Benefits of Using Social Media in Market Plan
You may be starting a business and don’t know how to get your brand out there or where to start on the marketing journey. It is important to supply yourself with a starting point to put your company on the map by selecting the best social media platform that will work best for you.
Before You Start
The key to choosing the right social media platform(s) is to consider who your target audience is and to be aware of the fact that not all of your target audience will be on every social media platform. You do not want to spread your brand too thin by putting it on every single media outlet. You will waste valuable resources, especially marketing dollars. Even worse, you will be reaching out to an audience that is not in your target zone.
Other factors to consider is what content you want to relay on these social media platforms and what you want to say to your projected audience. Does the social media platform you choose have tools to manage your account? What is the cost of its marketing ads? Will you get a good return on your investment? How many potential customers and followers can you attract to your account? And can you develop lasting relationships with these people on this social media platform? Will your startup be able to retain repeat customers and will you be able to attract new customers on a continual flow?
According to the Zephoria Digital Marketing website, as of June 2019, Facebook had 2.41 billion active monthly users. So, they would be a great choice to advertise your brand on. Facebook dominates the social media world by leaps and bounds in terms of audience exposure to your product or service.
It is important to either conduct your own research or use a secondary source of research to understand what social media platforms your target audience is most likely to be on. If you find that your target audience is rooted in Facebook, then it would be a good choice to launch your business’s online presence there.
Facebook Facts
Facebook’s largest asset is that 41% of businesses—as of a few years ago—use Facebook to spotlight their brand and reach different segments of the population. Obviously, they are reaching their target audience or 41% of companies would not be using Facebook to share their brand on a regular basis.
An interesting fact about Facebook which could have a negative impact on the platform though is that within the next 50 years, Facebook could have more dead people than living. According to academics from the University of Oxford, by 2069, the dead could outnumber the living on Facebook. In 2012, eight years after the platform launched, 30 million users had died.
YouTube
YouTube is the world’s second-largest social media platform with 1 billion active users. One of the most popular types of videos on YouTube are “how-to” videos, with videos like this helping contribute to YouTube’s yearly 70% growth. An easy way to showcase your brand and the value of your products or services would be to create one of these videos. YouTube is its own search engine, so if you can add your content to it, your brand will benefit from the exposure.
Pinterest is the third-largest social media platform that small business owners or start-ups need to consider using to brand themselves and increase revenues. Pinterest is a social media site that runs on users posting pictures of themselves, hobbies, products, and more. As of June 2019, there are 300 million active users who interface with the social media giant daily. If your start-up is a visually-based business, this social media platform may benefit your company immensely. You could upgrade from a start-up to a very healthy, thriving business. Pinterest entered the tech world and they grew quite rapidly, as can your startup.
Pinterest Facts
Pinterest has grown dramatically since 2012 and the users have increased by about 160 million in 6 years.
80% of Pinterest users are women and 90% of all the pictures pinned are from women. Pinterest also pulls in 41% more e-commerce traffic compared to the other social sites.
Instagram, as of March 2019, has 1 billion active monthly active users, putting the site in the same dimension as YouTube and Facebook. 32% of teens feel that it is the most important site for them. It is reported that pictures with faces get 38% more likes than photos that do not. Female users are the primary users on this social media platform.
If your targeted audience is young people or female users and your brand is geared toward these age groups, then you may consider using Instagram or Pinterest as your social platform to launch your brand. Regardless of which you pick, make sure you feature faces in the pictures you post when promoting your brand to get more likes, views, and subsequently, business.
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