2. Social Media Explained
Social media is the combination of websites and mobile applications that allows
users to share content whenever they want across countless platforms.
Social media has taken over the world in the last one to two decades. People can
post whatever they please whenever they want.
The biggest social media platforms for users right now are FaceBook, YouTube,
Twitter, Instagram, and SnapChat.
3. Social Media Explained Cont.
In the year 2018 2.65 billion people were using social media, or had accounts.
That number is expected to increase to 3.1 billion by 2021.
Social media allows people to not only share their own content, or other people's
content, but it allows people to directly talk and connect with each other all across
the world in seconds.
With more people looking online and on social platforms for shopping, it gave
company marketers and advertisers a great gateway into increasing online sales
and advertising profits.
4. Marketing on Social Media
Before companies would market directly on social platforms, company’s would
send direct messaging using email services to generate sales in store.
Many consumers would get annoyed about this type of social marketing, or spam
mail. In 2003 the CAN-SPAM act was established, which provided companies a
set of guidelines that must be followed before they can send emails as a form of
marketing or advertising.
Following the CAN-SPAM act, companies would have to make sure consumers
opted in to receive emails and that consumers had an option to opt out.
Companies also had to make sure they did not use deceptive headlines, and had
to make sure the email was listed as an advertisement.
5. Marketing on Social Media cont.
Shortly after the CAN-SPAM act was introduced, social media platforms began to
take off, around 2006-2007. With social media platforms increasing in users,
many companies started to create and use profiles as well.
At this time there was no guidelines or rules about what a company could post on
their profiles in terms of advertising or marketing to other users on the platforms.
Although there were no set guidelines besides following the platforms content
sharing rules, many companies found it hard at first to market directly on social
media platforms.
6. Paid Advertisements on Social Media
Once social media began to take off, companies wanted to start marketing more
on the platforms. They had realized that it was hard to get shares and a following
on site other than their loyal consumers.
FaceBook and other social platforms had introduced paid advertisements, which
were advertisements that were guaranteed to show up on more feeds and get
increased attention to the companies post.
Following the introduction of paid ads, social media advertising became like a pay
to play league when it came to marketing.
7. Paid Advertising on Social Media cont.
The most popular paid ads that comapnies use are as followed.
PPC (pay-per-click) : users who click on PPC ads are 50% more likely to make a
purchase as opposed to organic users.
Influencer marketing: paying to have a popular brand name, or celebrity, to post
them using a product which allows their followers to be influenced to make a
purchase.
Banner ads: These are ads that are on the top or sides of webpages, or mobile
devices. Many companies spend around $25 million annually on these ads.
8. Benefits of Paid Advertisements
The reason paid advertising is so important and used so regularly is due to how
successful and beneficial it is to a company.
Paid ads give you faster results as opposed to organic ads.
Paid ads are very affordable and companies can measure the analytics and
success of every advertisement.
Companies can use paid ads to target their target market, and also get a reach
out to consumers who might not even be in their market, and still get sales and
profitable results to increase their net sales.
9. Social Media and Connecting With Consumers
WIth companies ads getting shared across multiple platforms, it allows consumers
to comment directly on the post to express positive or negative feedback.
Social Media allows people to connect in seconds, so this allows companies to
reply or fix issued with consumers in seconds also.
Many companies using social media have social media managers. This job
consists of posting the content and engaging with consumer feedback.
10. Social Media and Connecting With Consumers cont.
Consumers are constantly expressing their feedback on companies social media
pages. When it is good feedback, companies start to increase net profits and
followers. On the other hand when it is negative, companies can start to get a bad
reputation online and start to decrease their sales.
It is very important that companies are staying on top of their game and fixing
issues fast to increase their brand awareness, and brand loyalty for consumers.
Being able to build a following and build brand awareness helps businesses
create relationships with new and loyal consumers in seconds, which is ultimately
what increases sales and profit the most.
11. Works Cited
“10 Email Marketing Spam Laws You Need to Know About.” Elegant Themes, 27 July 2019,
www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/10-email-marketing-spam-laws-you-need-to-know-about.
Marthinusen, Luke. “What Are the Benefits of Paid Advertising?” MO Agency | South Africa's #1 HubSpot Partner,
www.mo.agency/blog/benefits-of-paid-advertising.
“The History of Social Media Marketing.” Digital Marketing & Inbound Agency, 23 Mar. 2017,
www.seotrafficlab.com/blog/the-history-social-media-marketing/.
Ward, Susan. “Why Email Marketing Is Still the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance
Small Business, 20 Jan. 2020, www.thebalancesmb.com/email-marketing-2948346.
