The value of social media marketing – What if you could go back in time, say 300 years, just to observe how brands gained awareness, you’ll shake your head at the tedious efforts because you know their jobs would have been easier with a little online marketing (a.k.a digital marketing or internet marketing).
Imagine if a personality like Dj Obi (who just broke the Guinness World Records of the longest Dj set) existed 300 years ago with no online marketing, just him, his disk jockeying talent, his family, friends and fans of word of mouth, and a big goal to achieve – breaking the Guinness World Records, he would spend A LOT of money, energy, etc, to get an audience, and he still would not reach ten thousand audience. But! With social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc he has posted several content that have yielded millions of views when you combine numbers of people who have shared, retweeted, and liked his mission, and like bonfire it only took one spark to go viral.
Social media marketing may have its disadvantages, but the advantages outweigh them a thousand folds over, take it from Wild Fusion ;-):
Content
Relevant and compelling content will increase visibility and shares. With hashtags, be sure to reach a wider range of people. Hashtags are like portals leading into other dimensions, so be sure to use as many as possible, also wisely. For example, My Diamond Tv who broadcast the entire Dj Obi run used hastags like #champion #djobiworldrecord #legend #superstar #guinnessworldrecord #proudlynigeria, etc, to expand their audience reach.
Instant response
For people all over the world who have heard about his mission can inquire, request for a song, give suggestions, send their support, or simply just tell the world that they are at the event, via twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc, and get instant response, almost like having a conversation face-to-face. This goes a long way with getting customer insight.
Cost
Often times social media marketing (or digital marketing as a whole) costs less than traditional marketing: it’s convenient too, and you can target and measure specific audience, set your budget, schedule your campaigns, all sorts. How cool is that?! All these have been made possible with PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising) or CPM (Cost Per Mille Advertising), which allow you to set your budget, and get an estimate of the total number of people you can reach with it.
Links
Social media and websites are like twins, not the cramp twins though, more like Wilykit and Wilykat. With a social media post, a link to your website can be included, so when people click on it, they see more of your products and services, or sales announcement. Even if it’s an ad you put out on Google Display or Search Networks, you can measure visitor activities, basically your overall performance.
Measurement
You can target an audience, and measure your success with various web analytics like Google Analytics, Google Trends, Twitter Analytics, etc. Measurement is key in decision making, as it becomes a basis to either proceed with certain campaigns, edit, or terminate them.
With that being said, it is exciting to know that brands are becoming more and more conscious about the benefits of digital marketing. Make sure you integrate visuals in your contents, and ensure they are engaging too. Engagement is free publicity, and free publicity is great, because you end up saving budget for newer ideas and stuff that need more boost. Even better so because Google takes notice of these things, and rates you higher and higher on it’s platform, so your customers or potential leads don’t break a sweat when searching for you.
On that note, we say congratulations to Dj Obi for breaking the Guinness World Records for the longest Dj set, straight from Lagos, Nigeria. #proudlynigeria #proudlyafrica.
