Social Media Marketing (SMM) is something that can neither be ignored nor can be stayed longer without using it no matter whatever you are doing. Social media marketing can make a huge difference if used wisely.
Social Media Marketing is one of the simplest and fastest ways to outreach to the target audience and engages with them, find out what they are looking for, how to increase the quality of the current products, expand brand awareness, gain traffic, leads, and sales.
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube are some very popular social media forms of current times.
Social media itself is a broad term for locales that may give drastically different social events. For example, Facebook is fully developed social networking sites that enable sharing updates, photographs, joining occasions and various other activities like events, eCommerce, discussions, groups, etc. Twitter, in contrast, is a social site intended to let individuals share short messages or updates, with others.
The most popular social media platforms currently liked and preferred by people of all ages, mainly by millennial’s are –
Facebook is a social networking website that allows users to stay connected and share with their family and friends online. Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg initially aiming for college students, but 2006 onwards, users over 13 with a genuine email address could join Facebook. Having more than 1 billion people using Facebook worldwide has made Facebook the world’s largest social networking site.
Have you ever thought why are people so fond of using Facebook?
After all, there are many other networking sites through which you can share information, such as instant messaging, sending an email and so on. The reason for this is, Facebook has a peculiar feature that allows users to connect and share (send messages and post status updates) with their loved ones in real-time.
For most of the users possessing a Facebook account is considered as a part of being online, something like having their email address. Facebook uses a different method to communicate. Contrary to email and instant messaging, posts that you share on Facebook tend to be more public and more likely to be seen by numerous other people. However, Facebook provides users with privacy settings whether to restrain other users from seeing things or not.
Facebook is not limited to one specific thing, one can use it either for personal or business purposes.
Facebook is not limited to one specific thing; one can use it either for personal or business purposes. It is one of the most powerful and cheapest platforms a business can have for marketing and advertising. Some of the benefits of Facebook include, helps in building a long term connection with the consumer, raising brand recognition among the target population and public as a whole, gaining deep understanding relating to the product or brand and leading to more target audience and creating more sales.
Facebook posts can be done for free and Facebook advertisements cost less when compared with traditional print or broadcast ads. Consequently, the networking site helps in deducting the expenses and potential chance of increasing as a whole marketing Return on Investment (ROI).
It won’t be wrong to say Instagram has awesome features that contrasts it from other social media platforms. Like that of Twitter, users of Instagram can follow one another in an de synchronized way, and can like posts, comment, and tag in photos. It enables users to share photos and videos, add captions, use filters, modify settings, explore and engage with others. Another important feature about Instagram is that people can use maps to check-in and hashtags to search by topic.
The users of Instagram can coincide the photo sharing to other social networks, so posts on Instagram can be displayed directly on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare. The best part about Instagram is that the length of videos that can be uploaded in it is 9 seconds with the same features as that of photos like adding photos, tagging, and sharing. On the contrary, videos in Vines play only once and do not show repetition.
Basically, Instagram is a visual platform (gazing at quality pictures and videos) that allows you to follow people you may or may not know because they offer something interesting. On the other hand, Facebook provides help in connecting and networking with your closed ones. You add people that you know to be in touch with them.
Twitter is a social networking site where you can share about the things that you are doing with other people online. It is another amazing site that can be used for both personal and business purposes. Twitter is based on a tweeting system that grants you to send and receive posts known as tweets. The unique feature that contrasts this site from other is that you can use maximum characters up to 140 and can involve links appropriate websites and means.
When one user follows other users, you can see their tweets in your timeline and similarly, you can follow people and organizations depending on your interests. The users have an option whether they want to tweet themselves or retweet something informative that has been tweeted by others. Retweeting implies that certain information can be circulated immediately and accurately with a wide range of people.
Some benefits of using Twitter is that it can help cover wide number of people rapidly by tweeting and retweeting, follow the work of specialist relating to your field, remain updated about the news and recent developments, and immediately sharing it with others, express yourself as an individual, reach out to more people, receive and send feedbacks regarding the work and so on.
The subject you are tweeting on can rely on whether you are tweeting as an individual, business or representative of a mass or a project. If you are an individual user then you can blend your research with other tweets that interests you the most, for instance, hobbies, news article, and general experience. Understanding about non- academic aspect can make you a unique person to follow.
For instance, if you’re a fan of popular reality show ‘Big Boss’ then you might have seen users’ repetitively tweeting and retweeting about the program to show their support and anger to the favorable and unfavorable contestant respectively. Such tweeting is usually done for showing your personal interest.
If you are tweeting on organization, mass or project behalf then you may send tweets relating to research only. Twitter, in comparison, is an informal way of communicating with people, so grab an opportunity to be humorous and friendly while tweeting.
Is it really necessary to include hashtags while making a post?
Many people use a hashtag to post something, while there are some users who do not have an idea of how it works and for what purpose hashtags are used. Hashtag (#) is used to indicate keywords or topics on twitter.
Hashtags were created on twitter to enable users to find and follow the subject they are interested in. It is generally used before a suitable phrase or keyword in their Tweet for classifying those Tweets and showing them easily in Twitter search.
The amazing feature about using a hashtag is that just by clicking the word that has been hashtagged in any post or messages allows users to see similar Tweets that have used the same hashtag. There is no specific format regarding where hashtags should be included, so users can add hashtags anywhere in their Tweets.
In short, hashtags can be used to research, for humor, searching queries and most importantly can help in finding the target audience. Hashtagged words that become mainstream are oftentimes trending topics.
SnapChat
Another most popular social messaging app is Snapchat, which allows users to interchange photos and videos known as snaps. It provides users what they are looking for, sharing every minute of an individual at the same time making them look amazing.
Why is SnapChat mainly popular amongst teens?
One peculiar quality about Snapchat is that it does not keep a record of the messages i.e. it disappears after certain seconds of viewing, unlike, Twitter and Facebook that broadcast and record every activity that you do. So this feature appeals to the youngsters of recent time and the functions this app has is difficult for everyone to understand.
Furthermore, Snapchat allows you to connect with and follow friends leading to awesome activities like games, news, entertainment, and truly uncommon filters. But one risk about Snapchat is that it allows you and your friends to see each other’s location on a map, which can create a problem. Snapchat has an interesting feature for users, the more you use this app, the more your points will be and as your points are the highest you will be rewarded by Snapchat with some benefits and trophies.
Special features leading to enhance the popularity of Snapchat includes,
- Face lenses and world lenses
Face lenses is an advanced technology that can be used to manipulate users eyes, mouth, head, and shoulders to transform their face. For instance, you might have seen photos of users with cartoon cat ears and bristles, those are face lenses. Some brands use face lenses by changing people into brand symbol or movie character, while others use for product testing by making Snapchatters try new makeup, ornaments and more.
World lenses occur in an outwardly directed camera that helps to identify and map the surrounding. For example, a user might use a rainbow in their snaps which actually looks like it is a part of the photo. Technically, lenses are layers that cost money on Snapchat.
- Geo-filters
Snapchat geo-filters are special elements for Snaps that can be accessed only in a specific locations. Geo- filters are used for various purposes like brands might use it for users to check in and advertise them, while teens could use to apply special filters for their prom party to add to their photos.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing service where clients can watch, give their remarks and upload own videos or stories. The devices in which video service can be accessed are on PCs, laptops, and through mobile phones. YouTube possesses the second largest search engine in the world after Google (proprietor of YouTube).
YouTube motivates users to express their ideas or opinion regarding the videos they have watched, store videos to watch afterward and share videos that interest them. It is up to you whether you want to make the uploaded videos public or private.
YouTube analytics is a self-service analytics and reporting tool that gives information on each uploaded videos, helps to find out how many views you are getting, what sort of people are watching and what place they belong to.
You can also begin a channel for business purposes by uniting all your videos. This authorizes you to personalize your channel with images to represent your firm. ‘About’ section allows you to add a short description regarding your business, contact details and link to your website.
YouTube is a great platform for those who want to promote their brands as it can help to target more potential customers based on demographics, interests or subjects. YouTube users are permitted to make their own playlist depending on their preferred choices.
Have you ever tried making a collection of things that you are interested in? If yes, then you will be amazed to know that is what Pinterest all about.
Pinterest is a social media web that enables users to visibly share and find out new interests by posting (known as pinning or Pinterest) photos or videos to their own or others board and searching what other people have pinned. This social media is basically concentrated on showing a person’s lifestyle, sharing one’s preferences and interests with others and finding people with a similar mindset.
The main purpose of Pinterest is to unite everyone in the world by doing the things they are interested in. Depending on users’ preferences, they can do two things either upload images or pin things they see on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet. Pinterest can also be used by sharing your pins with friends and family by linking with other social media forms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and on board.
For the first time, Pinterest showed amazing growth in 2013, out racing Facebook as the email sharing medium and the credit goes to the women especially of Midwest. The research has shown that around 80% of Pinterest users are women. Pinterest focused on the home arts like cooking, gardening, fashion, decorating and other fields of women’s interests. However, the involvement of male users in Pinterest usage is in increasing trend due to some interesting things that male prefer to do like fly fishing, hunting, and cigars.
According to the report (in the latest quarter of 2013) shown through a share, the content sharing on Pinterest has reached 19.2%, the LinkedIn share grew to 15.1%, Facebook rose to 14.7%, while Twitter fell to 7.6%.
LinkedIn is a social networking site developed focusing on professionals. It allows you to web and makes professional portfolio, but you can also use it for searching new job opportunities. LinkedIn is popular not only to the experts in business but also to brand new college graduates. It is often used by organizations or recruiters who are seeking for job applicants. LinkedIn helps to connect with the people you know as well as the people that LinkedIn connections know.
LinkedIn refers to activities like sharing articles on LinkedIn that you find fascinating and expressing your thoughts regarding the article. While commenting on one thing that needs to be considered is that the remarks you are making should be authentic and based on facts.
Likewise, job seekers can use tab like “Let Recruiters know You Are Open” found under profession interests and “Job Recommendations” to get notification regarding work. Employers can get similar kind advantage to hire potential job applicants or gain a chance to follow organizations from where candidates have already been hired. It can also help to get the current business news from your connections or directly through LinkedIn.
LinkedIn can also be used for advertising purpose, it can be done by using the Campaign Manager to run In Mail campaigns and then posting ads. Basically, LinkedIn is based on a pay-per-click scheme, this implies whether you will be charged or not depends on if someone reacts to your ad. That is why you will need to focus your targets attentively, considering all the skills you have and utilizing it properly.
& Finally
These are some popular and widely used social media networking sites. The purpose of every social media platform is different, so it is up to the users to identify what are they actually looking for and use it accordingly. There is no restriction in using more than one media app, but it is necessary to understand which is used for what reason or do they really need that media index.