The Impact of Social Media Marketing Today
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Due to the impact of social media, the relationship between brands and consumers have changed a lot. Nowadays, companies create strategies after they analyze and understand the target consumer’s demands, likes and dislikes through Social Media. Social media has had a major effect on the world and business. Starting from an MNC or a small startup, everyone is adopting Social Media Marketing to make their brand or services visible.
Earlier traditional marketing mediums such as radio, TV commercials and print ads were very costly mediums. But now, through Social media marketing, companies or brands can connect with their target customers for free, the only cost is time. Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., you can lower your marketing costs.
Social Media Marketing is having a tremendous impact on business and market as business growth and performance are taking place at an astronomical rate. Social media helps in developing business tactics. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., show an opportunity for businesses to grab the attention of the customers while simultaneously building a brand image. These social networks allow businesses to use tactics to build and create brand profiles like fan pages, contests etc. Through Social media marketing, one can figure out the likes and preferences of customers as well as the latest trends adopted by the public. Social media marketing helps a brand/company to build a strong online presence by innovative social media marketing techniques and customer satisfaction.
Social media has countless benefits some of them are:
Improved Customer Insights
Businesses get a better understanding of their customers by allowing them to share their insights, knowing that the brand is listening. Social media allows them to see what potential customer’s opinions are and network with them as well.
Better Customer Service
Social media allows businesses to respond to customer grievances, questions, and concerns almost instantly. Customers want to be assured that, if they have a problem they will receive assistance at the earliest possible time.
Cost Efficient
When a business is running on a fixed marketing budget, social media is the most cost-efficient way to market and promote the business. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc., allow any business to share their content for no cost at all. Hence Social media is an affordable advertising platform.
Connectivity
Businesses will always be connecting with the customers in terms of changing preferences, lifestyles, and resources and adapt to the changing interest of the consumers.
Establishing Brand Awareness
Through social media, it is possible to increase brand awareness among customers as businesses can create awareness by building company image.
Sales
Increased exposure through social media drives traffic to the company. This, in turn, converts potential customers to actual customers.
Some of the major social media platforms are:
Facebook is a popular free social networking site on which registered can create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. People can also create Facebook pages related to businesses, brands, and services. There are 2.07 billion monthly active Facebook users with an increase of 16% increase year over year.
Twitter is a famous social networking website that allows registered members to write their messages through short posts called tweets. There are 330 million active Twitter users.
LinkedIn is a social networking site designed for the business community, professionals, managers etc. LinkedIn has 467 million members connected. Basically, this site allows the registered member to connect and make a network of people they know and trust professionally.
Instagram is a fast-growing social media platform that allows users to share their images, stories and promote their business. Instagram has 800 billion monthly active users. Instagram is used by many brands to promote their products, target their audience and drive real social value.
Real life case studies showing the impact of Social Media Marketing
Case Study of Shari Academy
Shari Academy is a photography school which conducts workshops and provide certificate courses. Shari Academy wanted to promote their presence online, but they had some budget issues, so they decided to use Facebook and a blog to meet the twin objectives of branding and business. They created a Facebook page “Photography Tips” and worked on it. Now Photography Tips has more than 1.3 million fans and it is one of the biggest photography communities on Facebook. The Shari blog gets approx. 30,000 visitors per month.
Case Study of Nando’s
Nando’s was opening its new restaurant in Bangalore in late 2010. In order to get more people to the restaurant, they launched the discount offer that was “Peri-Peri discount offer”. They announced on their Facebook Page that fans would get a special discount if they tell them when they plan to visit Nando’s and with whom. In this offer, friends have to be tagged and if up to 6 friends are tagged, the group would get a 15% discount on the bill. If more than 6 friends are tagged, the group gets a 25% discount on the bill. Because of this promotion, lots of groups visited Nando’s and got discounts. The largest group that availed themselves of this “Peri-Peri discount” was a group of 25 friends.
Reference:
http://www.socialmediaimpact.com/impact-social-media-marketing-today/
