What is social media marketing?

Businesses and brands have many ways to reach customers, clients and fans in the modern, internet-connected world. With most businesses using social media to reach a target audience through digital platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, social media marketing has become a massive, vital new field for marketers.

Why is social media marketing important for businesses?

Small and large companies alike use social media to promote their business and connect with customers. In fact, 97% of all Fortune 500  enterprises use at least one social media platform to promote their initiatives and foster positive communication with stakeholders, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

Once you’re "where they are" on social media, you can potentially grow a business by driving business goals and outcomes through new sales outlets/opportunities, reach customers through a new medium, collect data, and much more. Social media allows you to:

1. Reach customers online, where the bulk of young people get their information  (as opposed to, say, ads on live network television)
2. Create sales opportunities: One-quarter of Americans shop online monthly .
3. Increase brand awareness and trust: and customer retention through what’s known as "engagement" (content that isn’t necessarily an ad but is seen by current and potential customers alike and interacted with, such as by commenting on, sharing with other users, etc.)

(By the way, professional social media is not all about advertising. Oftentimes, it’s about fostering conversation, making people laugh and building trust and community so that when a brand needs to advertise or market a product, fans and followers will be more receptive.)

1. Foster engagement and solve problems en masse: social media enables conversation, including real-time responses and conversations with a brand’s followers. When customers all have the same question or issue ("When is the new version of ___________ being released?" a social media manager can save the customer service team hours of labor by responding to that one question, negating other users’ need to call and ask you the same thing.)
2. Data collection: Collect details on these new customers in ways not feasible in person (such as mailing addresses and interests) and use them to plan ("our biggest fans are, surprisingly, women 18-25, so let’s brainstorm more products for that demographic.")
3. Measure your overall marketing efforts: Because analytics tell you the truth (instantly), you’ll have a better understanding of how well a product has been received or what the market demand is for something. (Many companies use social media to either tease upcoming products or gauge interest in concepts.)

Which social media platforms are best for marketing?

When it comes to choosing the perfect platform, it’s all about personalization. It depends on the type of business. While virtually all marketers agree that social media marketing is important, not all platforms are equal when it comes to marketing.

For example, a marketing strategy using social media in general isn’t as important as a LinkedIn marketing strategy for most B2B companies.

In most cases, a brand will need to go where its customers already are — meaning, if your customer base largely participates in Facebook, meet them there instead of expecting them to join a new channel to meet you. Ultimately, it comes down to business needs, your audience, and what is performing best.

Here are some examples of social media for marketing and which types of businesses work best for which platforms:

• Social media for restaurants: Instagram and, to perhaps a lesser degree, Facebook, help restaurants by being image-driven, and food and drink photos tend to really hook people on a brand.
• Social media for doctors: Facebook is good for information sharing, so it’s an ideal platform for doctors, dentists and other service providers who need to keep patients and clients in the loop on new guidelines, protocols and the like.
• Social media for small business: Facebook, Yelp and Google Reviews work best for small companies. Facebook is the platform with the most users and the one people generally use when looking for a specific brand, a recommendation for a new business or service, or entertainment options in the area. Yelp and Google reviews are also excellent for small businesses looking to build a strong following. Building up five-star reviews on Yelp and/or Google reviews can do wonders for walk-ins and appointments.

What does a social media marketer do?

A social media marketer can be either an in-house digital marketing staffer an outside freelancer or agency employee who runs all or some of the following accounts for a business: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Typical tasks and responsibilities include:

• Long-term strategy to grow the number of fans or followers a page or account has.
• Short-term tactics, including managing a posting schedule, to meet long-term goals.
• Creating content, including selecting and/or creating graphics and photoshopping or editing images.
• Creating, editing and publishing videos and other content for sharing on SMM platforms.
• Reading, responding to, forwarding, and hiding, deleting or promoting comments, messages and reactions from users. (This may be handled by someone with the title of community manager.)
• Sharing or engaging with content made by others so that they can also reach those users’ followers.

How to learn social media marketing

Marketing using social media may be a relatively new field, but it’s also a constantly evolving one. To master best practices and get familiar with the general direction of SMM, training is crucial.

 Some skills that students of SMM may find important include:

• Social media strategy (how many posts to create per month, for instance)
• Planning and publishing (content calendars, tone and types of content, when to post, etc.)
• Listening and engagement (how to increase and maintain engagement, etc.)
• Advertising (including creating, implementing, monitoring, and analyzing results from running digital ads on social media platforms and websites)

Students of SMM develop specialized skills like:

• The ability to identify the appropriate digital marketing platform to run content on (and what type of content to post), according to its likelihood of helping the brand
• Master planning, including the crucial role of calendar management and strategizing (scheduling and timing posts, etc.)
• Interpreting data and analytics
• Evaluating campaign performance (looking over the course of an ad or organic marketing campaign and being able to judge what worked and what didn’t and why)