What you need to know about Social Media Marketing

Social media is used every day by 45% of the world population for connection, entertainment, and information. Social media is also used by businesses every day; something that many people don’t always associate with social media. Marketing through social media is extremely influential and beneficial to businesses, with 93% of shoppers’ buying decisions being influenced by social media. To add to this, 73% of marketers have found social media to be effective for their business. Showing that social media marketing is something every business today needs to be a part of.

So what is social media marketing? Social media marketing is primarily a business publishing and sharing content to accomplish a number of things, including but not limited to brand awareness and image, audience engagement, and product advertisement. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are some of the most popular social media platforms in 2020. Currently, there are 3.6 billion people around the globe that use social media, and that number is expected to continue to increase.
● Facebook has over 2.7 billion active monthly users (Source 6)
● Instagram has over 1.1 billion active monthly users (Source 6)
● LinkedIn has 660 million active users (Source 10 – www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics)
● Twitter has 353 million active monthly users (Source 6 – www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/)

For all of these platforms, the majority of their users are millennials between the ages of 25-34.

As of 2020, over 90% of U.S. companies use social media in some way as part of their marketing efforts and have spent over 40 billion dollars on social network advertising, a number that is only increasing (Source 8 www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/). While it is different for each type of business and the size of the marketing budget, social media impressions are currently up 20%, which means that more and more users are seeing business’ ads on social media (Source 9 www.statista.com/statistics/873631/social-media-advertising-cpm/). To add to this, on Instagram 80% of users follow a brand account, showing that social media is another tool to make an impression on and connect with customers(https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/20instagramhacks-ebook.pdf?submissionGuid=520dea68-7715-46c7-8500-7352c05c56b4&__hstc=20629287.de7d0d243cd2c3ab2c04100ceea0e23e.1609103601465.1609355731422.1609782407918.5&__hssc=20629287.2.1609782407918
&__hsfp=3429388145 )

Between the massive amount of users each of these platforms have and the fact that most users are millennials, it provides businesses the opportunity to market themselves through these platforms. Specifically, social media marketing allows businesses to use social media to formulate a brand image, target a specific audience, grow their reach, and drive website traffic. All of which is done to increase audience engagement, because the more engaged and larger your audience is, the easier it is to accomplish other marketing goals.

In 2019, research shows that 86% of small businesses use Facebook, 47% use Instagram, 41% use Twitter, and 32% of small businesses use LinkedIn  (Source 7 https://www.statista.com/statistics/208971/effective-social-media-marketing-tools-for-small-us-businesses/). Small businesses primarily use social media to communicate with their customers and to build long term relationships. Social media has become revolutionary for small businesses, due to the low cost and it creates an interaction between the business and their customers, allowing for real-time feedback.

Now, why hire an agency like Martek Cloud to help your business with social media marketing? There are many components that go into social media marketing that many businesses aren’t aware of and don’t have the resources or knowledge to accomplish successfully. By hiring an agency to handle your business’ social media and marketing, they will not only help you strategize and plan what you want to accomplish through different social media platforms but also actively engage with your followers and use analytics to better understand your audience and what content appeals to them. Martek Cloud and similar agencies have specific knowledge of how to produce social media content and tailor it to multiple platforms, as well as how to properly foster relationships with customers while learning from competitors. By utilizing a marketing agency, it allows you and your business to focus on selling your product or service, rather than struggling to figure out how to utilize social media.

Take the first steps in promoting your business through social media today by getting a digital audit for your business!

References

(Source 1) Baker, Kristen. “Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide.” HubSpot Blog, 23 Oct. 2020, blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-marketing.

(Source 2) Clement, J. “Distribution of Instagram Users Worldwide as of October 2020, by Age Group.” Statista, 29 Oct. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/#:~:text=With over 1 billion monthly,95 million Instagram users each.

(Source 3) Clement, J. “Distribution of Facebook Users in the United States as of November 2020, by Age Group.” Statista, 4 Dec. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/187549/facebook-distribution-of-users-age-group-usa/.

(Source 4) Clement, J. “Distribution of LinkedIn Users Worldwide as of October 2020, by Age Group.” Statista, 29 Oct. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/273505/global-linkedin-age-group/.

(Source 5) Clement, J. “Number of Social Network Users Worldwide from 2017 to 2025.” Statista, 24 Nov. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/.

(Source 6) Clement, J. “Most Popular Social Networks Worldwide as of October 2020, Ranked by Number of Active Users.” Statista, 24 Nov. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/.

(Source 7) Guttman, A. “Leading Social Media Networks Used by Small Businesses to Advertise in the United States in 2019.” Statista, 10 Sept. 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/208971/effective-social-media-marketing-tools-for-small-us-businesses/.

(Source 8) Guttmann, A. “Social Network Ad Spend in the U.S. 2016-2022.” Statista, 11 Dec. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/736971/social-media-ad-spend-usa/.

(Source 9) Guttmann, A. “Social Media Ads CPM Worldwide Q2 2018-Q2 2020.” Statista, 7 Sept. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/873631/social-media-advertising-cpm/.

(Source 10) Mohsin, Maryam. “10 Social Media Statistics You Need to Know in 2021 [Infographic].” Oberlo, Oberlo, 18 Dec. 2020, www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics.

(Source 11) Shabbir, Malik Shahzad, et al. “Impact of Social Media Applications on Small Business Entrepreneurs.” ResearchGate, Jan. 2016, www.researchgate.net/publication/295246692_Impact_of_Social_Media_Applications_on_Small_Business_Entrepreneurs.

(Source 12) “What Is Social Media Marketing?” Buffer, 2019, buffer.com/social-media-marketing#.

20 Instagram Hacks to Increase Instagram Post Engagement. Hubspot, 2020. E-Book. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/20instagramhacks-ebook.pdf?submissionGuid=520dea68-7715-46c7-8500-7352c05c56b4&__hstc=20629287.de7d0d243cd2c3ab2c04100ceea0e23e.1609103601465.1609355731422.1609782407918.5&__hssc=20629287.2.1609782407918
&__hsfp=3429388145