Why YOU have to start your social media marketing: What is social media marketing in 2021?

Things Change, Things Change Fast

Social media platforms have been growing so fast. It hasn’t been long since platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter took off. Looking back a few years, in the scale of our existence, computers and the internet are at their infant stages as well. However, modern data science and programming have changed how businesses operate, and frankly, how the entire world operates.

Fast Forward to Today

How is the term “marketing” conceived today? For me, the old school “marketing” makes me think of advertisements on newspapers, billboards, and on televisions. These ads are simple at times and have hidden meanings or humor embedded in it to make bold statements that are easy to remember for the audience. The striking advertisements, an effective one, are often the ones that had hidden messages or were symbolic. For example, here is a printed ad presented by Chupa Chups.

This sugar free ad from Chupa Chups is a prime example of how I used to think about marketing in the past.

However, as you might already know, marketing is not always limited to the ideas of having simple printed ads or short films that present hidden messages and humor. While these are still relevant and commonly used today, technology, and specifically social media, opens up new doors in marketing strategies.

Collect the numbers

While methods vary and technology develops over time, the essence, the purpose, of “marketing” and “advertising” does not change. What you have to do as a business owner or a marketer are still largely the same. You will have to understand the nature of the established product or service of the business, identify the potential clients and target audience, and make effective appeals to them.

And now, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, unlike the past, are allowing us to take a step further in this process. These platforms provide services that make you only a few clicks away from producing your own advertisements online. Not only that, it allows you to control the exposure, narrow or widen the audience pool, and, most importantly, keep track of your performances.

You might think of this tool as an example of how technology makes our life more convenient, but no, there are more. Yes, an increase in sales and revenue after publishing a campaign or advertisement could be the indicator of how successful the marketing was. However, there are other variables that interfere with further analysis of the marketing performance. The product itself could have been superior over competitors, or it could have been undercutting the competitors’ price regardless of the published advertisements.

It’s a no brainer

Isolating “marketing” for analysis opens up deeper understandings. Knowing the exact numbers of how many times the advertisement was viewed and how many audiences actually clicked on your website to take a look gives you the ability to change and revise your marketing plan.

If you spot a successful increase in traffic to your website but relatively low spike on sales, you might notice that your product is not on-par with the competition standards or you are targeting the wrong audience pool. Thus opening a door for revision and improvements. Being able to do this on your desk brings so much to the table. You will be able to grow faster and stronger as you gain more data and experience in the long run.

I know it might sound tedious

As you click away from this article, I suggest you tally-up the number of advertisements that you see while browsing through social media. Some you might ignore, or some you might look twice. A part of this game of marketing has to do with your unconsciousness while going through social media platforms, but the algorithm generated for individual users’ liking helps you to expose your business to a potential client.

Take a look and if you are convinced, and I hope you are convinced, you can click here for a guide that I wrote on how to create your Facebook and Instagram ads like a pro.