This is how major brands do social media marketing

And digital advertising has made an enormous leap in a very short time: not so long ago, it would have been hard to imagine that today we would be using inbound marketing. Marketing and advertising used to be analogue and, in most cases, intrusive and annoying, because the content was neither targeted nor segmented. Fortunately, with social media marketing, this is no longer the case.

Social media and digital advertising help brands stay present and remain relevant where potential customers are. They offer the opportunity to deliver the right content to the right people at a specific stage of their buying journey, helping them continue moving through the funnel until they become loyal customers.

What is social media marketing?

Broadly speaking, social media marketing means using these platforms to connect with an audience and build a brand, increase sales, and drive traffic to a website. It involves publishing high-quality content, created among other formats through motion graphics, across social profiles; listening to and engaging with followers, analysing results, and running advertising campaigns.

Key characteristics of social media marketing

Social platforms encourage contributions and comments from all users. Social media marketing includes delivering ideas at the exact moment when the conversation is taking place online. It aims to bridge the gap between companies and their target audience.

Visibility

What is done and what is said — everything is visible. Users are quick to call out any contradiction, unfair practice, or mistake. Brands need to be honest, transparent, and authentic, as negativity can destroy a brand’s online reputation.

Relationship building

Social media marketing involves the creation of a two-way communication channel that requires participation from both brands and customers. It is essential for companies to establish strong connections with their target audience. Online conversations, through the various social media tools, happen in real time with real people. Therefore, committing to relationship building can represent a major step forward for businesses.

Trust

Brands must always present themselves as trustworthy. To do this, the best approach is to use social platforms to engage new users and promote offers. Speak to your target audience regularly.

Community building

Social platforms are the ideal place to build communities quickly. This creates more effective communication. Communities share common interests and help you get to know your target audience better.

Customer service

Social media helps brands connect with customers and support them in understanding how your service or product adds value.

The importance of social branding

These are the main reasons why social branding is important:

It helps brands better understand their customer base

One of the key ways to stand out from the crowd is by understanding your audience. It may sound simplistic, but the truth is that many brands launch into social media and marketing blindly.

Think of this as a conversation with your audience. What type of content resonates with your target audience, and how can it align with your brand voice?

It increases sales

Social media marketing helps control the brand message and can contribute to increasing sales. In addition, consumers can share the products they like with users in their own network, creating a pathway for new audiences to discover brands.

It is budget-friendly for brands

One of the strongest points of social media marketing is its relatively low cost. With a simple click, brand messages can be spread widely.

Social platforms offer ways to boost content at relatively low prices, helping brands reach ever larger audiences. Ultimately, social media marketing is a low-cost tool that can deliver significant results when used correctly.

It helps brands better understand the competition

It is a quick and simple way to know what other companies in the sector are doing and how they interact with their audience. Keeping a brand fresh and relevant is definitely a challenge, but social media marketing is like a window into what other companies are doing to market their products and strategies.

How to build a brand on social media

There are several things you should do if you want to work on brand building:

• Keep your profiles updated, and if you do not use them, delete them or repurpose them.
• Identify your area of expertise.
• Share content regularly.
• Make sure your posts reach your audience by creating engagement.
• Participate in groups.
• Be consistent in your brand voice, tone, and corporate image.

Social media strategies

If what you want is to create your own social media strategies, you should follow these steps:

• Define objectives that are aligned with and make sense for your brand.
• Study your target audience.
• Determine metrics and KPIs.
• Create and curate high-quality content.

If you do this, you will see how your social media strategies have much more impact than you might imagine.

Which social media platforms are most used by brands?

Although Facebook and Instagram are the platforms most widely used by companies for social media marketing, there are others that are also highly relevant. We are referring, for example, to YouTube with more than 200 million brands, WhatsApp — which some consider a social network even though it is not strictly one — and TikTok, which is focused on a younger audience.

Examples of social media strategies

Perhaps one of the strangest campaigns on social media: the beloved mascot of snack company Planters died at the beginning of January 2020. His death was announced in a tweet and later explained in a video ad published on YouTube.

Apparently, Mr. Peanut sacrificed his life to save his co-stars in the ad, Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes. You could win snacks by replying to a tweet with the hashtag #RIPPeanut. Both brands and regular social media users played along with the campaign.

The campaign was inspired by the reaction to celebrity deaths on social media. Its objective was to replicate the same level of engagement caused by Tony Stark’s death in "Avengers: Endgame". Later, Mr. Peanut was reborn as Baby Nut, and now happily tweets from the 'Peanut Jr.' account.

The tweet announcing Mr. Peanut’s death gathered nearly 50,000 retweets. The hashtag was used more than one million times on Twitter.

Anything more to add about the effectiveness of a social media marketing campaign?