Essentially,
social network marketing is one way where business interacts with their target
markets in the Internet through the various social media platforms. The most
famous of these include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Social
media marketing is also used for all the general traditional marketing goals we
know. In reaching customers, the marketing strives to increase referrals or
sales leads. They build and develop word-of-mouth, increase the series of
products or services for the site owner while providing a system of feedback.
Moreover,
social media platforms will try to develop a reputation as an expert of thought
leader. It will also drive traffic to a business site or blog. They will keep
on developing new products and services and keep people informed about special
events or anything newsworthy to a newcomer plus the business of providing
customer service.
Social networks
The
most popular social network for business includes Facebook (networking),
YouTube (largest video networking), Instagram (image sharing), Twitter (message
broadcasting), and Whatsapp (messaging).
The
others include LinkedIn (business professionals’ network), Pinterest (image
collection and sharing) and Tumblr (blogging and photo sharing).
Exceptions
Not all
media platforms may be suitable for your business. Even if your business had money to hire a
marketing firm or an in-house social media team, the idea would not fit in
because different customer segments have different visit different social
media.
There
would be no point in spending time and money on promoting your business on a
social network that your customers don’t use.
Advantages
As far
as costs are concerned, social media is very inexpensive compared to other
forms of marketing. It is free to create accounts on all the listed platforms
and free to make postings to followers who will hopefully share the message of
other members. The hope is that they spread it around.
There
are also many various advertising options that can reach larger audiences
within the social media community.
Facebook offers comprehensive options for ad targeting. (An example
would be to target ads within a specific geographic radius.)
The
networks allow the business to engage their target audience and develop
interactive relationship with the customers.
Disadvantages
The
main disadvantage with social network marketing from a business point of view
is that it can be incredibly time-consuming. Social media marketing campaigns
are not one-time affairs. They need to be nurtured over time.
Big
businesses have been using this type of marketing effectively. However, they
have the kind of marketing budgets that can assign a number of staff to conduct
and manage social media marketing campaigns.
These are resources that small businesses don’t posses or can’t afford.
Not working
Most
times, direct advertising on social media does not work. The businesses that
are using social networks, like any other, want to sell their products. But the
blatant advertising on social media would in many cases, alienated them from
their intended audience. Some are expelled from their particular social
community they are trying to infiltrate.
To use
social network marketing effectively, businesses need to be seen as members of
the social media that are willing to interact with other members.