What Is Social Media Marketing?

Those of us in the field tend to throw the term “social media marketing” around as though it’s been part of our world since the Dawn of Time but if you’re new to the concept it’s helpful to have a clear definition. So here’s my take:

Social media marketing is the process of starting conversations that might lead to sales through one or more social media sites.

There is a strategy to this. Your social media platforms are like officials standing along the route of a marathon and their goal is to direct the runners to their final destination. In this case, that destination is your website. And to make the analogy really work, imagine that all of your competitors have officials standing along the same route and they are trying to direct the runners to their websites as well. If you haven’t asked any officials to stand out there and show people how to get to your website, none of those “runners” are going to find their way to it. Other people might. But not the people participating in the marathon. In this case, the people in the marathon represent everybody on the internet who might be interested in what you are selling.

Seen in that light, doesn’t social media make more sense?

The conversations you’re looking to start with social media could start on the social media platform itself, but it’s just as likely that they might start on your website. Every social media site is different and each one attracts a different demographic. So knowing who you want to do business with is important. ()

According to the Pew Research Centre’s statistics for 2014, 75% of internet users visit social media sites and this includes:

• 89% of internet users aged 18-29
• 82% of internet users aged 30-49
• 65% of internet users aged 50-64 and
• 49% of internet users aged 65+

Of all adults aged 18+ who are active online,

• 58% use Facebook
• 23% use LinkedIn
• 22% use Pinterest and
• 21% use Instagram
• 19% use Twitter

Pew also reports that 52% of online adults now use two or more social media sites, with a particular note that LinkedIn usage is growing among professionals and college graduates. As of this writing, there were 347 million people using LinkedIn, with two people joining the platform every second.

Brandon Brodzky, founder and CEO of Invision Consulting, further reports that the total number of users for each platform break down as follows:

Facebook:       1.32 billion

Linked In:       300 million

Twitter:           271 million

Instagram:       200 million

Pinterest:        70 million

Brodzky notes that there are seven billion people in the world, roughly three billion of whom are on the internet. This is a very large number of people. Is it possible that some of your customers or their influencers are among them?

There’s a lot involved in all of this and it takes a fair bit of finesse to take a social media presence and turn it into the type of activities that support revenue generation. If you’d like to know more about how my team and I can help you with that, please get in touch with me at susan@crossmancommunications.com. We’d love to help you with that!