June 30 is the 12th annual World Social Media Day. We would be remiss if we did not celebrate. Social media has changed the way we interact with those around us and, just as crucial for you, dear readers, how we do business.
Mashable established World Social Media Day on June 30, 2010. It was created as a method to commemorate the effect of social media on global communication and to unite the globe in celebration of it. Everyone utilizes social media every day; it's how we quickly and easily interact with individuals all around the globe. Mashable is recognized for using social media to unite diverse cultures, movements, and fandoms; hence, they want a day to acknowledge this. Every year, people utilize the hashtag #SMDay; this year is your chance to be part of it!
1997 saw the introduction of the first social networking site, Sixdegrees. The website, created by Andrew Weinreich, had bulletin boards, profiles, and school affiliations, allowing users to list friends and family members. At its peak, Sixdegrees had about a million users. However, it was shut down in 2001.
In 2002, Friendster was the first modern social media website. The site allows users to make new friends in a safe atmosphere and has more than a hundred million members, most of whom live in Asia. LinkedIn, the first business-oriented social networking website, was established in 2003. Myspace was established in 2004, the same year as Facebook, although its early success was far larger. By 2006, Myspace was the most popular social networking website on the globe, and users enjoyed the individualized accounts that allowed them to upload music.
YouTube's video-centric website started in 2005, whereas Twitter's limited-character platform debuted in 2006. During the coming five years, as these sites gained notoriety, Facebook became the most prominent social media network.
As social networking platforms have evolved and become more popular, so has their criticism. Due to concerns surrounding their use of data, hate speech, impact on mental health, election results, and dissemination of fake news, social media companies are under more pressure than ever to disclose their inner workings.
Social networking has evolved into a way of rapid contact, often with friends and family, but sometimes with strangers. It has become an important source of news, commerce, the identification of influential corporate figures, and general entertainment. The objective of Social Media Day is to recognize the positives that these platforms have brought into our lives and maybe share or like a few images.
Social Media and Marketing
At 7Social, we understand the importance of creating a strong online presence in order to market your business. Active social media users account for 42 percent of the world's population or 3,2 billion people. These stats alone demonstrate that social media is here to stay, if not continue to grow.
With such pervasiveness, its value to society cannot be overlooked, particularly in the marketing industry. In the commercial and commerce sectors, where engaging and persuading the market is of utmost importance, the reach and power of social media are invaluable. With the decline of print and radio, social media has become one of the most essential advertising and marketing mediums.
A strong social media marketing strategy must incorporate both the distinct features of social media as well as leverage the methods by which a brand can be monitored and promoted. That means that having a strategy to push two tweets a day isn't a fully-encompassing social media strategy.
A complete strategy incorporates tools and methodologies to do the following.
Market Research
Collecting data to enhance audience research, comprehension, and communication.
Reputation Management
Reputation preservation and enhancement, including review monitoring, review gathering, and publication.
Social Listening
Monitoring and responding to direct audience requests, such as customer service or sales inquiries.
Social Networking
Employing techniques that expand your reach with influencers, prospects, consumers, and staff.
Social Publishing
Planning, arranging, and producing material that gives awareness and value to your prospective consumers, such as how-to guides, testimonials, thought leadership, product evaluations, and even entertainment.
Social Promotion
Advertising offers and advocacy are examples of promotional methods that produce corporate outcomes. This might include locating and employing influential individuals to expand your marketing to their networks.
Benefits of Using Social Media
Obtain Market Intelligence
Market intelligence is one of the most useful benefits of social media. What better approach to learning the ideas and requirements of your customers than by speaking with them directly? By monitoring the activity on your pages, you may learn about customers' interests and views that you would not be aware of if your company had a social media presence. Using social media as a supplement to your study will assist you in getting knowledge that will aid in your industry comprehension. Once you have amassed a substantial following, you may use additional technologies to study your customers' demographics. The ability to split your content syndication lists depending on the subject and see which sorts of material create the most impressions is another smart component of social media marketing. These tools enable you to monitor conversions based on postings on numerous social media sites to determine the optimal mix for income generation.
Budget-Friendly
Social media marketing is perhaps the most cost-effective component of a marketing campaign. Signing up and establishing a profile on most social networking sites is free, and any sponsored promotions you engage in are quite inexpensive compared to other marketing strategies. Being cost-effective is advantageous since it allows you to get a higher return on investment and maintain a larger budget for other marketing and company needs.
If you decide to use paid advertising on social media, always start small to see what you should expect as you become more comfortable, fine-tune your strategy, and try increasing your budget. Just by spending a small amount of time and money, you can significantly increase your conversion rates and eventually get a return on investment on the money you initially invested.
At 7Social, we can do the leg work for you. Our packages start as low as $995 per month. That's less than paying one marketing salary, and you'll have a whole team of experts to support you!
Improve Customer Satisfaction
Social media is a platform for networking and communication. Creating a voice for your business on these channels is essential for humanizing it. Customers like knowing that when they leave comments on your site, they will get a customized response as opposed to an automatic one. Being able to respond to each remark demonstrates that you are sensitive to the requirements of your visitors and want to deliver the greatest experience possible.
Every client engagement on the social media accounts of your company is a chance to display your concern for your consumers openly. Whether a person has a query or a complaint, social media enables you to address the issue via interpersonal conversation. Even when responding to a customer complaint, a business committed to customer satisfaction that takes the time to craft personalized responses will be perceived in a good manner.
Increased Brand Loyalty and Authority
Almost every company has as one of its primary objectives the development of a devoted consumer base. Considering that customer happiness and brand loyalty often go hand in hand, it is crucial to contact customers on a regular basis and establish a relationship with them. Social media is not restricted to only promoting your brand's goods and promotional efforts. Customers see these platforms as service channels via which they may connect directly with the organization. The millennial generation has the highest brand loyalty of any generation. Millennials, who were born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, are the biggest generation in US history and will soon absorb the market entirely. According to studies, this category of consumers is 62% more loyal to companies who communicate with them directly on social media. Businesses must engage in social media marketing in order to get the attention of their most important customers.
Increased Rates of Conversion
With higher exposure, your company earns additional conversion opportunities. Every blog post, picture, video, and remark has the potential to enhance traffic to your company's website. Through humanization, social media marketing enables your company to make a great impression. Personifies a brand when it interacts on social media by sharing content, commenting, and publishing status updates. People prefer to do business with other individuals as opposed to corporations. Over fifty-one percent of marketers said that spending the effort to build connections with customers led to increased sales. The more favorable an impression you establish on a visitor, the more likely they are to consider your company when they need your products or services.
Social media has a 100 percent greater lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, according to studies. When a brand is engaged online, people who follow your brand's accounts tend to develop a stronger belief in your company's legitimacy. Individuals utilize social media platforms to maintain relationships with their friends, families, and communities. Since individuals are already conversing, why not include your brand? Most likely, they will refer your brand to a friend when they need your goods or services, offering social evidence of your business's excellence. According to Social Media Examiner, 66 percent of marketers that spent at least six hours per week on social media channels noticed an increase in lead generation. Putting your brand in an environment where people are sharing, liking, and conversing will only increase the conversion rates of your current visitors.
Why You Should Be Hiring a Marketing Agency to Manage Your Social Media
Expertise You Can Trust
One of the greatest advantages of working with a digital marketing firm is that you receive access to a variety of skill sets under a single contract, eliminating the need to employ for each position in-house. Not all digital agencies are made equal. Some digital marketing organizations may specialize in particular sorts of work (such as content, SEO, paid to advertise, or social media management) or sectors. Other full-service digital marketing organizations, such as 7Social, are more varied and can provide a wider variety of capabilities without the need to recruit several suppliers. Consider which solution meets your requirements the best. If you simply need someone to manage your social media channels and nothing else, you may be better off hiring a social media-only firm. If you are seeking a multi-pronged approach to integrated marketing with an emphasis on pushing the needle and assisting you in achieving broad business objectives, you will want to engage with an agency that can support you in all aspects of marketing, design, and development. Fortunately, 7Social can accomplish it all. From Facebook Page development through audience targeting via posts. We provide comprehensive social media expertise.
Advanced Analytics
Providing proof of return on investment for your digital marketing initiatives is crucial not just for your internal marketing team but also for your senior leadership. There are a number of remarkable technologies available that enable digital marketers to acquire highly valuable data about their clients, their search exposure, and their general online performance.
The bad news is that they may be rather pricey.
By the time you choose a tool to monitor your search engine exposure, you're already drowning in tools, and you'll need another to plan your social media postings and a third to track your online reputation. Digital firms often have their own budget for these essential technologies and will be able to provide you with their findings without requiring you to pay for their usage. These tools have the potential to make or destroy your marketing effectiveness.
At 7Social, we utilize the latest and greatest in analytic technology. We can give you a clear picture of how the campaign implemented is doing as well as a clearer picture of your ROI.
Scalability
Working with a digital marketing firm gives you the flexibility to scale up or down depending on your current requirements. For instance, at 7Social, our marketing retainers are month-to-month; thus, if you have a seasonal company, you may ramp up to a greater level of engagement during your peak season and drop down during the off-season. Or you may be between full-time hiring for a particular internal position, in which case you may raise your hours with the agency to give extra help in these areas while you take your time finding the ideal candidate to join you full-time.
The Future of Social Media in the Business World
You must have been sleeping under a rock if you're not utilizing social media channels to get your message in front of your clients. Organic reach is diminishing, but sponsored reach on Facebook and Instagram continues to provide phenomenal results. The marketing potential of social media is almost limitless. With each passing year, new marketing trends are created to promote company growth.