Influence is the keyword to understanding the meaning of social media marketing. The ability to interact with an audience and increase your brand awareness is the gist of social media marketing. Social Media comes in all different forms, and all of them have been designated to fulfill other purposes.
For example, when we talk about Facebook, a popular social networking site, it allows us to write posts, share pictures, make calls, join events, and more. While another popular social media site like Twitter is quite different and lets us post short updates, various social media tools can carry out different kinds of tasks.
Similarly, social media marketing is also a different branch. Knowing what it is and knowing how to use it properly is essential if you want your business to grow.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is also commonly known as SMM. It makes use of social media networks, like the ones mentioned above, to create and share content, such as ads, posts, pictures, and videos, to boost your business and let it reach a wider audience. It is a form of internet marketing that helps you achieve your marketing and real estate branding goals.
As previously stated, social media marketing generally includes writing posts, creating image updates, videos relating to your business, and other such content that allows you to broaden your audience. You also get to engage and interact with your audience through social media marketing.
Using paid social media advertising, you can have even further reached in your social media marketing campaign. Using social media platforms, you can connect with your audience to drive traffic towards your sites or pages, build your brand, expand your name, and increase sales of products or services you may be selling through your business.
Major Social Media Platforms:
Social media is continually changing. Those sites that may have been popular a few years ago don't necessarily have to be popular today. Technology is continuously evolving, and people have certain expectations that need to be met.
Hence, knowing which social media platforms are currently popular and used by people is vital for your social media marketing strategy. Knowing the right tools to use and platforms that can help you connect with a bigger audience is essential.
Staying up to date is critical when it comes to social media marketing. Relevant social media platforms being used most frequently in today's time are:
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Pillars of Social Media Marketing:
Social Media Marketing is not just carried out on a whim; specific guidelines and steps need to be taken to have a successful social media marketing campaign. These are known as the five pillars of social media marketing that encompass the whole thing into five essential points.
They are also known as the core pillars of social media marketing, and the term is self-explanatory in telling its importance. The five pillars of social media marketing are:
- Strategy
The first step to take when starting marketing via social media is to look at what strategy you will follow to get it underway. It knows your goals, which social media platforms you will majorly focus on, and what type of content you will share with your audience and followers. A social media marketing strategy or plan will help you get started on the right track.
- Planning and Publishing
Planning your content is something you will have to do to make your marketing successful. Even though publishing content to social media may be similar to how you do it during your personal use, your content will have to be more planned and less spontaneous. You will need to be consistently publishing great content.
- Listening and Engagement
It is likely your audience will interact with you or comment on posts. They even talk about your business on different platforms. You will need to keep yourself updated on what people are saying about you, whether negative or positive, so you can engage with them, find out how you can be better, and make changes accordingly.
- Analytics and Reporting
You may ask yourself at some points whether your social media marketing is doing well or whether you need to be making it better. It will be essential to know whether you perform consistently or had a broader reach the previous month. Knowing how many people use your hashtags, mention you, and follow you will help you achieve better.
- Advertising
If you start earning a considerable amount or have some funds, you may consider paying for social media advertisements. Social media advertisements may help you reach even a broader audience than you have previously. You can even specify who to advertise to and create a target audience for yourself.
Need more local marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Local Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
