social media marketing

Social media marketing is marketing via social media. This means advertising via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Co. This type of marketing allows a very precise addressing of the respective target group based on the information disclosed by the users.

What is the goal of social media marketing?

Social media marketing has several goals. First of all, lead generation. This describes the process of acquiring interested parties. The lead is a prospective customer who voluntarily provides his data and ideally also becomes a new customer.

In addition, social media marketing is expected to increase the reach of businesses and online customer loyalty is expected to occur. This means that the relationship between the company and the customer should be maintained or even expanded.

What is the importance of social media marketing for online marketing?

Social media marketing has become a significant component for online marketing. Especially in the consumer goods sector, many companies run social profiles themselves. A multi-channel strategy – i.e. the playout of advertising on different platforms – is a good idea here.

Social media marketing is useful in B2C as well as B2B. The platforms used differ, of course.

Ultimately, the principle remains the same – only the environment and the technology have changed. So you still have to pay attention to the corporate design or branding. The balance between advertising and communication is important. Users are quickly put off by too much advertising.

What are the different forms of social media marketing?

Placing ads is possible on most social media platforms. The principle can be compared with that of Google Ads. However, one significant difference is the playout of video ads or image ads in feeds or in stories. The advertisements are usually very similar to the normal user-generated content.

The billing of the ads is not based on cost per click (CPC), but as a rule on a fixed budget. Through customizable settings, you can control how, when and to whom the ads are played out after setting the budget.

When it comes to social media marketing, you can also use influencers. These are well-known people who have a larger community. By recommending the company’s products, brand awareness is strengthened online. However, the price for such marketing campaigns depends heavily on the popularity of the influencer and is therefore a matter of negotiation.

But strategic activities on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are becoming more attractive due to their increasing user numbers. This form of social media marketing involves posting your own content in an attempt to reach your target audience. Here, companies can create direct customer contact and use the ever-growing reach in the form of followers for marketing purposes.

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

Social media marketing aims at direct customer contact. Thus, this instrument can also be used as a customer service. If the company responds quickly to a message or review from a customer, it can strengthen and build customer loyalty. This is not possible in other media.

Social media marketing can also lead to viral marketing. Here, users share content that then spreads virally. This can be targeted through influencers. It also offers a variety of reporting and monitoring options. The data obtained in this way can be used in many ways.

Relevance for SEO

Social media lends itself to generating traffic with all of its various promotional methods. Visitors can be easily directed to websites or blogs, provided good content is given. The increase in traffic and thus a change in page dwell time can subsequently lead to a more positive ranking by Google, which in turn brings more organic traffic.

But even the sole presence in social media can lead to so-called social signals, which are transmitted to search engines. Profiles in social networks are indexed by search engines and then also shown higher up in the SERPs. High interaction rates – likes, comments or shares – are also signals that tell search engines that users are interested in the offer.