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Social media is reliant on two things – technology and the users. When there is a new breakthrough in technology, you can expect that the social networking sites will be working hard to make sure these updates will benefit them. As for the users, well these are the clients. If they happen to develop new preferences, social networks have to pay attention. They need to keep the users satisfied to keep them engaged in their respective accounts.

Given these two influences, you can understand why social networking sites usually go through changes every now and then. Sometimes, the changes are so frequent that it is hard to keep up. If you want to use this platform for your marketing initiatives, you need to know how everything will change over time.

How social media is expected to change

While nothing is really set in stone, here are some of the expected changes that can happen to social media sites.

New ways of posting

This is with the intention of giving users something new to look at. There will be new applications or programmes that will allow users to share posts differently. That is digital technology for you. There will always be new updates and it will be meant to keep things interesting for social network users.

Paying for better social experience

You know how getting something for free online would mean you will be bombarded with ads while you are using it? This is a bit like what this change is all about. Advertisements are necessary for businesses but there are some users who will gladly pay to remove these ads. You need to consider this because people will pay to get some semblance of peace while enjoying social media sites. This is something that premium websites will offer. If it gives the users a more secure and clean social networking experience, they will not have qualms about paying for it.

Focus on building relationships

This is how social media started in the first place. It provided everyone with the means to connect with people in ways that had never been done before. Unfortunately, the popularity of social networking sites has made it a haven for businesses. It started to become more commercialised. This is why social networks will try to bring the focus back to personal relationships. Easier ways to connect, tag photos and videos, and share experiences – these will all be part of the changes that will happen.

Having social groups

Going along the lines of building relationships, there will be more social groups and filters now. This will help users connect with new people who have the same interests and passion as they do. You do not have to keep yourself with family and friends. Users will be given the chance to reach further to connect to new people by grouping them based on common interests.

Obviously, there will be a lot of exciting changes that will happen in social media. Knowing about these changes should help you plan your next online marketing strategy.

The top social media sites have come a long way. Some of them are still new while others have been here from the beginning. These sites have come a lot way and have gone through a lot of changes already.

But which of these sites are used the most? Each of them offers a different experience but all of them give us one thing – a platform to connect and share with each other.

Top social media sites being used

So what are the top social networking sites that users love to go to?

Facebook

It is not really surprising to find this one on top. It has 2 billion active users. Not only that, 1 billion users log into it daily. You can practically do anything on this site and the developers of Facebook are working hard to make sure there is a constant improvement.

Twitter

Another one of the social media sites that is popular today is Twitter. The fact that people are restricted to 280 characters does not even deter anyone. You can still attach photos, videos, and even GIFs to your posts. The hashtag is also something that can help everyone see what is trending. It is a great way to keep tabs on what other people are thinking and feeling about certain issues – whether it is political, social, or even personal.

LinkedIn

This is a social networking site that is perfect for professionals. If you want to make connections, this is the site that you want to go to. Given the competitive nature of business today, it is not a wonder that this is one of the top social media sites. It is the perfect place to promote both business and personal skills.

Google+

Although Google was late in the game, they have managed to get a lot of user engagement in the past few years. Maybe because this is Google. Although their first few attempts to come up with a social media site has failed in the past, they finally did something right with Google+. The site started as a replica of Facebook – but soon found its own niche by focusing on communities and social groups.

YouTube

Finally, you have the best video streaming site – YouTube. This is the best place to browse videos and get informative materials. This is actually considered as a search engine – second only in size to Google. Despite that, it is still widely considered as a social networking site.

What do you think of these top social media sites? Will they continue being on top or will some other site topple them over?

Social media marketing is one of the most important strategies that you need to implement in your business. In this digital age, the best way to get the attention of your target market is to do it online. A study reveals how most people have social media accounts and how they spend hours on it every day. This attitude is something that you need to take advantage of to make your business more profitable.

About social media marketing

But what exactly is this marketing strategy? Simply put, this is the process of marketing your business, product, or service through popular or relevant social media sites. These sites include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.A social media marketing strategy utilizes the social possibilities online by creating digital campaigns and activities. All of these are done with the intention of connecting and interacting with the target audience on a level that is both personal and dynamic – at least, more so than traditional marketing. What is great about this type of marketing is that it will not cost as much as it would compare to traditional marketing strategies.

Marketing through social media can happen in different ways. It can be a simple blog that you can sync with your company’s Facebook or Twitter account. It can be a series of videos that you will upload on YouTube explaining what the product or business is all about. You can also create a full campaign that utilises different social media platforms and materials.

Of course, apart from the implementation, a social media marketer is also tasked with monitoring and engagement. Even after a campaign is launched, there is a need to keep the hype alive. This requires someone to keep adding fuel to the fire by constantly updating posts or communicating with the audience.

When done correctly, social media marketing can raise awareness and increase traffic and conversions for the business. When that happens, it will increase the profitability of the company.

Why social media marketing is beneficial

There are many benefits to marketing your business online. Here are some of them.

• Higher brand recognition. Visibility is always a good idea in any business. However, you need to make sure you are visible on the right channels. Social media provides you with the right channels that are apt for the image that you want your business to have.
• Opportunity to increase loyalty. Social media marketing allows you to connect to your target market on a more personal level. It is easier to answer questions, provide specific information. The attention that you can give to your customers can improve loyalty. They will feel like you care for what they think – and that is a good thing.
• Increased conversions. When you use this strategy correctly, you have all the opportunities to convert visitors into paying customers. Getting new customers is one of the primary targets of marketing.
• More inbound traffic. One of the goals of this online marketing strategy is to take your target market and bring them to the company’s website. This is where they will get more information about the business. It is also where they can act on their intention to make a purchase.

As you can see, social media marketing is a great strategy to use in making your business more profitable. It allows you to connect with your customers. While getting new customers is great, turning them into loyal ones will make your marketing efforts more worthwhile.

Social media marketing is a great strategy to use in any business. However, there are certain tips that you need to follow if you want to make it effective. Like other marketing campaigns, this should be done with a lot of planning. It is the only way that you can guarantee that it will deliver the results that you are expecting.

Tips to make social media marketing effective

So what are the tips and techniques that you need to follow so you can have an effective marketing campaign on social media?

Know how everything works

First of all, you need to know how social media works. There are specific tips that are available for your social media marketing efforts to succeed in various social networking sites. You might need different strategies when using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. This is why you need to know how it all works. Since there are so many sites to choose from, focus on the popular ones and the sites that can represent your business the best. Then learn how to use them effectively and what materials can best be used to promote your business.

Get to know your target audience

If you are serious about your business, you should have a clear idea who your target market is. You want to know their personal preferences so you can give them what they need. When you are planning your social media marketing strategy, you want to know the specific websites that your audience frequent. That is where you should deliver your campaign. You should also observe how they conduct themselves on these sites. It will give you an idea how to implement your marketing campaign.

Learn how to schedule posts

Ideally, you should have a dedicated social media manager to work on your social media accounts. But if not, you need to make sure that your posts will be scheduled and delivered in a timely manner. Fortunately, there is a feature that will allow you to do this. You can schedule to have content posted every hour or so. Do not flood your page with posts at one point and then be silent the next. It is better to have a consistent stream of posts instead of dumping it all at one time.

Take time to engage the audience

This should be done as often as you can. Leave the audience with a question, an opinion, an activity – anything that will get them interacting with you and each other. Respond to their comments, react to their feedback, etc. This makes your social media marketing efforts more personal and will result in more loyal customers.

Monitor your social media marketing efforts

Finally, you need to make sure that you measure and track the progress of your marketing efforts. Is it working? Are you getting the buzz that you need? These are important details that will help you improve your social media strategies.

There are other social media marketing techniques that you can research – but these should be the most important and basic ones.

There are many purposes and tactics to be used in social media marketing. If you want to make it effective, you want to make sure that you have a firm grasp of your purpose because that will dictate the right tactic to use.

Different purposes and tactics in social media marketing

Basically, the main purpose of social media is communication. It gives you a platform to provide people with information about your business. Whether it is a product or service, this is one of the best platforms that you can use to give information to both your target audience and general user population.

When you are on social media, you get the chance to create a buzz around your business. The company will initiate with a compelling post that is interesting enough to make people want to react to it. The key to making people react to your posts is to make sure that you are releasing it on the right platform. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn – all the different sites have varying user behaviour and preferences. You need to familiarise yourself with these so you know where your post will get the most engagement. It will help you sort out the purposes and tactics that will suit your business goals.

Facebook

This social networking site allows you to create a more detailed post. You can use videos, text, photos, and even testimonials. The site has a lot of features that will make it easy for businesses to manage and monitor the engagement on their page. Apart from letting you create your own Facebook page, you can also link every post to your official website.

Twitter

This is more restrictive because you are limited by the number of characters that you can post. However, you can use different elements to make your post eye-catching – like photos, videos, GIFs, and emojis. The hashtag is also something that will help your post trend. It is very important that you know how to use this. Of course, you can link your post back to your site as well – to increase traffic. Not only that, Twitter can be an effective platform for customer service.

LinkedIn

This is the business-related networking platform. You get to create a professional profile to connect with other businesses. You can promote various campaigns here and also connect it to your other social media accounts.

Instagram

This social media site has more engagement compared to Facebook – but it can be limiting. However, it is still effective in getting and engaging your target audience. You get to use photos and short videos to attract them and provide information about new products or services. This is a great site to use when you want to give your social media marketing strategy a boost.

YouTube

Finally, this is is the best platform to use to air advertisements, video tutorials, demonstrations, etc. There are two ways to benefit from this site. You can advertise with them and your ad will be promoted in videos that are relevant to what you are promoting. Apart from this, you can upload your own videos to promote information about your business, product or service.

There is other social media site that you should consider. Remember that knowing your options will help you identify the purposes and tactics that will make your social media campaign successful.

You will need social media marketing strategies if you want to utilise social networking sites in your favour.

The truth is, social media will let you do just about anything without clear consequences. But that is not something that you should take advantage of. You need a clear-cut strategy to make sure that you can reach your marketing goals. If you fail to implement the strategy, your efforts might go all over the place. That will not ensure that you will get the results that you wanted. You might end up doing the opposite of what you set out to do.

Effective social media marketing strategies

To help you reach your goals, here are some helpful social media marketing strategies that you can use.

Have the right content

Content will always be king – no matter what platform you are using to market your business. Even if your posts are as short as 140 characters or if you plan on providing a whole paragraph of content, it has to be top quality. It is not just about giving SEO content. You need to give your audience relevant and vital information.

Build a community

Interacting with your target market is one thing. Getting them to interact with one another is a different challenge. When they start interacting with one another, you do not have to do much and still, your business will keep on making noise on social media sites. This is probably one of the best social media marketing strategies that you can use. You can initiate this by asking them a question and letting them discuss among themselves. Get them to react to a post and banter with each other. Ask their opinion. When they start posting their thoughts and ideas, others will comment and interact naturally.

Make an effort to personalise the experience

Another thing that you can do is to personalise the experience. Make sure that posts, activities, events, and the various content and marketing materials that you will use will connect with them on a deeper level. That means giving them relevant, timely, and valuable content.

Give them variety

Do not just stick to informative posts. Give them emotionally-compelling memes. Upload videos. Provide them with podcasts. Be humorous, be serious, be an expert, be a friend – be a lot of things to them so they can relate to you in different ways. Of course, the variety should still reflect your brand and the reputation you want to market. Nevertheless, the different type of posts will catch the attention of your audience and could even get them excited about what you will post next.

The passive and active approach

When it comes to social media marketing strategies, your options will be categorised into two: the passive and active approach.

Passive approach

The passive approach is when you create a post or campaign and let the general audience hype it up for you. There will be little intervention or involvement from the company. This usually works when your post is about something that your audience is passionate about or can emotionally relate to. The emotions evoked by the campaign you create will fuel their need to react to it.

Active approach

On the other hand, the active approach has a set budget and every step is planned and implemented according to schedule. You pay for an advertisement that will increase visibility. Unlike the passive approach, this will focus on your target audience. It will aim for drastic results – but it will not be as long-lasting as the other approach.

Consider these two approaches when you are planning your social media marketing strategies.