Social Media Advertising (Social Media Marketing)
Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media Marketing (Social Media Advertising)?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of online, digital marketing that uses social media applications as a marketing tool.

These social media platforms allow Brands to connect with their audiences to:

• Creation / Strengthening of their Trademark
• Increase traffic to a website
• Increase awareness
• Sales increase
• Creating a community of followers to interact with the content of the Social Network account (profile).
• Produce relevant content that users will share with their own social networks and help brands increase their exposure and credibility
• It also extends companies' reach to fans, potential customers and even potential employees when used as a staffing tool

The Social Media Marketing it also allows companies to receive information and feedback from their customers, while making the company appear more personable and trustworthy. Social media allows individuals, organizations and businesses to build relationships with their audiences. It gives end users a platform to ask questions, air complaints, give ideas and feedback, and generally be heard. It also gives brands the opportunity to respond, adapt their business processes or products, and improve or produce new products.

When developing social media marketing activities, a key area of concern for marketers is how to deliver their messages. Social media helps spread these messages to the right people at the right time, through both free and paid means. Social media also enables brands to learn more about the personal, geographic and demographics of their audience. This allows companies to tailor their messaging and content to achieve better consumer engagement for the products and services they offer.

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Important? Why Social Network Marketing Has Become Necessary Now?

One of the most well-known phrases and platforms for promoting products for both small and large organizations/companies and individuals is “Social Media Marketing”. There is a significant increase in the number of active mobile social media users, as people switch their web browsing from a desktop computer — to using their mobile phones now. Social media users are increasing every year. Social media is popular because of the entertaining and educational information posted there. Users can easily keep in touch with their friends and family through social media. And for this reason, the number of people using social media is regularly increasing every year. Social media marketing is a critical component of inbound marketing in addition to search engine optimization and content marketing. This has helped many brands and companies reach their target market.

Studies have shown that people visit social media sites multiple times a day and stay on those sites longer than they will on other sites. This makes it more likely that the user will notice the business's ad and click through to visit its site.
Incorporating social media advertising into a business's advertising budget will be very beneficial, since the website will refer to a targeted audience who are likely to purchase goods or services from that site. This translates into more money in the business's pocket. Because social media is so adept at targeting the people who are most likely to visit your website, you might think that it would be more expensive financially than traditional marketing methods, however, this is not the case. Social media marketing is very affordable because businesses only pay for ads to be shown to people who are most likely to click on the ad.

What are the most popular Social Media applications?

Some popular social media apps include the Facebook, the Twitter, the LinkedIn, the YouTube, the Pinterest, the Instagram, the WhatsApp, the Snapchat, the TikTok, the Telegram. Every social network platform has elements that make it attractive to use. When a company uses multiple Social Media in combination to deliver a multi-channel message, consumers can see those messages on their preferred channels.

It is important that companies know how to create an effective one multi-channel marketing strategy (multichannel marketing strategies). Multi-channel marketing strategies allow a company to reach its target audience in the channels it prefers, as well as provide a competitive advantage compared to other businesses.

Advertising on Social Internet Networks — Social Media Marketing (Heraklion, Crete)

What are its pillars? Social Media Marketing;

The 5 Pillars of Social Media Marketing

• (Social Strategy) Social Media Marketing Strategy. Creating a social media marketing strategy is the first thing that is critical to do if you plan to create content and social media profiles
• Planning & frequent Content Posts
• Listening and Interaction
• Analyzes and Reports
• Paid Advertisement

What are the different types of social media platforms for displaying ads:

• Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn).
• Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr).
• Photo sharing (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest).
• Video sharing (YouTube, Facebook Live, Instagram Reels, Tiktok, Vimeo, Periscope).

What are the 8 Best Social Media for Ecommerce Advertising?

We suggest that you better start your promotional / advertising campaigns with the most popular social media platforms and gain experience and achieve profitable campaigns – later you can also consider allocating a percentage of your advertising budget to other advertising campaigns in less popular social media.

There are 8 different social media channels that you can use proven ad strategies and get a positive or very good ROI. Of course, we need to note here that profitability is not at all a given and a simple matter and it needs a correct initial design and strategy in our advertising campaigns, continuous monitoring and adaptation / conversions and continuous improvement, so that the conditions for profitability from Social Media campaigns exist.  

These are the best and most popular channels to invest your advertising budget for advertising your products or services on Social Media Marketing/Advertising:

Facebook

LinkedIn

Instagram

YouTube

Vimeo

Twitter

Pinterest

Snapchat

Advertising on Social Media Social Media it is already a very popular and efficient means of promotion that is predicted to have an even brighter future. 

Social Media advertising has come a long way in a short period of time. It is certain that it will continue to evolve in the coming years. Technology is advancing, consumer and public internet behavior is changing, and businesses will need to quickly and continuously adapt their Social Media advertising strategies to be successful and ensure profitability from Social Media advertising spend. .

Below are key trends and changes we expect to see in the near future of Social Media advertising:

Increased Personalization of Social Media Advertising

Personalization has always been an important factor and key driver for successful social media advertising. In the coming years it is predicted to become even more important. We now have the advent of new technologies – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, so businesses will be able to create highly personalized ads. The main and main feature of these ads will be their excellent customization to individual users resulting in more successful and profitable ads for businesses.

More use of video in Social Media advertising

The video is already a popular form of content on social media. In the future, their use is expected to be even more. More and more businesses are adopting video marketing strategies, and social media platforms will continue to prioritize video content in their algorithms.

Show Social Commerce

What is social commerce? Social Commerce is the process of selling products directly on Social Media. With social commerce, the entire shopping experience (from product discovery and research to the checkout process) takes place directly on a Social Media platform. It is the practice of buying and selling products directly on social media platforms. With the rise of visual social media platforms (eg Instagram, Pinterest) businesses will be able to reach a new audience of potential customers to increase their sales.

Greater focus on Influencer Marketing

It is expected that there will be an increase in marketing campaigns for Social Media advertising through influencers. The influencer marketing, is the practice of working with influential people in your field to promote your products or services. The popularity of this practice will continue to grow. Social media platforms will make it easier for businesses to identify and target partnerships with influential people in their industry.

More use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

The augmented reality (AR) technologies and virtual reality (VR) will become more widespread in the coming years and their use in Social Media will also become more widespread. They will easily allow users to experience products and services in a truly immersive way. AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) technologies are expected to revolutionize social media advertising as well.

Increase in the use of Chatbots

The use of virtual assistants (Chatbots) with artificial intelligence will become more widespread in the coming years. Businesses will be able to provide 24/7 customer support and respond immediately to customer queries resulting in a major improvement in customer satisfaction, which contributes to increased sales.

Use of programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising, with the automated buying and selling of advertising space, will become more widespread in the coming years. It will allow businesses to target their ads to specific audiences, optimize their campaigns in real time. Programmatic advertising will have the potential to improve the effectiveness of social media advertising.

It is imperative that businesses adapt their social media advertising strategies, immediately!

The future of social media advertising is set to be shaped by a number of key trends and changes. Such as increased personalization, greater use of video, the emergence of social commerce, and a greater focus on privacy and data protection.

Businesses should adapt their social media advertising strategies to take full advantage of these changes.

Social media advertising will remain a very important tool for businesses in the years to come for those looking to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction or increase brand awareness.

1. Marketing Strategy of the actions at Social Media Marketing Strategy

With any marketing campaign or activity, a proper strategy should be drawn up beforehand. Companies must determine the goals of the program, the channels to be used and the types of content to be shared. Here are some examples:

Define goals: the use of social media for marketing should be closely aligned with the business goals and other objectives of the marketing program. Some goals that businesses can use to measure success include increasing brand awareness, increasing website traffic and leads, and increasing revenue.
Choose Social Media Platforms: There are many social media platforms available, but it doesn't make sense for businesses to use all of them. Organizations need to know their audience and choose the platforms that best suit their demographics.
Content mix: each social media platform has a unique flavor for content distribution — including videos, images, links and instant messages. Therefore, brands need to determine what content their marketing personas are most likely to engage with.

2. Planning & Publishing

Once you've determined a strategy, it's time to start publishing content. This can be as simple as posting a new blog post, sharing information about an upcoming event, or posting a new product video. But consistency is the key to an effective program Social Media Marketing (SMM). To build a loyal audience/followers, businesses should post frequently on their page. Consistently posting relevant content will keep audiences coming back for more.

The content that organizations post on social media should align with other marketing promotions. Various Social Media Marketing tools like Hootsuite, the HubSpot and Sprout Social allow marketers to schedule their posts at the right time.

3. Listening & Engagement

Businesses that generate activity on social media platforms can see growth in brand and product interaction and conversations. Users will comment and share posts, tag the company in their own posts, and even start communicating through instant messaging features. These types of interactions are ideal because there are alerts to alert social media managers. This enables them to practice good customer service, which in turn enhances the customer experience.

People on social media can also discuss a brand, product or service without tagging or talking directly to a company. There are several social media listening tools available to stay connected to the conversation, including Brandwatch, NetBase Quid, and Sprinklr. Free tools like Google Alerts can also notify marketers when their company is mentioned.

4. Analytics and Reporting

As more content is published and the audience expands, it's a good idea to constantly measure performance. Questions to ask include the following:

Which posts get the most engagement?
Where are a brand's followers from?

The success of any marketing program depends on data and analysis results. A marketing team can use this information to make more informed decisions about future campaigns and capitalize on what works.

Each social media platform has its own analytics data, but there are other tools that can collect data from multiple channels in one location. This enables marketers to assess the overall success and failures of their marketing campaigns.

5. Advertising (Paid Advertising)

Much of social media marketing is free — with the exception of resource time and specialized tools. Building an audience and posting content to free social media sites is a great way to achieve your marketing goals, but as the program grows, so does the budget.

Paid marketing features can be very valuable for organizations. They can target their ads to audiences based on many factors, including demographic information, retargeting (remarketing) and behaviors.

There are tools to help manage your social media marketing in volume, but using native ad functionality is enough to promote posts, generate leads, and ensure your messages are in front of the right audience.

Advertising on Social Internet Networks — Social Media Marketing (Heraklion, Crete)

Advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Advertising (Social Media Marketing)

Social media marketing has been integrated into every organization's sales and marketing roadmap. It is an additional channel for distributing content and messages to a much larger audience than a proprietary corporate contact/customer database.

While there are advantages to developing a social media marketing program, there are also disadvantages.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing:

You reach a wider audience: there are more than 3.6 billion users across all social media channels. A shared post can exponentially increase your brand exposure.
Improved customer satisfaction: companies aren't just marketing to customers on social media, they're also interacting with them. This can improve customer service and create one-to-one relationships.
It is a more economical tool: when executed correctly, the cost of running a social media program can be low. Once the knowledge, team and program strategy is in place, marketing teams find it easy to use and with very little associated overhead.
Increase website traffic: social media posts are a great way to drive traffic back to a business website. Promoting blog content, landing page offers, and more can entice users to click through and engage further with a brand.
Gain better knowledge of your market and customers: using the analytics and reporting capabilities of each social media platform gives insight into who the page's followers are, what content they're interested in, and how they like to interact with a company.

Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing:

Time consuming process: a lot of time can be spent on social media campaigns to ensure they are effective. Marketing teams also need to constantly fill the calendar with new content and respond to queries. This can make it difficult for small marketing teams to take full advantage of SMM.
You need specialized resources: it takes the right person or team to run a social media marketing program.
Highly Experienced Social Media Marketing Staff Needed: successful programs do not benefit from entry-level employees. Instead, the key is skilled and experienced executives for social media campaigns.
You have to wait to see ROI: Social Media Marketing is a long-term investment. Social media platforms yield high ROI, but not in the form of immediate results. The success of a Social Media Marketing (SMM) program is not determined by one piece of content, but by many and over long periods of time.
Market research of the competition: posting on social media is a public forum and anyone can see the content, including the competition. There is no workaround for this.
Brand reputation is vulnerable: Social Media Marketing SMM can open the pockets of Aeolus for a brand, placing it in embarrassing situations and defamation. Negative reviews can abound as customers take to social media to vent their frustrations. And because of the public nature of the platforms, anything a company says or does will be seen. Companies need to accelerate response times to mitigate this risk.

Social Media Advertising (Social Media Marketing)

Social Media Marketing Management – Cost & Offer Packages?

THE PRICE LIST OF SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICES available in the market varies a lot as a market research will show you, as the services (level of services offered) vary a lot and there are no indicative prices. You'll need to do thorough research and choose your Social Media Marketing partners carefully — ideally having first done some homework on your plan for exactly what you need and what your goals are.

Social Media Marketing "Don'ts"

Social media marketing tips often advise being genuine and producing quality content. However, it doesn't always provide the best results when you try to do this. This explains why there are so many Facebook business pages with only a small number of followers. These companies could be doing the right thing, but they could also be making serious mistakes.

If you want your social media campaign to be successful, avoid the following common social media mistakes:

Operation without Strategy

Many newcomers to the social media realm simply follow a tutorial instead of developing one comprehensive social media marketing plan. Just like driving a car without knowing how much gas it has or where the road goes, social media marketing has to be about knowing your audience, how to promote your posts, and the next move to make. It's a mistake that can cause your entire campaign to fail, wasting all your time and work, or money you may have invested beyond your cost in time and labor.

Don't consider everyone... as your audience!

Building a successful plan requires a thorough understanding of your audience. Many companies oversimplify their target market to the point that it distorts reality rather than helping to understand it.

Most Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 34, making most of them members of the Millennial generation. Research your audience to better understand them. Engage with the Millennials who buy from your company — but not all of them. Modify your tone and content, create more specific targeting.

Using ineffective #hashtags

Use hashtags if you want to gain visibility. Join a hot topic discussion with your brand and thousands of people will notice your account. Although it seems easy, there is a serious downside that you should be aware of: there will be thousands of people who will see your brand. If you do something wrong, everyone will know. Since the post may still be accessible through the online archive, deleting it won't wipe you clean.

Ignore the comments section

Increasing engagement rates when you respond to comments you receive on your posts is one of the best strategies. Leaving comments / replies to those of your visitors and followers is not just for the algorithm Instagram / Facebook etc. but it creates connections with your followers. When they see that you care enough to respond to their comments, they'll like your brand more.

Remove negative feedback

You must have noticed a few instances of brands receiving a critical remark, engaging in a protracted argument and eventually deleting the entire thread.

The last action to take is to delete negative feedback. When you receive a critical comment, you need to show your audience that you have nothing to hide and remain unbiased. If someone criticizes you and points out your mistakes, accept the criticism and make improvements. Ignoring negative feedback can be downright poisonous…

Social media is one of the most effective marketing and advertising channels for building it brand recognition for both small and large businesses. You can improve your brand visibility, cultivate positive relationships with your potential consumers, and create two-way contact with them by creating a comprehensive social media advertising plan.

Digital Marketing Basics – Learn more about social media (Google Digital Workshop)