Most companies understand the power of social media marketing and the consequences of it. However, little do they realize that just like traditional marketing that needs time and effort to showcase results, social media is no different; the techniques might vary but leave social media on its own and expecting luck to do its trick is like living is a fool’s paradise.
Social media always gives you a high return on investment
Brands need to monitor and optimize their ads so that they stand out and perform optimally to give you an adequate return on investment. One of the biggest advantages of digital platforms is that brands/firms can optimize their campaigns and posts based on real-time results and analysis. If a particular post is not performing as per expectations or budget limitations, then one can make changes in real-time to achieve the desired result. This is a big plus as compared to traditional marketing media, such as TV or newspaper ads, which once sent out, cannot be retrieved.
Social media marketing has overshadowed email marketing
One of the most underrated forms of marketing and in fact in digital marketing overall is email. Many businesses believe that investing in email marketing to generate business is a technique of the bygone era, especially when you have social media to capture your audience’s attention. Through email, a business can build an intimate connection with
customers or prospects who are highly interested in its offerings. Most of the e-mails that a brand is sending out should be to customers who have signed up with the business or have opted in to know more about the brand. Opt-in email marketing is a great tool and has one of the highest open rates and conversion rates also. So, email allows a business or its brand with a lot of options. A brand can start increasing its engagement over time with useful content. It can even target its user base at a deeper level by doing specific newsletters or specific kinds of content going to a specific demographic of users.
Social media does not require any financial investment
Once the content is created and packaged with the appropriate hashtags, visual elements, brand keywords, and CTA, it can be published across various social media channels. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a brand to reach its target audience by distributing content organically. Hence, the use of influencers and paid marketing activities to reach the target audience is not just important; it is necessary. Social media channels allow marketers to use paid marketing activities to target users and display ads, says LiridonVrapca.
Brands need to have a presence across all social media channels
Several businesses believe that it is pertinent to have a social media presence in all available channels. However, such is not the case. What channels do your audience use? This question should make decisions slightly easier. After all, if the target audience is millennials, then it would make sense to focus on channels like Snapchat. If it’s primarily women, then Pinterest would be a safe bet. It wouldn’t make sense to devote resources to a channel where the audience doesn’t hang out. One can easily undertake a competitor benchmarking research to learn where the target audience spends its time online. A tool like Buzzsumo and Brandwatch Analytics can provide insights on how a brand’s competitors are performing on social media.
Having a large follower ensures higher brand performance
In social media, quantity is not the only credible parameters to gauge a brand’s popularity. The quality of the audience, their loyalty to the platform and engagement are also equally important. A brand’s social media analytics and engagement team have to consistently think
creatively to not just amass a large follower base but ensure that those followers are doing the right advocacy to generate leads and conversions.
Importance of a social media plan
According to Liridon Vrapca without a social media plan, a business would just end up posting content at irregular times and to little effect. In such a case:
1. There is no consistency to the posts
2. There is no brand identity
3. The users don’t get nurtured into customers, and
4. Ultimately the result is that the users don’t feel connected to the brand.
A social media plan will help you think of all your social media activities in coherence. It will help you identify content ideas and create a calendar so that you can plan the distribution of your content.
Knowing these myths can help most businesses do a reality check before they can set their objectives and create a social media strategy to derive maximum benefits.
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