Why Social Media?
The History of Marketing
Marketing has been in existence since time in memorial. It’s been there since the times of barter trade. Displaying products on the floor in order for potential traders to see and buy, however informal it was, was marketing in itself. Over the centuries, marketing has evolved to what we know it to be today. It involves personal sales, sales promotions, Billboard ads, TV & radio ads, newspaper & magazine ads, internet adverts (including pop-ups and redirect pages) and now, social media marketing. So deep is the concept of marketing that in itself, is treated as a principle majored in up to PhD level. Without getting too scholarly, marketing is an old phenomenon that has in the recent years, made its way into social media. So, it begs the question, why social media?
Why Social Media?
It’s all in the numbers. Since the advent of the internet, the world of marketing has stepped into a whole new dimension of globalism. Social media for business opened up doors to untapped markets, both local and international. During this time, but before the birth of social media, most marketing was in forms of blogs and adverts that pop up on almost every website visited. This saw sales of companies advertising through such channels double within a few months.
Fast forward a couple of years later, and social media platforms were born. Today, there are countless social media platforms, some even being developed and released as you read this piece. However, the common ones include LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Baidu, Tieba, Twitter, Gab, Wikia, Reddit, Snapchat, Tumblr, VK, Viber, and the most popular of them all, Facebook. So, why social media?
1. Numbers don’t lie
Social media is an ideal marketing platform thanks to its huge numbers. Statistics show that there are well over 2.46 billion active social media users in 2017. Social media’s April 2017 statistics show that Facebook takes the lion’s share with 1.96 billion users by April 2017, closely followed by WhatsApp with 1.2 billion users and YouTube following closely with 1.2 billion users. These numbers are ridiculously huge. For marketers, they are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Marketers can access a vast market base by interacting and promoting their products and services on social media for business.
2. Affordability
Most social media platforms are free for all. Just a couple of clicks to download (the app) and sign in. That’s it. Companies can open up social media pages on every platform they wish and market their products and services, without spending a fortune on media houses for advert space.
3. Impact
People are active on social media for more than 28% of their day. Considering the percentage taken up by sleep, this is a considerable amount of time. Promoting services and products over social media for business during “social prime time” could have triple the impact a TV ad could. Social prime time is usually meal times (except for early breakfast time) and in the evening when most day’s activities are done.
4. It’s Interactive
Social media is possibly the most interactive way of companies interacting and engaging with their clients on an everyday basis. Replying to client’s inquiries on a marketing post published by your business builds customer relations. Prompt and active interaction with customers boosts credibility and customer loyalty.
5. It’s Diverse
Social media allows for different forms of posts. For instance, marketing may take the form of a video, a blog or an image. Marketing on one platform allows you to link a similar ad from another social media platform, creating a web network that allows several media forms to reach more people through hyperlinks.
6. More than just advertising
Social media can be used for purposes other than advertising. Today, most social media platforms incorporate bots that allow for small surveys and votes that businesses can utilize to get feedback about their brands, products and services.
7. Sharing
Social media is the master of making anything and literally anything trend. This is thanks to the concept of sharing that creates a wave of awareness. This is what brought about the concept of viral marketing. Trending topics can be used by social media for business and relate them to their products and services, taking advantage of the wave of awareness which in turn has a greater impact.
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