In this era of globalization customers are more informed & have much more options than what they had few years back. This throat cutting competition and continuous development has brought down the life cycle of each & every product, ex. mobile phones have life cycle of just 3 months. In such a competitive era product superiority has become a myth, what matters is how well & fast you can communicate & deliver your product to customers. Also cost should be the minimum.
Thus going by traditional means of marketing is hara-kiri for any brand. Hence companies have to opt for latest trends of marketing i.e. digital marketing. It is the fastest & the cheapest mean to reach customers. In digital marketing social media is one of the important tools.
This era is of virtual socialization, where everyone is connected virtually through social media. Thus industries are also trying hard to tap this opportunity. Customers are interacting with brands through social media; therefore, having a strong social media presence on the web is the key to tap into their interest. If implemented correctly, marketing with social media can bring remarkable success to any business. Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes.
Social media marketing can help with a number of goals, such as:
- Website traffic
- Conversions
- Brand awareness
- Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
- Communication and interaction with key audiences
You can also measure social media ROI
Before going for social media marketing, companies should evaluate following parameter
- Who is their target segment
- What kind of content they want to deliver
- What kind of image they want to create
- Cost factor
- Competition
After evaluation marketing strategy should be formulated, meeting requirements of all the parameters.
Industries which need to reach masses (generally B2C) prefer social media but companies which are into niche area & are into B2B generally doesn’t opt for social media.
Benefits of social media are
- Increased brand awareness & loyalty
- More opportunity to convert
- Higher brand authority – Continuous interaction & feedback from customer build faith & goodwill of the brand, moreover company can understand customer need better.
- Decreased cost of marketing
References;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/
http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-brands-use-social-media-marketing-0995357
http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/marketing-trends-2014/
