Social media has to power to reach a larger audience than older traditional methods of marketing and advertising. Facebook has ‘1.32 billion monthly active users’, Twitter has over ‘271 million monthly active users’, and Instagram has ‘200 million monthly active users’, ranking them some of the favorite social media platforms in use today. It is estimated that Americans spend about 3 hours a day on social media, and companies like Facebook are using tracking software to keep track of users’ browsing habits which allows ‘advertisers to target people with a more personalized marketing pitch’.

Some of the benefits of social media marketing include; ‘increased exposure, increased traffic, encouragement of loyal fans, marketplace insight, generated leads, improved search rankings, business partnership growth, improved sales and reduced marketing expenses’. When you think about the potential of using social media for marketing campaigns, and for a fraction of the price, it is hard not to steer towards this new trend.

My blog with discuss various ways in which marketers can use social media to their advantage. I will also cover topics such as content marketing as this is becoming increasingly important for marketers to consider, as it is all about creating unique content and sharing it through the appropriate channels. The more followers you attract to your pages, only increases exposure and traffic as more people share and ‘like’ your content.

In the past, using more traditional methods of advertising, advertisers used to spend big dollars on campaigns in order to create reach. The main mediums include TV, print, outdoor displays, radio etc., and although these are still used today, it is not as necessary to spend the same amount of money and use such a variety of mediums for a campaign. I am not suggesting to stop using these methods all together, because they still do work, but use them along with a social media strategy to help create the reach needed.

The important thing to concentrate on is how to keep existing customers, and how to use them to spread your campaign instead of the old focus on trying to attract new customers. If you keep your current customers happy it is easy to reach out to them, and through word of mouth they will do all the work effortlessly simply by liking or sharing your campaign.

Image Created by Michelle Pircher.