An Introduction to Social Media Marketing
Social Media marketing has become one of the most powerful forms of online marketing. As of 2017, there are five main social media websites: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Pinterest. Each website has dedicated users who log in each day to view, create, and share content with other users. At every step along the way, these users are being marketed to by businesses. Facebook is the most commonly used social media website by businesses because of how well, and how easily, it allows them to target consumers. The remaining four social media platforms are not quite as simple, or effective, to market through as Facebook. However, they still offer the ability to target specific markets by placing advertisements in front of users who have shared valuable personal information with these social networks. In addition to outright marketing efforts, it is now important for businesses to have their own social media accounts through which they can interact with consumers. With a well-crafted social media presence a product decoration business can build a following and increase its visibility among its target consumers. For new businesses, Facebook and Twitter accounts are essential. Eventually, however, businesses should create accounts on any social media network where their target audience can be found. Social Media is still growing, and its influence makes it an essential aspect of modern marketing.
Facebook Marketing
Facebook’s marketing capabilities should be appealing to any business looking to expand its reach online. Through Facebook’s marketing tools businesses can target advertisements to highly-specific groups of consumers and measure the performance of their pages and advertisements. This is possible because one of the first things that users do on Facebook is share some, or all, of their “likes” and “dislikes.” When combined with their personal (segmented) information, including age, race, education level, and more, this is valuable information for advertisers.
For example, a product decoration business that sells zombie themed t-shirts might identify males between the ages of 18-30 who like the show “The Walking Dead” as their target market. It is possible to run an advertisement campaign on Facebook for zombie t-shirts that only appears for male users between the ages of 18-30, who have indicated they “like” zombies, watch the TV show “The Walking Dead,” and other zombie-related keywords. Since the advertisement is only shown to the target audience, rather than a mass audience, the return on investment (ROI) from the advertisement is typically far higher than traditional marketing practices.
Having a Facebook page is not quite as valuable as it used to be due to changes in Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm. However, running a business Facebook page is still an excellent way to engage with customers, and even show off new designs or products. Still, the true value of Facebook for decoration businesses is the ability to market both decorated products and custom decoration services. Facebook’s superior targeting capabilities make it easier than ever before for product decoration businesses to put their goods and services in front of interested consumers.
Other Social Media Sites to Consider
Facebook is easily the best digital marketing tool for product decoration businesses. That does not mean, however, that all other social media sites do not have their benefits. When a business is starting out on social media it is unwise to spread things too thin by worrying about accounts on all social media platforms. Rather, it makes sense to start on Facebook, and perhaps one other social media site, before expanding a business’s social media presence over time. The other social media sites product decorators should consider using are Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
Twitter is a microblogging social network that has had a major impact on the Internet and how the world communicates. Like Facebook, businesses do not have to pay to tweet on their business Twitter accounts. However, unlike Facebook, any post by a business can be viewed almost instantaneously by everyone who follows the business on Twitter. Product decoration businesses can use tweets to promote products, engage with consumers, provide customer service, run contests, and even for charitable purposes. When it comes to direct advertising, however, Twitter is not quite as effective as Facebook. A big reason why is that Facebook has over a billion users compared to Twitter’s roughly 300 million (as of January 2017).
Youtube is a video-sharing social media site, and the largest social media company. Each month over one billion unique users visit Youtube. The only website that receives more monthly web traffic than Youtube is Google.com, Youtube’s sister brand. That type of massive audience is quite attractive to marketers. In addition to creating a channel for the business and creating content to fill that channel, there are two types of advertisements that businesses can run on Youtube. Product decoration businesses can either run advertisements prior to videos, much like trailers before a movie, or they can have their videos show up in video search results on the site. Another way a product decoration business can advertise through Youtube is by producing their own high quality videos that show off their decoration processes and their finished products. Businesses can include links in their videos to lead consumers to landing pages and into sales funnels. With a massive amount of traffic and strong targeting capabilities, Youtube offers multiple ways for product decoration businesses to both drive sales and improve their brands.
Instagram is a photo editing and sharing social media site that has over 200 million users. Most businesses now have Instagram accounts. These accounts may be used to feature their products and share other content with their followers. Businesses often encourage consumers to post pictures of themselves interacting with their brands. Product decorators can generate sales by including links to blog posts, their websites, and landing pages designed to drive sales in the descriptions of their photos. Like other social media networks, Instagram does also offer the ability to create sponsored posts that will show up in targeted users’ feeds.
Pinterest is the youngest of these social media sites, where registered users can gather images, or other media they are interested in, and organize them into collections. The media is called “pins,” and the collections they are gathered into are naturally referred to as “boards.” As with the other social media platforms, Pinterest offers both straightforward marketing options as well as the ability to cultivate a brand through the management of a Pinterest business account. Pinterest advertisements are called “promoted pins,” and they are excellent for businesses that sell products with visual appeal, like decorated garments. Businesses can register for a business account with Pinterest and then apply to be able to promote their pins.
While Snapchat is not truly a social media application, it can still be quite useful to the right business. Snapchat is an image and video messaging service that only allows users brief access to messages before they disappear. Users can add other users to their Snapchat account to share messages as well as daily compilations known as “stories.” Snapchat might not be a social media app, but it certainly attracts traffic like one. In fact, over 150 million users view over 10 billion videos a day on the app. Snapchat has evolved over the years to include businesses and live events, even adding promoted videos that are interspersed with users’ stories. Businesses can show off “behind the scene” footage and images to engage customers, run contests, and show off products through their own Snapchat accounts. Since these “snaps” go directly to a business’s followers, Snapchat is an excellent way to reach and engage with consumers.
Conclusion
Social media is a fact of modern life, and it is an integral part of it for both individuals and businesses. Social media has created an unprecedented opportunity to connect and engage with people all over the globe. This has in turn created a unique opportunity for businesses to expand their marketing efforts to reach consumers in new and valuable ways. Decoration businesses that do not take part in social media are putting themselves at risk of being overtaken by their competition that does embrace the opportunity at hand. Remaining stagnant in business is rarely a good thing, and the adoption of social media can help flagging businesses revive their brands. There are many different social media sites and apps, and it can be overwhelming to those unfamiliar with the platforms. However, if you take the time to learn to utilize one or more of these platforms, then it becomes easier. At the very least, understanding how to use social media as a tool for business is an essential skill for modern entrepreneurs.
