By: Pankaj Sakariya

October 20, 2021

The Next Era Of Social Media Marketing Is Here!

Social Media Marketing is the usage of social media platforms to build connections and increase brand awareness. There comes a great challenge to succeed in the digital world and make a strong online presence. Social media platforms are now changing the way people interact with others in this Digital Era. 

What is Social Media Marketing? 

Businesses prefer to share content on various social media to gain traffic on their platforms. It has matured far from being just a medium of broadcasting the content. Nowadays, people are curious to know what people are saying about their services and respond to them instantly. 

This helps businesses to know their performance and analyse their strategies for better user engagement. It is crucial to know the sales and returns on each social media platform. Business wants to target a certain audience by running social media advertisements at the right time and place. Even the best company offering social media marketing Australia is trying to figure out social media insights for better reach. 

What are the Five Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing? 

1. Strategy 

Before you start adding content on your social media platforms, take a moment and look at the bigger picture. Some common questions that people stumble upon are:

• What are your targets on social media? How will you meet your business goals? Some people look to increase their brand awareness and boost sales, while some plan to build a community or support channels. 
• Since there are too many platforms, which one do you want to focus on? The major platforms with highly active traffic are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and YouTube. It is better to start with the ones that have higher engagement with your target audience.
• Have you decided on the type of content you will be sharing on your social media platforms? Will it be blogs, images, videos, or links? Social Media platforms will change, so should your strategy of posting new content. 

2. Publishing

 The latest statistics display over 3.78 billion social media users around the globe in 2021, and this number is growing. By making a social media account, you get an opportunity to meet potential customers for your business. 

Publishing on social media might be an easier task as you can share the blog post, video, or images. You need to plan the content instead of doing it spontaneously. To maximize your targets on social media, you need to publish the content at the right time and frequency. It is vital to maintain consistency on your profile for better reach.

3. Listening and User-Engagement

As your business grows, you will receive more followers, and people will be conversing about your brand. Users will comment on your posts or tag you in their posts or send you a text instantly. This helps to know your reputation in the digital world. You might get delighted with the positive comments. But, it is crucial to support and offer solutions to unsatisfied customers. You must know the pro-tips to own a social media profile to gain better results.

4. Advertisement

When you have sufficient funds to invest in the growth of social media, you might want to consider social media advertising. They allow you to reach a wider audience and display your content to potential customers. 

Advertising has become too powerful as you can specify the exact target audience. This can be based on their behaviours, interest, demographics, and more. While running social media ad campaigns, you might want to connect with PPC Company Australia for better conversions and automate the process. 

5. Analytics and Reporting

Whether you publish content or engage with the audience on social media platforms, it is significant to know how you perform. Are you meeting your goals? How much positive feedbacks have you received? What are people talking about your brand?

Various tools help to analyze your store performance and generate reports with the data. Get into more depth analysis to figure out the strong and weak links of your social media platforms. Work on the weaker section to improve user experience on your profile. 

What Has Changed in Social Media Marketing?

• It has given businesses the power to take actions that were impossible in their wildest dreams. The abundance of data availability helps know the customers and grab the right opportunity to make an offer. 
• Social media has become an excellent platform for various types of businesses and helped improve their brand awareness. Managing an online social media account means a quicker way to understand the competition and audience. 
• Consumers have depended on social media for e-commerce facilities as they are widely available now. They can easily swipe and get their products delivered. Social media has become more convenient and stress-free for businesses. 
• It is vital to stay in touch with the customers to provide satisfaction with your services. Social media acts as a bridge and lets you stay connected with your potential customers all the time. 

What are the Social Media Trends not Going out of Demand Soon?

If you are stepping into social media, you must adapt to the trends and grow. Some of them are:

Authenticity and Transparency

People are looking for brands that hold their real faces in the digital market. This means you need to maintain transparency and authenticity about your operations. If you want to gain trust, it is crucial to stay honest with them. 

If you fail to meet customers’ expectations, then own it and send them a heartfelt apology.  This allows your customers to trust you and reach in case of any issues or disappointments. Audiences have become socially addicted, which means you can never get away, avoid, or delete your mistakes. So, resolve the issues and engage with your customers. 

Inclusivity Matters 

The audience is more aware that they have various choices, which increases pressure on brands to make meaningful strides. You can no longer afford to be passive and silent about the issues that your audience is passionate about. Make sure you have content that meets the recent trends and demands of the market.  

Inclusivity will be a bigger focus for the businesses targeting to build deep connections with their audience. Your brand must reflect the audience’s views to connect with them and show they matter for your business. 

Purpose is Inevitable 

Social media is driven by the causes and issues happening in the surroundings. You have seen how the global pandemic was in the brighter spotlight on all the social media platforms. People try to showcase the act of kindness and spread positivity in the time of crisis. 

More than 86% of social media users expect brands to support the vulnerable community. It is also vital to maintain authenticity to back up their actions. Brands should be aware of when to engage or back off from an issue. This helps to take meaningful action instead of exploiting them. 

Social E-commerce is Growing 

These platforms are constantly adapting to improve user experience, and you might have seen more features and tools to support shopping. People now prefer to look at social media accounts to make a successful, hassle-free purchase. 

It would help if you had a social media marketing strategy to gain profits and a better customer base. Social e-commerce is something that shortens and simplifies the customers’ buying journey. If you have gained enough followers, you must start selling products and gain fewer cart abandonment.

Support Augmented Reality 

This is similar to Virtual Reality, but people experience AR in social spaces. People do not need additional equipment, which makes it more accessible than VR. The experience is familiar to dynamic photo filters that you might have used on various social media channels. 

Even your brand can adapt to AR filters with the help of social media agency Australia that has been working in the market for quite a long time. It will help you promote your products and encourage more interaction with your audience. 

Live Streaming is Becoming Popular 

The global crisis saw a great shift in businesses towards digital platforms. This was done to maintain social distancing and prevent the virus from spreading. Meetings shifted to Zoom or Google Meet, and live concerts were held in live streams. 

Social media platforms saw a great rise in user engagement through messages, live streams, polls, stories, or posts. This will be evolving with time as people are now used to such interactions. Over 25% of the marketers said that live video is valuable content to meet goals.

Influencer Marketing 

Earlier, you just needed an account to drive traffic by promoting your products and services. This method is now one of the highest-rated methods to get conversions. Many micro-influencers have higher user engagement, which matches your target audience. This allows you to promote your business and stay authentic to the people. 

Influencer marketing helps to improve your brand value, as it is represented by people that have great followers and support them in their actions. You need to share your products and let them reach the target audience through the influencers having a high amount of followers. 

The Digital Life! 

People are adjusting to the new landscape of handling everything through digital platforms. With this, there is an increase in the demand for services from the users. For reputable brands, this means it is vital to be crafty and meet a broader audience at multiple places. 

It is now high time to embrace the digital lifestyle and handle social media marketing for your business. To consistently improve and update with the ever-growing demands, you might need some experts at the rescue. Well, contact us now! We have a bag full of expertise just customized based on your demands and needs.