In the past, marketing was all about advertising, business cards, and traveling to conferences. The costs of these could add up quickly, making it difficult for new or small businesses to market to their target audiences. While traditional methods of marketing have remained valid, the Internet and social media have leveled the marketing playing field by opening up free and less expensive methods of reaching a business’s target audience.
How Many People Use Social Media?
About half the world’s population is on social media almost daily. That’s about 3.5 billion people connecting to each other via social media. And that is an enormous potential audience. There’s a good chance that any business will be able to find their target audience within that huge number of social media users.
How Can Business Find Their Targeted Audience?
Travel is no longer required to reach a targeted audience. On social media, groups of like-minded people come together in groups. These groups may not always be ones that lend themselves well to marketing, as they’re based on users’ interests, but depending on the industry and the business they can be very useful.
How Can Business Reach Their Targeted Audience?
Businesses can create their own social media accounts and profiles, which interested users can follow and interact with. Posting content that is useful and relevant to potential customers gives companies an opportunity to engage with them. Users like to see behind the scenes and to see the people behind a business. They also like to see useful information about how to better use products.
Do Customers Shop on Social Media?
Millions of users report that they research products online. Because social media is more casual and personal than a website or an advertisement. Users can also talk with each other about a company and its products as well as read reviews. Many customers visit a company’s social media page to see if others are using the page to make complaints.
Can Business Advertise on Social Media?
Many social media channels also offer paid advertising opportunities. Because of the number of users using social media and the targeting that is possible with the paid ads, many businesses find the benefits to be worth the cost. You can design your own ads on social media so they would just be a normal part of your advertising strategy, just like print, television, or Google ads would be.
Do Social Influencers Improve Marketing?
Collaborations with social media influencers is a marketing option that isn’t available with traditional forms of marketing. Influencers are social media users with very large followings. Working with an influencer means that your company can target the influencer’s entire audience and that audience may see the influencer’s collaboration with you as an endorsement of your business and your products or services.
Is Social Media Good for Word-of-Mouth?
Social media is essentially a huge word-of-mouth platform. Users get together in one place online and share experiences, likes, and dislikes with each other, regardless of where they are physically located. Someone living in London can recommend a product to someone living in Tokyo. A user in New York City can share a bad experience with a relative living in Sydney, Australia.
If users are happy with a company’s products and services, they will share content with each other, providing businesses with what amounts to free advertising. Users will also post their own content on a business’s social media page, offering more opportunities for engagement with your target audience.