Social Media Marketing: An Overview

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the second generation World Wide Web (www), which concentrates on information sharing using online platforms; it is more organized and efficient than HTML pages (Hosch, 2017). Recently, it is used more in marketing than computer science. Common elements of Web 2.0 are web services, wikis and blogs.

Social Media

Social media is a collective term used to describe online communication methods dedicated to information sharing, collaboration and interaction. The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, Wikipedia, Reddit, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Social media is important to marketers since it is the latest trend in advertising. Social media enhances brand recognition among consumers; its platforms channel the brand’s content and voice. Social media platforms make an organization accessible to new customers and enhance the loyalty of current ones through regular recognition (DeMers, 2014). Moreover, it reduces marketing costs since hiring two people to manage social media accounts from a computer is cheaper than many people to advertise during events. Client interaction on social media platforms enable a company to ensure customer satisfaction; clients give their opinions on what they want and the organization acts according to these requests. Social media is a dynamic platform. Marketers should ensure that they adjust to the frequent changes and upgrade to the latest versions lest they lose the ability to compete successfully with rivals in their industry. Hiring an IT expert to enhance the company’s social media platforms is the best way to follow up on current technological trends.

Setting Objectives for Social Media Marketing

Every marketer should set clear objectives when it comes to social media marketing to avoid wasting resources for a non-profitable cause. Good strategy goals guide the company in making the right business decisions. The goals should be SMART, which is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound; realistic objectives that can be achieved within a certain period are advisable (Thoreau, 2017). Also, the objectives should be relevant to the organization’s mission and vision statements. In addition to this, the goals should be in line with Latham and Locke’s principles of setting objectives. These aspects are commitment, challenge, feedback, clarity and task complexity. The challenge should motivate employees but not impossible. Complicated tasks lower productivity and morale of team members. Feedback is important in monitoring progress.

Social Media Budgets

Social media budgets should focus on several key components. The marketer should outline the necessary software to set up the social media platforms (Milbrath, 2017). There should be a team to manage the accounts; the management entails content creation, promotions, community engagement and analytics. Branding is an essential part of the budget since graphic videos and images setup require graphic designers whose services are expensive. Moreover, paid advertising should be catered for. Companies are charged a specific amount of money on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms whenever someone clicks on their company ads. Social media marketing is not free since the organization needs to pay employees to run the accounts as well as set up and manage the software. The infrastructure required in social media marketing entails external links, analytics that count, interconnectivity, core sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and valued content.

Segmenting the Social Media Following

The basic ways of segmenting the social media following are targeting platforms such as Facebook, forming groups, creating lists (followers, friends or attendees of an event), regular posting and having multiple accounts on every network (Ollison, 2017). Posting should be done at different times of the day.

References

DeMers, J. (2014). Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing. Forbes.

Hosch, W. L. (2017). Web 2.0. Britannica.

Milbrath, S. (2017). The 7 Components of Every Social Media Budget. Retrieved from Hootsuite.

Ollison, M. (2017). 5 Simple Ways to Segment Your Social Media Audience. Retrieved from Hubspot Marketing.

Thoreau, D. (2017). 7 Popular Strategies for Setting Social Media Goals. Retrieved from Buffer Social.