Key Takeaways
- Social media handles can make or break your brand!
- But to achieve business goals fast, you need an expert SMM team.
- Choosing a good SMM partner can be difficult, and thus we present you with Wildnet Technologies!
Our digital age has made social media marketing, or SMM, a vital business tool!
Offering unique ways to connect with customers, drive website traffic, build brand awareness, and more are the various ways social media helps a business grow.
Each social media platform has its own distinct benefits, too! Be they YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, TikTok, or niche sites like Quora and Reddit, each target a unique audience.
This blog will highlight their benefits and shed light on how businesses can utilise them.
So, if you are an entrepreneur, a marketer, or a business owner, you will find this blog to your liking!
A few facts
> 5.07 billion people are using social media across the world in 2024.
> The most used (41%) social media platform by age 18-29 is Snapchat.
> Social media users are using 7.2 social media platforms per month.
> 2 hours 20 minutes is average daily time spent on social media.
> Facebook is the most used social media platform across the world.
Understanding Social Media Marketing or SMM
Using social media platforms to casually reach your target audience to promote a service or a product is known as Social media marketing, or SMM.
You create content that will make the users stop scrolling, and then the creativity, immersiveness, and engagement of the post inspires them to click on CTAs or call to action buttons and share the post with their followers.
Users find it easy to interact on social media, and that’s why many brands have utilised it to their benefits!
If you are not using SMM, you are losing the race to your competition.
The role of Social Media in the current Digital Landscape
The current digital landscape is enriched by social media.
Gone are the days when people used it just for entertainment and socializing. Now it is a business tool that taps into unlimited marketing potential.
It is cost-effective and targets users based on their preferences, which is encouraged by users by sharing what they like and becoming unpaid influencers!
Key Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Let us open up the gift basket that SMM offers to your brand and share its benefits out loud.
Here they are:
- Brand Awareness
When more than half of the world population is on social media, it is the natural place to make users aware of your brand.
Plus, with so many users and their preferences, targeting is better, too!
- Cost-Effectiveness
Almost all the social media platforms are free to sign up and use!
Plus, if you run paid social media campaigns, they cost less than paid campaigns on other marketing channels.
- Engagement and Communication
With social media, you reach out to your user directly!
This helps in building a strong bond and portrays the caring nature of the brand. This deep relationship can easily turn into customer loyalty and retention.
- Boosting Website’s SEO
With appropriate hooks, invigorating content, and aptly placed CTAs with the links to your website, you can drive your social traffic to the website.
Search engines love websites that are being regularly visited, searched for, and clicked upon.
With a proper channelizing strategy, your website will witness improved search engine rankings, more inbound traffic, and finally more conversions.
- Enhanced Brand Loyalty
Normally, users cannot interact with brands. They cannot share their appreciation for the brands with their friends.
With social media, though, this divide is negated totally!
Now anyone can share their emotions with their favourite brands; this is such a great feeling that it induces brand loyalty!
This loyalty makes these users your organic brand advocates or free influencers.
The benefits do not end here, as the businesses are now switching to social commerce!
Platform Specific Marketing Advantages
Now its time for the big reveal. Let’s get to know social media platforms as per their advantages.
Facebook: Advance Targeting & Broad Reach
With more than 3 billion active users monthly, Facebook reigns at the top.
Since it has the largest user base, it is the most preferred social media platform for paid social ad campaigns.
Target Audience:
- Used by Gen X (44-59 years), Millennials (28-43 years), and Gen Z (12-27 years).
- 56.3% Male and 43.7% Female users
Demographics:
- For India (1st) and USA (2nd)
You can definitely invest in running paid campaigns on Facebook, as it covers all sorts of brands and audiences.
YouTube: Brand Awareness
With 1 billion hours watched every day (via TV on YouTube), it is the best way platform for long-form videos.
Target Audience:
- Used by all, 66% Gen Zs to Boomers (60-78)
- 54.4% Male and 45.6% Female users
Demographics:
- For South Asia (1st), Southeast Asia (2nd), North America (3rd), and South America (4th)
With 70 billion views a day for YouTube Shorts, YouTube has struck a balance between long and short form videos. Thus, it can be used for all sorts of video content and promotion.
Instagram: Young Audience and Visual Storytelling
With 2.4 billion users monthly and 33.1 minutes per day usage, Instagram is a definite way to do SMM for a younger audience.
Target Audience:
- Used by Gen Z and Millennials
- Most used by Males aged 18-24 and Females aged 18-34
Demographics:
- For India (1st) and USA (2nd)
Thus, Instagram can be used to target a younger audience from India and the USA for all sorts of industries using visual storytelling!
WhatsApp: Broad Targeting via Visual Storytelling
With 2 billion active users across the globe, it is a significant social media platform that allows all sorts of content type and length.
Target Audience:
- Most used messaging app by Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X
- Used by 52.9% Males and 47.1% Females
Demographics:
- For India (1st), Brazil (2nd), Indonesia (3rd), USA (4th)
Thus, WhatsApp can be used for broad targeting and marketing to people of all ages and genders.
TikTok: Marketing and Ecommerce for a Younger Audience
With more than 2 billion users, TikTok is the best social media app for short videos.
Target Audience:
- Most used by Gen Z (18 to 24 years)
- Used by 21.5% Females and 17% Males from Gen Z
Demographics:
- For USA (1st), Indonesia (2nd)
TikTok is the best social media platform for B2C brands that are targeting social commerce via short videos!
Snapchat: For the Youngest Generation Audience
Snapchat has more than 800 million users and attracts new age users due to its exceptional features and functionalities!
Target Audience:
- Most used by Gen Z (90%), Millennials (75%), and Gen Alpha (0–11 years)
- 51% females and 46% Males use it.
Demographics:
- For India (1st), USA (2nd), Pakistan (3rd), and France (4th)
Thus, Snapchat is the social media platform for younger audiences targeting!
LinkedIn: Professional growth and B2B Marketing
With 67 million companies, 1 billion users, and 65 million users searching for jobs each week, LinkedIn is the best place to target companies.
Target Audience:
- Most used by Millennials and Gen Z
- 56.4% Males and 43.6% Females use it.
Demographics:
- For USA (1st), India (2nd), China (3rd), and Brazil (4th)
Thus, LinkedIn is best for B2B targeting!
Reddit: Targeted engagement to Niche audience
Platforms like Reddit and Quora help in targeting niche audiences with 504 million and 400 million users, respectively!
Target Audience:
- Most used by Millennials and Gen Z
- Most used by Male users
Demographics:
- For USA (1st), UK (2nd), and Canada (3rd)
Thus, Reddit and Quora are best for building up communities and loyal users in your Niche!
With this information, you make an educated guess regarding which social media platform to use for which audience.
Boosting Traffic and Audience Engagement
Social media can drive your web traffic and audience engagement through the roof!
Here are a few strategies for the same:
- Cross Platform
Do cross platform promotions like posting your blogs and articles from your website onto social media handles.
This will provide great content for your socials and drive traffic back to your website!
- CTAs
Using appropriate CTAs on your social media posts helps.
Users need light guidance during their sales/marketing funnel journey, and this can be augmented via CTAs.
- Cross Branding
Use your social media handles to like and comment on other related brands’ posts.
This way you tap into the audiences of big players who are credible names in your and related industries!
- Loyal Community
You can easily build your own community on social media!
For that, be open to responding and commenting on your posts and promoting UGC, or user generated content.
This way you interlink all social media platforms with your website and use them to boost traffic and engagement.
Social Media Marketing Services for the Win
Social media marketing, or SMM, is tough and needs dedicated resources but can garner quick results with lesser investment, i.e., a good ROI or return on investment.
When do you need SMM?
Here are a few scenarios when you need SMM:
- No or negligible increase in followers and engagement rate,
- Struggling to juggle other core business functions with SMM, and
- Not able to create content that engages users.
Case Studies: Success from SMM
Let us share a few case studies showing how SMM can help you win,
- A Clothing brand saw boosted engagement rates, follower count, and sales by using SMM to post engaging content, respond to comments, and encourage UGC.
- A Local Restaurant used Facebook for their SMM and brought in local users. They further built loyal followers and a food-loving community!
Although the implementation and results sound easy to achieve, without a proper SMM provider, it is difficult to materialise.
Conclusion: The future is Social Media Marketing
As we keep evolving digitally, our social media interactions will get richer and more immersive with AI, AR and VR.
Businesses cannot get stuck on one type of content type, trend, and technology for SMM. They have to adapt, too!
With so many benefits and the faster rate of achieving business goals, SMM is the best tool for any business trying to make its mark and balance Branding and Marketing!
We, Wildnet Technologies, have been catering Social Media Marketing services for a long time. We have helped 2100+ clients generate USD 10 million+ revenue along with 150% boosted social engagement.
If you would like to learn more,
> How to choose the best Digital Marketing agency in India?
> Wildnet’s Digital Yum (our weekly newsletter from the desks of our thought leadership)
Connect with us now at info@wildnettechnologies.com and convert your social media into a money-making division!
FAQs
FAQ 1. Can anyone do SMM?
Ans: On a basic level yes, but when it comes to getting results, it is best to engage an expert in SMM.
FAQ 2. How do you know what content is liked by audiences?
Ans: We use the power of Social Listening and find out by tracking important KPIs which content type, length, and social media platform is best for which brand and target audience.
FAQ 3. What KPIs are used to track SMM activities?
Ans: KPIs or key performance indexes like follower growth, web traffic from socials, engagement rates, and more are used to track the SMM performance.
FAQ 4. How can SMM help in SEO?
Ans: Social media marketing brings in much more web traffic and thus boosts the ranking of a website. This inherently helps in SEO as it has the same goals.
FAQ 5. How are brands using SMM to boost their sales?
Ans: Using Social Commerce, the brands are transforming their social media handles into sales channels, and their posts act as marketing and sales funnels.
