In the 21st century, many new trends are rising. People want to engage, and social media has become their avenue. Therefore, social media presence plays a crucial part in your life. Through social media, you can increase your sales and take your business to the next level.
Around 78% of people purchase products after seeing product posts on social media, while 81% make their purchase decision after viewing a family or friend’s post on social media. Thus, social media is a powerful tool for any business to reach its prospects and customers.
What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
SMM is a medium through which a company/business can market its products and services using social media platforms. They can use many platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest Etc for marketing.
Some of the top brands use social media marketing for their businesses like Nike, Starbucks, Gucci, Chanel Etc. They have a vast number of followers on Instagram.
How Does Social Media Marketing Work?
Social media platforms give a great opportunity to the marketers to promote their products and engage with the people who can be their potential customers by using some tricks and strategies. If you can understand and use the social media in the right way, the algorithm of social media promotes your content and helps you connect with your customer and also help to create new customers. It also allows you to build goodwill for your business.
As per Buffer, there are five key pillars of social media marketing:
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- Strategy: This means to fix your goals and to decide which social media platform you will use. What type of content you will post to market and promote your business.
- Planning and Publishing: You should decide what type of content you will post according to your business. It can be video content, photos, or a carousel post. You also have to preplan the caption or script of the post. The last thing is to decide the posting time. Analyze at which time more people are online and then post.
- Listening and Engagement: This means to analyze what your customer is commenting on your post, brands. They liked it, or they wanted something else. You should also engage with your customer by responding to their messages and comments. It will help to cater to more customers.
- Analytics and Reporting: Only posting content is not enough. You have to analyze that how far your post is reaching. You should work on your hashtag strategies as well.
- Advertising: For taking your business to the next level, purchasing advertisements on social media can be a great way.
Instagram Marketing
Instagram has grown at a very high speed. It is the second-best social media platform afterFacebook, with around one billion active users and 500 million users sharing posts to their Instagram Story daily. In addition, about 71% of businesses use Instagram in the U.S.
Thus, Instagram can be an excellent option for promoting your business. You can advertise in the form of photos, videos, and carousel posts. You can also go live and speak about your brand and interact with the people. Hence, many small businesses like wholesale fragrance oil, watch, and brewing companies use Instagram for promotion.
The small businesses stated below promote their products on Instagram and do it the right way:
- Pura Vida Bracelets: Their Instagram page has 2.2 million followers. Their website conveys the story of the beginning. The photos are very colorful with beautiful views of nature.
- Letterfolk: Their Instagram page has 357K followers. It is a small business run by a couple. They create and sell handcrafted letter boards and home décor items.
- Bien Cuit: This bakery has 24.3K followers. They share photos of nicely decorated plates of bread and pastries. This business has gained popularity because of its presence on social media.
Content Strategy for Small Businesses
Content strategy is necessary to engage people on your account. It means knowing about every aspect of why and how you will create content. It includes creating and managing content. You also think about the time when your content needs to be updated.
The basic steps you can follow are:
- Set your goals
- Plan the steps to reach your goals
- Select the platform and your target audience
- Craft your content and a make schedule for posting it
- Track your progress and be consistent
From the above discussion, you can understand the importance of social media marketing. You can choose a platform according to your business. Social media marketing can be a wise option for small businesses because it can help them grow and promote products.
