Things You Need to Know to Become a Successful Social Media Marketer

Social Media Marketing has not only become an important marketing tool, but it could also be considered as a marketing strategy, as more and more businesses are using it as one of the main highlights in their marketing activities.

Why Social Media Marketing?

About just how important Social Media Marketing is for businesses and organizations today, can speak not only the large amount of users that believe and use social media marketing, but also the ones that do not want to use social media marketing because they are afraid as they are aware of the impact, exposure and the ease for people to share their views, that social media has.

Social media presence for businesses and organizations could hugely impact the income and the profitability of a business, as well as have an important impact on the reputation and the view that customers have of the business. For customers, it provides another platform to share opinions and experiences quickly, gain feedback and recommendation and also influence other customers. It is the least consuming and most affordable way to retrieve information sought by customers as it can usually be shared across different platforms.

Source: http://www.aussieitgroup.com.au/blog/topics/social-media-marketing/

The Impact of SMM

Many organizations and marketers have turned to Social Media as a means to deliver the required content and information to their target audience. Social Media Marketing is a combination of technology and marketing creativity, which means that regardless of how the marketers intend for the content to be perceived, it is so easy for customers to contribute their own opinions and the word of mouth spreads rapidly, especially because of how widely used social media is. A great example of the influence that customers have on others is when Kylie Jenner tweeted and criticised Snapchat and that caused the company’s shares to drop by 7.2 per cent in market value. Nevertheless, it is critical that the content delivered is relevant, current, up to date, creative, detailed and appealing for the reader of the blog or a social media post.

sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.

— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

How Does SMM Help You?

Social Media Marketing could be very beneficial for an organization if it is done correctly, on the right platforms, with the right content, if it is consistent and if it is backed up by a relevant research on the target audience and best platforms to use.
SMM can also be beneficial, because although it is time consuming and requires great marketing skills, it can be affordable and most importantly, it delivers measurable results. This means that marketers can reflect on how the customers respond and the portion of the target audience that has been reached.

After researching and evaluating five different marketing blogs which are listed below, it is evident that they all have something in common.

·         Duct Tape Marketing https://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

·         Shopify https://www.shopify.com/blog

·         Orbit Media https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/ 

·         Search Engine Watch https://searchenginewatch.com/

·         Mumbrella https://mumbrella.com.au/

Ø  All of the above-mentioned blogs have relevant information and content, which means that they address the latest issues, platforms and trends.

Ø  The layout of all blogs is different, but still aesthetically pleasing, making the blog posts easy to find and read.

Ø  The language used in all of the blogs makes the reader engaged because they are all written in a professional, but interesting and relatable format, which includes images and other files to make the information less monotone and more interesting.

Ø  All the blogs provide some sort of Subscription option, as well as an option for the blog posts to be shared on different platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or even LinkedIn.

Ø  All the blog posts are written simply so that even customers that are not experts in the field, can still gain understanding or insight in the topic.

Ø  Each of the blogs has a Search option, making it easier for readers to navigate and find the required content easily.

The conclusion that every Social Media Marketer can draw from this is that there are five key characteristics that a Marketer needs in order to be successful in Social Media Marketing:

1.       Be aware of the social media trends and customer preferences regarding platforms, language and viral topics.

2.       Be quick with the responses and updates of the content, because, as mentioned previously, readers can respond quickly and are information hungry, so ensure that you are two steps ahead of them.

3.       Possess excellent writing skills and know how to adapt these accordingly with the different platforms, different audiences and delivering different messages.

4.       Have strong and positive personal branding image that the readers will associate with the shared content and will help keep the information stay relevant and reliable.

5.      Ensure you interact with the readers to keep them engaged and monitor their responses and other analytics that will help you follow your success.

The marketing industry has certainly evolved with the help of Social Media. The way that Marketers
interact with customers and readers had drastically changed. It is necessary for businesses, organizations, industries and marketers to follow the rapid changes that Social Media Marketing brings and ensure that they use the benefits of SMM to their full potential and take advantage of the ease of marketing that SMM provides.

Sources: 

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/ugh-this-is-so-sad-kylie-jenner-costs-snapchat-au17-billion-with-a-single-tweet/news-story/35108667f75a810bb7dae205c187d70a