by 
In this article, we will talk about social media marketing. We know that companies want to be online, to have phone calls, orders, customers but who makes these things happen?
Affiliate disclaimer:“This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks.”
You will also find 4 steps you need to follow if you want to do social media marketing for the business you own or if you want to work in this field.
Behind an online project are people who create, conceive, do not sleep at night thinking about what else to do to make potential customers click and like on the content created. And most importantly to buy.
In essence, SMM can encompass them all. From attention-grabbing stages to sales.
And, if you want to know more about social media marketing and what problems these solve for a business, read the article further. As usual, you will find things said from another perspective.
What is social media marketing? Boring explanation
Behind online technologies is not the future, but the present. Social networks have “swallowed” a large part of the population on Earth.
This circumstance has served as a strong impetus for the emergence of new opportunities in business development. More business people with more initiative have started thinking about introducing business in the online space and attracting consumers for their products or services through social networks.
Frankly, do they have a choice? Now that we spend whole days in our homes and any purchase idea usually starts with a google search or that we caught an ad on the fly.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs are looking for SMM specialists who have a magic wand and work miracles. Some will like others will result overnight without investing anything. Maybe a poor salary.
Much is written about the role of social networks. About 70-80% of the world’s spending time on social media. And if we associate them with real life, we understand many aspects of this life: hobbies and entertainment, learning and working, shopping and sales.
That is, everything I had only in real life, passed without problems in virtual life, ie on the net. In the process of developing social networks, the possibility of implementing and developing business in the online environment was discovered. And the main tool in this regard has become the SMM.
Social media marketing: the analysis of the essence
What does Social Media Marketing or SMM in short mean?
It is also called social marketing or online marketing and, is the process of attracting interest in a resource on the Internet through social platforms.
In other words, this is a mechanism for attracting traffic, ie the flow of visitors (they are also potential consumers), on a brand, services, or products through social networks.
E.g:
You are a businessman (real or conditioned), you want to do business online, choose a social platform for this, go there with your product, choose your target audience and try in many ways to offer the product to consumers.
And if you want to be successful in this field, you need to be present on social platforms, participate in communication with users of this platform and select interesting, useful, and constantly changing content about your product, so that interest in it not be lost. This is the essence of SMM development.
Social media marketing is a complex of events in social networks, blogs, and forums, to promote the products and services of various companies.
What can be done with social media marketing for business?
Understandably, SMM is not done alone. Behind this process is a person. It is named in several ways, such as SMM-manager, SMM specialist, etc. But the essence does not change, and the tasks are the same anyway:
- Identifying the target audience and studying their interests.
- Performing the niche analysis: on which platform is it better to promote the brand, by what methods, and with what tools.
- Obtaining an increase in the number of the public through the complex of events, which includes advertising, discounts, contests, raffles, etc.
- Working on the company’s image: conducting a PR campaign, follow the feedback, eliminating the negative.
- Monitoring the process of progress: analysis of statistics, dynamics.
I have listed only the basic tasks of social media marketing. This is far from the whole list, as each company pursues its own interests and concentrates on its own tasks.
Social media in action: the stages of promotion in social networks
Promoting SMM is not an easy thing, it takes place in several stages:
Choosing the platform for the target audience.
Why is this important? Because social networks, at the moment, are quite many and each has its own “contingent”. Respectively, the interests are different. For example, I am less and less on Facebook. At the moment it is more of a chat than a network of interest. At the same time, I spend a lot of time on Youtube or blogs where you learn new things.
Choosing the communication strategy.
Once the social platform has been decided, it is important to decide which method is right for you to create the target audience.
What can this be?
A specially created group, or a community, or a post, or even your own profile. In fact, this is not important, but the fact that the platform always works, to provide the target audience with the desired content, but this is the next stage.
Content creation and placement.
He must be not only interesting and useful but also viral, one to be offered likes and shares. To promote your post faster, you still need to invest money and launch paid ads.
Profit generation
It is the most difficult and unstable stage because the basic task of the SMM specialist is to ensure that the majority of subscribers go to the customer’s website and become its customers. Here already how and to whom luck smiles. Various cases of monetization, success, and less are known.
It is possible to obtain success and a good profit also on the groups that have some 3 – 5 thousand subscribers, but it is possible to obtain a good profit also based on the groups of 100 subscribers. It depends on the case. Here it is good to mention the correct choice of strategies and tactics for the successful realization of the project. And also, as in every case, except the plan, you need to implement your own mechanisms and tools.
Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing
Each industry has its advantages and disadvantages. Before starting a business, you need to analyze the pros and cons extremely well. Let’s see now what kind of priorities SMM gives you and if it’s worth taking care of.
So, here are some of the advantages of the social media marketing that occupy the top positions.
The request
If you want to make money from this then you need to know that the demand for the services of SMM specialists is constantly increasing.
However, the good thing about this profession is that you have a lot of flexibility. You can work in the office with the team, or you can work from home. You are also free to go ahead and make your own project online.
The creative way.
Ability to show you all the hidden talents. SMM is about creativity. You’ve probably noticed that even serious profile brands (eg TESLA) turn to creative/funny ideas to make their Christmas tree known.
A huge audience of potential customers:
After all, social networks have millions of users. You have the flexibility to choose the niche and the type of business to work for.
Minimum costs
For the implementation of this field and a large amortization after promotion. You do not need to start an SMM business. The main resource is the time and reserves of creative ideas to approach the target audience. SMM is about content.
Solid reward for high-quality promotional services.
You can make money in this field through several methods: offering consulting services, as an employee, affiliate marketing, or hiring an expert in this field.
What about the disadvantages?
I would prefer to call them difficulties, which you will have to face doing this activity every day. And first of all, they are:
Content selection
Which will favorably illustrate the promoted product. You need a rich imagination, which many do not have, and quite a long time, to find the necessary material and prepare it for publication.
Working with advertising.
Without investment, most likely, you will be able to make SMM. For product advertising, you will have to invest your own or the company’s resources for which you work. It depends on the working method.
Competition
There is a lot of competition in this area. It’s not like 10 years ago when people were skeptical of social media. Now many have been forced to be online.
How to become an expert in social media marketing?
In general, this profession, if we can call it that, seems very limited, but at the same time, it requires a wide range of knowledge and especially adaptation to emerging trends.
What knowledge and skills should a “guru” have in SMM?
Therefore, this specialist must know first of all the principles of marketing:
- to be proficient in basic information technologies;
- be familiar with and be able to use media automation tools;
- to know the characteristics of community management;
- have analytical skills;
- to know and be able to use different types of advertising;
- have communication skills;
- be able to create contacts;
- be creative: be able to create interesting and viral content;
- to be able to develop and implement in practice strategies for attracting the public from social networks, on the client’s website.
- No less important qualities are self-organization and self-discipline.
The results of such an expert can be seen quickly.
If you are the type of person who always wants to be pushed from behind, this field is probably not for you.
Conclusion about social media marketing
As a final point, we want to thank you for coming here to read. Hopefully now you more about social media marketing.
We are curious to find out what kind of content you would like to see on Instagram or Facebook: written, audio or video.
