By Vatsal Rajgor
While social media has existed for more than two decades, it has only been a few years since brands have realised how to utilise the medium to its full potential. As brands around the world figure out the value of the connections and contacts that can be made via social media, the medium has become a priority for marketers. As of January 2022, there are 3.96 billion total social media users across all platforms and the amount of time adults use social media, 95 minutes per day, is higher than ever before.
Brand recognition and engagement
Social media is a very powerful tool for brands to build recognition, reputation and engage with customers in real-time. It is through social media that brands are able to establish themselves quite closely with customers and target the right kind of audience. Social media also entices new prospects and keeps the existing ones engaged with their customers.
The research conducted by Duggan et al in the year 2015 has proven that over 74% of online consumers use social media platforms and over 50% of these obtain brand-related information by following brand pages.
This means that brands with a more active presence on social media are able to build their recall value quite quickly and are able to associate themselves with the trust and the daily routines of their customers. No matter the size of the brand, social media also provides a level playing field where the name with the most creative approach can stand out.
It is common knowledge that in order for a brand to excel, customers need to be loyal to the brand and invest in it. Having close connections with the customers helps them perceive the brand as reliable and trustworthy. It has been proven that viewing ads on a laptop is significantly lower than on mobile.
In fact, the entire concept of email marketing was to help bring brands closer to their customers and have a personal connection with them. Social media is the perfect tool to carry out engagement with customers.
Freedom to explore and connect deeper with the target audience
Social media gives brands the freedom to talk about a number of different things while exploring different formats. For example, a brand could carry out a video message for Mother’s Day or do a giveaway contest for Father’s Day among other things. This helps the brand retain the customer’s attention due to the content not being repetitive and keeping them engaged in a unique manner.
Using social media, brands can reach out individually to their target audience quite accurately. This personal connection comes at a cost much cheaper than traditional methods of offline marketing where there is no guarantee if the target audience will ever come across the advertisement.
As per research conducted by Sproutsocial, a marketing website, the market for social media advertising recently exceeds 25% and has become a $137 billion industry. This is due to the fact that social media builds connections for brands that exceed their home country and locality. Brands are able to establish themselves worldwide and see a quicker growth rate globally through correct social media engagement.
All forms of social media allow brands to have a higher stand on Search and to funnel their audience as per their requirements. Each customer has a different history with the same brand, some may only invest in one aspect while others would invest in all services or products, hence personalisation becomes important with social media marketing.
A highly personal approach to target customers
Social media marketing can help establish highly personal collections and allows brands to filter the audience and categorise them depending on their fields of interest. This way, they can be sent the content that they might be interested in and help brands calculate the ROI. This helps customers gain knowledge of their interests while not getting spammed by promos from the brand.
Social media gives control to the brands and helps them drive and negotiate traffic on their websites or their handles online. They can give out quizzes on competitors’ handles to increase activity and traffic there. This format also allows for brands to have more control over their budgets as well with pay-per-click advertising.
With all being said, this form of marketing is a conundrum with some of the best features. It offers a personal experience with all customers, while also helping the brand make international connections. It created a contemporary, localised experience in the app while also keeping the content quite conversational globally. It is the best way to increase investment and revenue in the modern world.
The author is co-founder and CEO of Digimaze. Views expressed are personal.
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