How social media has changed marketing Marketing has taken a new shift with social media taking center stage. Social media offers businesses different approaches to market their products either via organic marketing which is free or paid targeted marketing. The sponsored content appearing on newsfeeds may appear randomly or triggered – targeting users that had earlier made a search query or visited a website related to the keywords in the sponsored content. Businesses today make all sorts of announcements on their social media pages such as the launching of new products, product offers, promotions, job vacancies, and the release of new upgrades. These announcements can either be organic or sponsored posts. This a new avenue where businesses can set up shops under their social media accounts. The benefit of targeted marketing gives all business the much needed equal chance to promote their products and services at a much cheaper cost. Today with social media, which surprisingly has a wider reach than traditional media, all businesses have a chance to reach a good number of consumers organically or at a small fee increasing the competition. It is not a surprise to see social posts that have little or nothing to do with the core business of a company being posted on a company’s social media accounts. Start-ups and small businesses can create social media accounts or pages, sponsor their content to reach more people and share their pages or content on other pages and groups with large followings so that it increases their visibility.
The insurgence of social media among millennials has been drastic worldwide especially in the last decade.
This populace and extensive use of social media has affected many sectors differently both positively and negatively – among them the business sector.
Our observation as a social media marketing company is that social media dominance has made it central for companies to rely on these platforms and this has altered how businesses operate in many ways. Here are some of the primary changes we have seen.
How social media has changed marketing
Marketing has taken a new shift with social media taking center stage. This is the main way businesses utilize social media. Social media offers businesses different approaches to market their products either via organic marketing which is free or paid targeted marketing.
Organic marketing mainly entails adoption and utilization of keywords similar to search engine optimization. It requires creating social media accounts or pages, naming and describing the page or account using the keywords and regularly creating and sharing keyword-optimized content related to a business. The main aim of organic marketing is to achieve top rankings on search results whether on social media or search engines whenever a search query using the keywords is put. Businesses can also advertise by sharing posts, directly posting to groups or on influencer pages with large followings.
Paid targeted marketing, on the other hand, mainly entails paying to sponsor your content. The paid content appears at the top of the organic search result ranking, or on the newsfeed of users. The sponsored content appearing on newsfeeds may appear randomly or triggered – targeting users that had earlier made a search query or visited a website related to the keywords in the sponsored content. Businesses can pay to sponsor content on their social media or content outside of social media such as content from their website, YouTube or from a business app among other sources.
Example of a business sponsoring a video advertisement linked to its website to appear on a users’ newsfeed.
The appearance of Sponsored Ads in the Newsfeed section and the advertisement section (Image Source: Disruptive Advertising)
Following the new needs, hundreds of social media marketing agencies have been established all over the world to offer professional social media marketing services to businesses. These firms are crucial to businesses that have limited expertise in social media marketing and can be contracted for nearly anything concerning social media marketing.
How social media has changed our connection with customers in real-time
Social media has also provided a new way that businesses can connect and communicate with their customers or clients. Chatting directly on social media has become a convenient way people contact businesses to make an order, inquiry, raise grievances or simply seek assistance.
This new channel has been embraced so widely that businesses are hiring social media managers and attendants to handle their social media accounts. It has been proven to be a cheaper means of offering customer care services and to the majority of people a preferred choice in comparison to phone calls. It is a low-cost investment as compared to the traditional phone call system that required huge initial installation capital and a significant running and maintenance capital.
The customer care services offered on social media are also more satisfying as the customer can refer back to the chat later and in case of change or shifts the new attendant can easily refer to the previous chat and progress from where the predecessor stopped.
How social media has changed transparency in operations
Social media has also contributed to business transparency through consumer-generated reviews, recommendations, and comments.
Businesses today barely go unnoticed if they engage in any ambiguity or provide substandard products or service….
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