Social media marketing is essentially the online use of various social media sites and platforms to advertise a product or service effectively. While the terms digital and e-commerce marketing are more dominant in academic circles, social media marketing has become increasingly popular for researchers and practitioners alike. The Internet has changed drastically over the past decade, and social media has played a large part in the creation and growth of this ever-changing medium. Social media has evolved from a few basic sites designed solely as sites for social interaction to sites that have integrated a variety of communication channels like blogging, forum interaction, video, and social bookmarking into their overall design.
When you develop your social media marketing strategy, it is important to determine what your target audience is and how they behave on the web. For instance, if you are an e-commerce merchant, your strategy should be geared towards people who prefer to shop online rather than buying products from brick-and-mortar stores. Your social media marketing strategy should also take into consideration what your target audience will be interested in, whether this is information or entertainment. For instance, if you are in the food industry, you might want to incorporate recipe websites with cooking tips and recipes that are closely tied in with your business goals.
In addition to determining your audience’s interests and behaviors, your strategy should also be based on knowing what strategies will effectively reach your target audience. For instance, one way that many companies share content on the web is through social media marketing. Social networking sites like Facebook allow users to create personal pages, which allows them to share content with friends. If your company has a page on a social networking site like Twitter, you can post relevant and interesting links that your audience may find interesting. By implementing these strategies, you can increase your traffic, boost your reputation, and increase sales.