THE FIVE PILLARS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social Media Marketing (SMM) can be said to be the most effective mode of growing your business in the 21^st century. The graph of social media users is ascending every year. There was a total of 3.196 billion social media users in 2018. Later in 2019, there was a 9% increase, bringing the total number of active social media users to 3.48 billion. People utilize social media because of the entertaining and educational information that is posted on these sites. Users of social media find it a convenient means to remain in touch with friends and family. That is one major reason for such a growth in the percentage of social media users. This article will introduce you to the basics of Social Media Marketing and what are the five pillars of Social Media Marketing.

For those who have a vague idea about Social Media Marketing, it is the advertising and promotion of a brand and product on multiple social media platforms in order to create brand awareness, increase sales, drive more website traffic, and develop brand legitimacy, to put it in a nutshell. Social media marketing is an important component of effective marketing, and many marketers see the opportunity to expand their companies by leveraging this platform. These platforms are no more used only for personal purpose, it is increasingly becoming the most important component of efficient digital marketing campaigns as well. This platform is perfect for brands to make their first step towards expansion since it takes little financial input and, when used appropriately, may help you boost your business in extraordinary proportions. SMM enhances brand awareness, helps in creating a unique identity for your brand, draws traffic to your website, builds conversions, and with proper engagement builds an interactive and trusted relationship between the seller and the consumer. But just mindless marketing of your products or services will not yield results, you must know the effective ways to get the maximum out of these social media platforms. And to achieve that you need to know what are the five pillars of Social Media Marketing.

What are the five pillars of social media marketing?

1. Strategy

The first step towards anything should be planning, and SMM is not an exception. To get optimum results, you should plan your social media strategy. Set a goal you aim to achieve through the campaign. You should consider things like – the social media platforms to use, your target audience, the type of content you want to share, and so on. The objective of your Social Media Marketing campaign should be clear to you. A wide range of businesses uses social media to increase brand recognition, while others use it to drive website traffic and sales. Social media may also drive brand engagement, develop a community, and function as a customer care route for your audience. Choose your intention. The social media platforms you use will depend on your target audience. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest are the most popular social media networks these days. There are also other smaller networks like Tumblr, Anchor, and others, as well as social messaging systems like WhatsApp, Messenger, and WeChat. It is preferable to focus on a few platforms where you feel your target audience is present rather than being present on all platforms. A narrowed, target-oriented approach has been proven to be more effective. Your target audience will also influence the type of content you publish. The content that you might post on social media includes business, instructional, and entertainment content, among others. It can be photos, videos, or links. To begin, you must understand what type of material would appeal to your target audience. A good place to start is to build a brand identity that will help you to answer these questions. And you can always adjust your plan based on how well your social media postings do.

2. Planning and publishing

With the increasing social media content, you have to be consistent with your posts to stay relevant and for your potential customers to discover you. Therefore, after you have decided on a social media strategy, the following step should be to establish how frequently you want to produce your material. Having a continuous presence on social media helps potential clients to see and find your brand or service. With consistency, you can convert billions of social media users into potential customers. When creating your social media posts, such as blog posts, photos, or videos, it is critical to developing information that will appeal to your target audience. Also, keep in mind that frequency of publication and timeliness are equally crucial. There is an algorithm that every social media follows which can enhance or stagnate your reach.

3. Listening and engagement

Now that you have started posting engaging content for your target audience, you will see an increase in followers and audience engagement as well. The audience will leave comments on your social media posts, tag you in their posts, or send you direct messages. Furthermore, users on social media may speak about your brand without your apparent knowledge. Therefore, you need to be vigilant. You should monitor social media comments about your organization. If it is a positive comment, you have an opportunity to thrill them. Otherwise, you can assist and resolve a problem before it worsens. To improve your social media reach, you must also provide quality material that your audience enjoys at the correct time and frequency. Do not ignore your followers. At this stage, engagement is beneficial for your company’s reputation and success.

4. Analytics

You have decided upon a strategy, planned content, and engaged with your customers, but how do you know whether your social media marketing approach is working? Here comes the analytics aspect of social media. Analytics and reporting are important criteria for every online marketing platform. If you have a brand page and regularly upload material on it, then you should be aware of how well your article or page is doing. Is your approach effective? Are your posts doing well? Are you getting mentions in comment sections or being tagged by audiences? Are your hashtags being used on other social media posts? This is the information you need to gather. Based on these answers, you will know if you are required to adopt a different approach or stick to the same. The social media platforms themselves provide basic analytics data. You may use the numerous social media analytics tools available to obtain more detailed analytics data or to compare it across social media sites.

5. Advertising

A beneficial option of social media platforms is ads. As your business grows, you will have a budget to invest in your marketing campaigns. Social media ads are a great place to invest. Social media ads allow you to reach a larger audience than just those that follow you. Nowadays, social media advertising systems are so effective that you may target specific people with your advertisements. You may establish target audiences based on their histories, interests, attitudes, and other factors.

So if you are new to the business and want exposure for your brand, Social Media Marketing is the way to that. But it is necessary to gather knowledge in this field, to know what are the five pillars of Social Media Marketing that can make or break your business