With over 80% of consumers reporting that social media—especially influencer content—significantly impacts buying decisions, marketers across industries are driving the evolution of social media marketing (SMM) from a stand-alone tool to a multipronged source of marketing intelligence on an increasingly important—and growing—audience.1
Within 18 years, from 2004—when MySpace became the first social media site to reach one million active users—until 2022, the dramatic growth of interactive digital channels took social media to levels that challenge even the reach of television and radio.2 For example, by March of 2022, there were 4.62 billion social media users globally—over 58% of world’s total population—an increase of over 10% in one year alone.3 4
As the use of social media and marketing jobs trends upwards, there is no end in sight—especially in the wake of pandemic-driven shifts in the economy that are predicted to become permanent, e.g., remote work. It has become imperative for marketers to leverage social media to capture the significant competitive advantage that engagement with this important audience can deliver much more rapidly and more effectively than traditional marketing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Social media marketing (SMM) uses social media and social networks—like Facebook, 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 are able to influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting personal data that allows messaging to be tailored to resonate with users.
What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Social media marketing (SMM) (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, social media marketing (SMM) has purpose-built data analytics tools that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.
The power of social media marketing (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 ways that were previously impossible, but there is also an extraordinary range of avenues to connect—from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like Facebook) to microblogging services (like Twitter).
Interaction: The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media—whether direct communication or passive “liking”—enables businesses to leverage free advertising opportunities from eWOM (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, i.e., businesses can measure their “social equity”—in other words, they can measure the ROI (return on investment) from their SMM campaigns.
Customer Data: A well-designed social media marketing (SMM) plan also 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.
How Social Media Marketing (SMM) Works
As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, social media transformed not only the way we connect with one another but also the way businesses are able to influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic, and personal information to tailor messaging to what is most likely to resonate with users.
SMM Action Plan: The more targeted your social media marketing (SMM) strategy is, the more effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management space, recommends the following action plan to build an effective SMM campaign that has both an execution framework and performance metrics:5
- Align SMM goals to clear business objectives
- Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
- Conduct a competitive analysis on your competition (successes and failures)
- Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)
- Set up accounts and upgrade profiles
- Create a calendar for SMM content delivery
- Create best-in-class content
- Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing has several distinct advantages, including the fact that SMM has two kinds of interaction that drive marketing outcomes: both customer-to-customer and firm-to-customer. In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value by capturing purchase activity, SMM can track customer value both directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product referrals), which enables targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools to identify and grow customer loyalty.
Shareable Content: Businesses can also convert the amplified interconnectedness of SMM into the creation of sticky content, the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at first glance and gets them to purchase products and then share the content. The creation of shareable content is one of the most important ways that social media marketing drives sustainable business growth—because this kind of WOM (word-of-mouth) advertising not only reaches an otherwise inaccessible audience, but also carries the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts.
Earned Media: Another kind of earned media (a term for brand exposure from methods other than paid advertising) that social media marketing can encourage is customer-created content, such as product reviews and recommendations.
Viral Marketing: Another SMM strategy that relies on the audience to generate the message is viral marketing, a sales technique that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth product information at an ever-increasing rate. Once a message is being shared with the general public far beyond the target audience, it is considered viral—a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.6
Customer Segmentation: Because customer segmentation is much more refined on social media marketing (SMM) than on traditional marketing channels, companies can ensure they focus their marketing resources on their exact target audiences.
Tracking Metrics
According to Sprout Social, the most important social media marketing (SMM) metrics for every business to track are focused on the customer—engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks); impressions (how many times a post shows up); reach/virality (how many unique views an SMM post has); share of voice (how far a brand reaches in the online sphere); referrals (how a user lands on a site); and conversions (when a user makes a purchase on a site). However, one of the most important metrics to track is focused on the business—response rate/time (how often and how fast the business responds to customer messages).7
When a business is trying to determine which metrics to track in the sea of data that social media generates, the rule is always to align each business goal to the relevant metric. If your business goal is to grow conversions from an SMM campaign by 15% within three months, then use a social media analytics tool that measures the effectiveness of your campaign against that specific target.7
Even in the digital age, people appreciate the human touch, so don't rely only on social media to get the word out.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Tailored social media marketing (SMM) campaigns that instantly reach broad target audiences—from current and prospective customers, employees, bloggers, and the media to third-party reviewers and trade groups—are clearly advantageous to any business.
But—like any social media content—SMM campaigns can leave a company open to attack. For example, a viral video claiming that a product causes illness or injury must be addressed by the company immediately—whether the claim is true or false. Even if a company can set the record straight, false viral content can make consumers less likely to purchase from the company in the future.
What Is Sticky Content in Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Sticky content is the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at first glance and then influences them to purchase products and share the content.
What Is Viral Marketing i
Viral marketing is a SMM strategy that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth information about a product at an ever-increasing rate—a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.
n Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
What Is Earned Media in Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Earned media is a marketing term for brand exposure from methods other than paid advertising, e.g., customer-created content ranging from product reviews and recommendations to shares, reposts, and mentions.