to market on social media. According to Statista, over 92% of marketers at larger firms aim to utilise social media marketing as part of their entire plan in 2021.

As one of the most important communication channels in today’s world, it certainly opens new doors for companies to take their business to the next level.

Wanting to make sure that their campaign is a success, companies have begun hiring social media marketers to build their social media presence. 

It brings something new to the table

• Creative Freedom

First of all, social media allows you to have a certain level of creative freedom, giving you the green light to hop onto silly trends and put your unique spin on them. For example, the popular Duolingo owl has been a sensation on Tiktok with its creative takes on current trends on the app.

Make use of this to your advantage, and introduce something new to your potential clients. Make your ads fun and engaging-like a breath of fresh air when your customers view your accounts!

• 2 Way communication

Social media creates opportunities for brands to communicate with their customers. As the years go by, the internet has allowed people to be more vocal about their opinions. While there may be positive comments, there will always be a few negative ones.

Gradually, social media is becoming a platform for customers to voice their concerns, reviews, and complaints. For instance, some may voice their concerns and doubts about some product features. It is the responsibility of the company to deal with these comments swiftly before they blow out of proportion.

Although it may be tedious at first, it’s definitely worth the effort. By quickly responding to a customer’s issue, it shows them that you take their opinions into account and are receptive to feedback. Showing them that you care, helps to build trust between the company and the customer.

However…

If executed wrongly, it could land the company in a social business loop—companies that are overly reliant on social media to promote their businesses end up generating little to no leads by attracting non-targeted audiences.

Social media marketing is much more than just posting a post and letting the algorithm do its magic.

Although there isn’t a fixed set of rules when it comes to social media marketing, it is important to understand your target demographic, how users behave on each one of them, and how they expect you to reach them.

The ground rule of using social media marketing is to start conversations with your audience—which gets lost in translation as many companies are more focused on numbers. As a result, one of the main problems faced is a low return on investment (ROI) for social media marketing—being one of the lowest among other online marketing strategies. This could happen for several reasons, one of them being that they are unable to come up with a well-thought-out campaign.

To garner a loyal customer base, you have to engage with your customers regularly to keep them updated with your company’s products. This is a challenging part of being a social media marketer—bringing in new leads while ensuring that they do not lose any old leads.

In a frenzy to put out content on a regular basis, some companies may rush into things, coming up with poorly planned strategies. By doing so, the campaign does not turn out to be ‘audience driven', with the campaign not considering who the target audience is and what they are looking for. Not only will this backfire, but customers will also begin to have the impression that you are sloppy in the work you produce.

Before diving in …

Companies and social media marketers should be well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing. To put it simply, it is a double-edged sword, so do ample research and understand your goals for social media marketing before taking the next step.

If you are unsure of where to begin, feel free to contact our digital consultants at Websentials to kickstart your e-journey!