Social Media

Social Media Marketing

[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms are a set of applications to connect people from all around the world in some different effective communication ways, a mixture of entertaining stuff and knowledge. Social media is an important digital marketing platform for brands of all kinds and sizes. With over 3.2 Billion users on social media, there is no better place than social media to market the product or service of a company ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ejWZ9Rqe","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kaur, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Kaur, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1380,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/IHY6YXH7"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/IHY6YXH7"],"itemData":{"id":1380,"type":"article-journal","title":"Social media marketing","container-title":"Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR)","page":"6-12","volume":"5","issue":"4","author":[{"family":"Kaur","given":"Simerpreet"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kaur, 2016). Some of the best well-known social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp; WhatsApp has achieved great success. Facebook is quite popular even right now, but trends are falling and people are now moving to Instagram and Snapchat, especially for generation Z and millennials ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"63psMpLc","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Elliott, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Elliott, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1382,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/Z299BAYW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/Z299BAYW"],"itemData":{"id":1382,"type":"webpage","title":"Using Snapchat to Connect with Generation Z and Millennials | Community Center | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA","URL":"https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2019/july/using-snapchat-to-connect-with-generation-z-and-millennials/","author":[{"family":"Elliott","given":"Jennifer"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,2]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Elliott, n.d.).

From the marketing point of view as well as for personal usage, Facebook is still ruling the social media platform in recent times. When it comes to Facebook, they have their share of ups and downs. It has been the first-ever social media platform to launch its own ad campaigns. Since then, it has turned into a benchmark. The other social media platforms have followed the path that Facebook has set. It alone enjoys more than 2 billion users every month. Among this number, one billion users log on to Facebook daily. Even though YouTube and Instagram are considered to be strong contenders for the user base, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform with the dominating user number and huge potential for reach and engagement. The number of users and popularity makes Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram the top three choices in the arena of social media marketing.

Each has its distinguished benefits, for example, Facebook is used by everyone, even the older demographics have shown been to be the most active on Facebook ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"pdcsG2Ld","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Dahl, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Dahl, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1379,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/BNLGCQU6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/BNLGCQU6"],"itemData":{"id":1379,"type":"book","title":"Social media marketing: Theories and applications","publisher":"Sage","ISBN":"1-5264-2302-2","author":[{"family":"Dahl","given":"Stephan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Dahl, 2018). Facebook and LinkedIn allow one to connect to businesses for possible collaborations, where future employees would be able to find a company and message them. Business owners can also look at reviews that have been left by their customers or clientele.

Instagram like Facebook is just as accessible and easy to use. If one has a more creative business, this might be a better fit, also for start-up businesses ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"4cGy1rcI","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Virtanen, Bj\\uc0\\u246{}rk, & Sj\\uc0\\u246{}str\\uc0\\u246{}m, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Virtanen, Björk, & Sjöström, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1381,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/KFFRPY6B"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/KFFRPY6B"],"itemData":{"id":1381,"type":"article-journal","title":"Follow for follow: marketing of a start-up company on Instagram","container-title":"Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development","page":"468-484","volume":"24","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Virtanen","given":"Henrik"},{"family":"Björk","given":"Peter"},{"family":"Sjöström","given":"Elin"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Virtanen, Björk, & Sjöström, 2017). Businesses can grow an organic following of supporters and can be there for their customers as soon as they have any questions or concerns by simply scrolling through the comments section. Instagram allows brands to be a little bit more creative with their posts since it’s mostly all photos, so it is beneficial for the companies and brands in multiple ways. The only downside to Instagram is that it is mostly a mobile application so some feature that is enabled on phone may not translate to the desktop. However, it is one of the most efficacious marketing platforms in this age of smartphones. YouTube is the second most widely used search engine after Google. Presence of billions of users alongside video marketing features makes it the third most popular platform for the brands.

The real return in social media marketing comes when a savvy marketer utilizes savvy tools with right targeting and consumer intelligence. It’s savvy because marketers can use the right skills to deliver the most relevant message to relevant consumers, and gain the benefits. The next wave of social media will revolve around turning collective intelligence into a whole new stream of value-driven hubs where ROI is real and individual data sets offer a wealth of insights. Planning an effective social media marketing strategy is not just a question of plucking ideas out of the air, its way more tactical than that. A strategy is a key sauce in the recipe for social media marketing. Social media is a crucial element of any digital marketing strategy but not each company uses its entire potential and opportunities. One should keep in mind that it’s not just about the number of users but the right strategy for the right platform.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Dahl, S. (2018). Social media marketing: Theories and applications. Sage.

Elliott, J. (n.d.). Using Snapchat to Connect with Generation Z and Millennials | Community Center | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA. Retrieved November 2, 2019, from https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2019/july/using-snapchat-to-connect-with-generation-z-and-millennials/

Kaur, S. (2016). Social media marketing. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR), 5(4), 6–12.

Virtanen, H., Björk, P., & Sjöström, E. (2017). Follow for follow: Marketing of a start-up company on Instagram. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 24(3), 468–484.