Globally, technology has greatly influenced people's lives in many ways. Social media should be highlighted here as another platform and method of communication that people have developed as a result of technology. It is amazing how these platforms have revolutionized the way companies do business today.
Let's have an overview of social media
It all started before the 90s when people learned to adapt to technology. They tried to discover things that would make people's lives easier, for instance in communication and other areas of life.
The first attempt to connect people worldwide was a networking platform called Sig Degrees, a social media site founded in 1996 by Andrew Weinreich. He is known as the "father of social networking". Like Weinreich, many other people worked in the creation of social platforms.
Social media today
As noted by SEMrush, many platforms have been created, but we want to mention some of them that are more popular in recent years and their active monthly users for Q1 2022: Facebook with 2.9 billion active users, Youtube with 2.56 billion, WhatsApp with 2 billion, Instagram 1.47 Billion, WeChat 1.26 billion, TikTok 1 billion, Facebook Messenger 988 million active users, and other social media platforms.
Social media marketing - a close up look
Looking for how platforms help people communicate, companies have started to take advantage of these opportunities, and they have definitely made smart decisions.
The history of social media marketing began shortly after social media reached a mass audience. Everything related to its success can be associated with Facebook ads, which are known as the first form of social media marketing by Mark Zuckerberg, and there is no need to say who he is. He is known worldwide and has helped millions of companies succeed in the tough business world through Facebook ads. People used this opportunity to make themselves known to a wide audience and connect with customers worldwide. This is called the era of social media marketing.
Social media marketing as a form of digital marketing helps businesses achieve their marketing and branding goals and has many other benefits:
- Enables companies to make their business an active participant in the target market
- Help drive traffic to company websites so they can convert visitors into customers, which in turn helps generate leads and conversions
- Improve brand awareness
- Helps build strong relationships between customers and businesses
- Businesses can measure their marketing efforts
- Businesses can share unique and informative content
- Helps build a great community
Social Media Marketing Strategy Steps
All over the world, companies are using different social media marketing strategies to reach their target audience and succeed there. More than ever, there is an opportunity for companies to grow and succeed globally.
Below are some steps for your social media marketing strategy that can get you on the right track:
- Choose your business goals
- Get to know your target audience and your competition
- Conduct a social media audit
- Set up an account and improve your profiles
- Use a social media calendar
- Create compelling and meaningful content
- Track the performance of your strategy and make adjustments
- Enjoy success
Working with digital marketing agencies like Tactica is a crucial step that businesses take to enhance their social media marketing strategy. These agencies possess expertise in navigating the dynamic world of digital marketing and have a deep understanding of the various social media platforms. They bring valuable insights, data-driven approaches, and industry best practices to the table, helping businesses effectively reach their target audience and achieve their marketing goals. Digital marketing agencies can provide strategic guidance, develop tailored content strategies, optimize social media profiles, manage ad campaigns, and track the performance of the marketing efforts. By partnering with a digital marketing agency, businesses can leverage their specialized knowledge and resources to maximize their social media presence and drive tangible results.
How the “The Body Shop” company is using social media marketing strategy
Social media marketing brings many benefits, but let's use an example to explain how this form of marketing "saved" a company's life and helped it achieve so much success in the industry:
The Body Shop is a global cosmetics company founded in 1976, and today it is one of the most successful companies, with various products that are organic and that people love. The company invests in marketing and benefits greatly from it: most of its campaigns are brand storytelling and it uses social media for storytelling. Simple, readable, and interesting campaigns and posts are created and different campaigns are created depending on the season, year, and holidays.
For the Covid 19, when everyone stayed at home and felt depressed, the company decided to launch some campaigns to make people take care of themselves because in such times they need more care. So they released campaigns on how to treat themselves, how to do yoga and exercise at home, and they offered people the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. When people started to go outside, restaurants also opened, and the company launched another campaign asking people to go back to a store to buy some products after a long time.
Social media marketing has a huge impact on the company's success, and the company continues to rely on this type of marketing.
Conclusion
More than ever, businesses have the opportunity to expand abroad, and fortunately, they are doing it that way. One of the most effective marketing techniques today is social media marketing, which both individuals and businesses can use to their advantage.
The fact that almost all large companies are using social media marketing and even the smallest companies are moving in the right direction shows that social media marketing is undoubtedly having a huge impact on the business world.