Social Media Marketing Blog Pt. 1
Social Media Marketing | Part 1
Like the proverbial tree in the forest, if someone posts on social media and no one is around to like/share/retweet it, does it even make a sound?
DCC is here to make sure your business has an audible voice in the era of social media, and as a marketing agency, we know the importance of evolving with the times. Social media is here to stay, and that means targeted digital campaigns with measurable goals and tangible results.
So, what platform should you use? Some of them? All of them? The ones with the coolest cat filters? With over 2.89 million monthly active users (source), Facebook is undoubtedly the largest tree in our digital forest, but we must ask ourselves if it caters to our client’s target audience since social media preferences vary by age, race, ethnicity, and location. Marketing on any social media platform must be strategic and deliberate.
Let’s start with the most obvious marketing tactic on Facebook: posts. Why? Because they’re free. Posts are an easy and cost-effective way to advertise and update your audience on services, announcements, holiday hours, industry news, etc., but they aren’t necessarily a great way to reach a target audience. You don’t simply send a post into the Metaverse and BOOM, your intended audience is there. There’s a more effective way to advertise, but of course, it will cost you. After all, is anything really free?
Paid advertising on Facebook offers different bidding models based on your campaign goals. Essentially, you decide the key characteristics of your target audience to narrow in on and the advertisements stay within those parameters. Not only is it a highly targeted form of advertising, but it provides beneficial analytics to help the client understand how people are engaging with their posts.
If Facebook is the Sequoia, then Instagram is a Redwood, with slightly less reach but still very powerful (and with cool cat filters). Not all content on Facebook translates well on Instagram, although both share the same ad platform which presents many cross-promotional opportunities for brands. As the second most-accessed social media platform behind Facebook, the ‘Gram succeeds with its visual appeal.
When choosing an advertising platform, demographics are key to building your brand’s strategy. Although Facebook succeeds in its sheer number of users, Instagram is home to a more-engaged, younger demographic. In September 2022, 27.5 percent of Instagram users in the United States were between ages 25 and 34 years, and 25.5 percent of users were aged 18 to 24 years (source).
Thanks to its youthful following, Instagram is also home to the “influencer” trend, and according to a Statista 2021 survey, 93 percent of responding marketers and agencies from the US stated that they planned to use Instagram for influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a collaboration of product placement or messaging with people or organizations of wide social influence. Simply put, more followers=more visibility. Influencer audiences are some of the most engaged, and an endorsement or product placement from an influencer can truly affect buying behavior.
Instagram stories and Instagram reels are another great way for advertisers to connect with audiences. In the same way that pay-per-click advertisements target users, stories and reels can make “impressions” by simply being seen. Also, clickable hashtags are a great way to build a community around your brand, and with community comes engagement. The aesthetics of Instagram make it a great advertising platform, and whereas Facebook is a great place for information, Instagram may be the preferred way to build your brand.
What’s a digital forest without a little blue bird? Twitter is the last of the “big three” social media platforms we will be discussing today—we covered TikTok and Snapchat in a previous DCC Blog, and we’ll talk YouTube in a future post.
With more than 330 monthly active users (source), Twitter is a platform with Elon-gated reach (see what we did right there?) Its user base is very similar to that of Instagram, although Twitter’s is slightly male dominant. The original “home of the hashtag” could be a crucial part of your marketing strategy, and here’s why: it’s the fastest way to get your message across. With a 280-character limit, Twitter posts are concise and to the point, often linking to industry news or websites. Branded hashtags, poll/questions, and retweets are another easy, organic way to create user engagement. Twitter uses its own algorithm for engagement and click-through rates, and by purchasing promoted accounts and promoted tweets, your message can reach its targeted audience much in the same way Meta advertising works.
Twitter is a real-time, fast moving content distributor, and with the right approach, it can be instrumental in your marketing campaign. With its recent change of ownership, however, some advertisers are pausing or proceeding with caution until the platform reaches a more stable state. We’ll save all of that information for another rainy, musky day.
With so many platforms from which to choose, always ask yourself these questions and then decide accordingly. What is your message? Who is your target audience? What are you wanting to achieve? Hopefully by now you have a bit better understanding of how social media advertising works, so that the next time your Instagram reel is posted or your Facebook advertisement is clicked, you can rest assured it’s most definitely making a sound.