Being a digital marketing consultant, one of the cornerstones of my services is social media marketing. The importance of social media marketing dawned on me a few years back when I came across a Forbes article dissecting a Market Force report. 81% of consumers reported that social media impacted their buying decisions.
Ever since then, I have seen the importance of social media marketing growing exponentially as more and more people start going online.
According to Statista, as of 2022, there are about 5 billion internet users, and out of that, 4.65 billion are social media users.
That’s a big jump from MySpace in 2004, the first social media to reach a million active users. Yet, 18 years later, the unprecedented growth of interactive digital channels has boosted social media into the behemoth it is today.
That is why marketers like me are constantly developing strategies to capture the gaze of the target audience and keep them engaged.
With the right social media marketing plans, achieving business goals is effortless; the best part is that it is much more effective than traditional marketing.
Hi, I am Shovon Joarder, a digital marketing consultant and an amateur gardener. While I won’t be able to help anyone with my gardening skills.
However, I have used my knowledge and expertise in digital marketing to provide top-notch digital solutions to plenty of clients. Because it makes up a massive part of my services, I constantly get questions about social media marketing.
It ranges from questions about social media market share to questions about social media marketing goals and the overall state of social media in 2022.
That’s why I decided to create this article, where I will try and give a general overview of social media marketing in 2022. So without any further delay, let’s check it out!
Social Media Market Share And Other Facts
As you already know, there are about 4.65 billion social media users. So the social media marketing or SMM sector is massive, with continuous growth expected in the coming years. Now, it is almost impossible to write down everything about social media marketing.
It would take years and be volumes and volumes of books. That’s why I have created this list of key takeaways that you should know about this sector:
- Facebook has the most significant market share of the social media landscape, with around 74.73%. Twitter is the second biggest, with 8.18%, Instagram with 7%, Pinterest with 5.03%, and Reddit with approximately 0.81% of the total market share.
- Social media has become one of the most critical aspects of marketing products and services, engaging with existing customers, and reaching new ones.
- The impact of social media comes from three main factors that I call the “social media marketing trifecta.” The three main parts are connection, interaction, and customer data (more on them later).
- Social media marketing has revolutionized how businesses and organizations connect with their audience. From how they promote their product and services to using customer data to create messages that resonate with their audience.
- Since social media has become a part of everyday life, businesses need to take heed of the different platforms if they want to succeed.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the art of building a business’ brand, increasing sales, and driving website traffic using various platforms through social networks and sharing information.
Along with being an outlet for engaging customers and reaching new audiences, social media platforms also have built-in data analytics.
That allows businesses to track the success of their efforts and helps them find new ways to be engaging. What makes social media marketing so effective is what I call the “social media marketing trifecta.”
The three core marketing values comprise the trifecta: connection, interaction, and user data. Let’s check them out next and find out why social media marketing is so impactful.
The Social Media Marketing Trifecta
Social media marketing is vital for businesses because it incorporates and allows for unprecedented capacity for three core marketing values, unlike anything. Here they are so that you understand why social media marketing is so powerful.
Connections
Social media allows for connections unlike anything else. Nothing like this has ever existed. It provides an unprecedented range of avenues enabling businesses to connect easily with target audiences. The range of platforms is vast and varied, allowing anyone to connect and grow an audience with the right effort.
From content platforms like YouTube to social media sites like Facebook to microblogging platforms like Twitter, businesses can connect with people in every aspect of their digital lives.
Interactions
Social media platforms are dynamic in their interactions. It ranges from direct communication to passive liking or reacting to posts.
This innate dynamic nature of social media platforms allows businesses to harness free advertising opportunities through eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth).
Word-of-mouth recommendations from potential and existing customers become a positive contagion effect that impacts consumer decisions. Even better, you can track and measure these interactions through the built-in analytics system within the platforms.
It means you should be able to measure social equity or return on investment (ROI). Then, tweak the social media marketing campaigns to increase effectiveness.
Customer Data
A well-crafted social media marketing strategy provides another invaluable resource in 2022: customer data. Social media tools don’t get overwhelmed by big data.
Instead, they harness customer data and turn it into actionable consumer analysis. Also, you can use this data for crowdsourcing new strategies and avenues to promote your brand.
So now that you know, the social media marketing trifecta, let’s look into what social media marketing is made up of!
What Constitutes Social Media Marketing?
You already know how social media has changed how we interact with businesses, people, and organizations. They are not only responsible for influencing customer behavior, but they are the best tool for promoting products and services through engaging content.
Social media also allows businesses to harness geographic, demographic, and personal information to help companies to create messaging that resonates with their audience. Here are all the things that make up social media marketing!
Social Media Marketing Plan Of Action
Social media marketing efforts are more effective if you have a plan of action for them. In my experience, the more well-thought-out and targeted the plan of action, the more successful it is.
So with my clients, I create a social media marketing plan and then move on. Now, if you find it hard to make one for yourself, don’t worry. Here is a simple SMM plan of action you can follow:
- You must first define your business objectives clearly and then align them with your social media marketing goals.
- Find out your target audience. Make sure you know everything about them, like their location, income, job title, industry, and interests.
- Make sure to conduct a thorough competitor analysis and find out where they failed and where they succeeded.
- You should thoroughly analyze your social media marketing efforts and find out where you found success and could do better.
- Create a social media marketing content library and calendar.
- You need to create highly engaging, top-notch content.
- Once everything is done, you should track the progress and adjust your strategy where needed.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
One of the most significant social media advantages is that it allows two distinct types of interactions, one customer to customer and the other firm to customer.
These types of interactions allow targeted customer relationship management. For example, traditional marketing can only track customer value through purchasing actions.
However, with social media, you can use CRM tools to track customer value through buying actions and indirect customer value in the form of referrals.
Shareables
If you’ve looked up social media marketing, you most definitely came across the term “sticky” content. It’s content that engages users at first glance and then later influences user decisions.
Sticky contents are the backbone of any successful social media marketing campaign as it not only incites purchasing behavior but also encourages sharing.
Sharing is one of the best word-of-mouth advertising you can ask for. It reaches not only a new audience but also the recipient is getting it from someone they love and trust.
It’s one of the reasons my social media team continuously works on creating shareable content, or “shareables,” as we like to call it internally. Anyone looking for growth should be creating shareable content from the get-go.
Earned Media
Earned media is one of the most sought-after contents on social media; they are customer-created product reviews and recommendations.
The more earned media you have, the better your performance on the business side will be. In addition, because social media is more based on community suggestions than outright marketing, you should see growth.
Viral Marketing
Going viral is a term generated by social media for social media, and it has turned into an excellent tool for social media marketing. It is the rapid spread of word-of-mouth product information.
Once your content or message reaches people who aren’t in your target audience, you’ve gone viral. However, this marketing technique is hard to trigger and replicate at scale and should only be left to professionals.
Audience Segmentation
Social media offers brilliant customer or audience segmentation. Because customer segmentation is better in social media marketing than in traditional marketing, marketers can focus better on target audiences, ensuring better success.
Now that you know what makes up social media marketing, I think you should know about social media marketing goals.
While working with a digital marketing consultant is the best way for you to ensure maximum ROI, it may not always be possible. So in the following, I will tell you about simple social media goals you can set and track for yourself!
Social Media Marketing Goals
In 2022, you need to have a clear-cut, well-defined social media plan of action to be effective in your efforts. For that to happen, you must set the right goals for your campaigns.
However, due to the ever-changing nature of social media and its audience, it can be a bit tricky to boil down. So I have created this list of super-effective social media marketing goals that should take you far in your social marketing efforts in 2022 and beyond!
Increasing Brand Awareness
In 2022, the average person will use social media for 147 minutes per day. So marketers have identified social media as the best place to increase brand awareness. It is the most accessible place to grab a person’s attention.
Nowadays, marketers can have a more quantitative understanding of a brand in the digital landscape. You can easily access social media analytics to determine your brand’s reach. Here are some of the key metrics you should be looking at:
- Followers count
- Post reach
- Mentions, shares, and RTs
Site Traffic
Social media can be a fantastic tool for driving traffic to your website and blog. It is an industry-standard for marketers to utilize social media platforms to distribute and guide site traffic.
There are examples where marketers grew site traffic by 241% over 8 months! Here is a list of key metrics you should be tracking to see site traffic growth:
- Traffic coming from social media
- Percentage of traffic from social media
- Social media traffic bounce rate
- Social media post clicks.
Lead Generation
If you have a long sales path, lead generation is one of the best things you can do for your sales team. With social media giving you access to billions of people, it is one of the best places for generating leads. Lead generation is an umbrella term that covers any information user and the audience provided willingly.
It can be anything from a name and email address to any other information that can be used to contact them later down the line. Here are some standard metrics to track to quantify the leads you generate through social media:
- Personal information
- Gated content download
- Participation
- Clicks on lead generation posts on social media
- Social media lead to conversions.
Revenue Growth
If you have a short customer journey, then directly turning to customers on social media can be highly effective with social media advertising.
The best marketers will always provide you with a social media marketing strategy that combines both organic and paid advertising strategies that will induce revenue growth. Here are key metrics you should be tracking for revenue growth through social media:
- Signups / Revenue
- Revenue from ads
Brand Engagement
Marketers like me love user engagement, one of the top reasons marketers emphasize social media. It is where you can do a lot, from improving and changing brand perception, and inducing loyalty, to harnessing the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. Here are some key metrics that should let you track user engagement on social media:
- Likes, shares, and comments on each post
- Mentions and replies
Community Building
While growing your follower count and tracking your average audience is Fantastic. In 2022, the best way to build your brand is by utilizing social media to develop a community around your brand.
You will see brands and organizations curating special days for interactions and experimenting with other forms of social media like Discord, Slack, and even Facebook groups.
Your community is much more invested in your products and services than the average fan or customer. In extension, they work as your brand ambassadors.
So growing a community is an important social media marketing goal that you should set for your business. Here are some key metrics you should be tracking when growing your community:
- For FB groups and Sub Reddits: Number of posts, likes, and comments
- Twitter chats Number of participants and tweets per participant.
- Slack and Discord communities: Number of daily active users
Social Customer Service
Social media platforms aren’t only about posts and likes. It’s where you sell, and it is where brands must provide customer service.
Social customer service increases revenue, customer satisfaction score, and retention. As a result, the number of people looking for customer support has steadily increased. It is expected to grow even more in the future.
Therefore, an effective SMM strategy would be to create social customer service as a goal for your efforts. Here are some key metrics you can use to track customer support on social media:
- Number of support questions
- Response time
- Customer Satisfaction Score
PR Mentions
While you can directly talk to your fans and community, the press and media still play a big part in driving significant results. In addition, PR plays a valuable role in establishing thought leadership.
Social media has made it relatively easier to build relations with relevant publication journalists to get PR mentions. Here are some key metrics you can track on social media for PR:
- Potential reach
- Shares and mentions
- Influencers
- Outreach
Tune In To Social Chatter
Social media is like the town center now. Everyone, even brands, voice their opinions without reservations. So whether you think it’s a good thing or not, you will find feedback and other forms of posts and comments on products and services.
They may be about yours or about your niche. So it’s always good to tune into social chatter and see what people say on social media.
Don’t just sit there when you find these posts and comments; make sure to reply to them and make your audience feel heard. Here are some key metrics you can look up for this social media marketing goal:
- Customer conversations
- Suggestions or feedback from social media outlets
- Product/content improvements made from customer suggestions found on social media
So that’s the end of my list of social media marketing goals you should set for your campaigns. We are almost finished with the overview of social media marketing in 2022. It’s high time we talk about the advantages and disadvantages. So let’s check that out!
What Are The Advantages & Disadvantages Of Social Media Marketing?
One of the most significant advantages social media marketing provides brands is the option to create tailored social media marketing campaigns. It’s the perfect tool to reach a wide range of target audiences.
Its use is undoubtedly advantageous to any business. However, one of social media’s most prominent tools that can become a massive disadvantage for brands is its tendency to go viral.
A specific video, post, or image can go viral at any moment, destroying a brand’s reputation, and that’s something brands need to address immediately. Remember that even false claims can go viral and damage your brand’s reputation irreparably.
Closing Out
Social media and social media marketing, as you can see, are vital to brand success, and that’s what I always tell my clients. From my experience, I can genuinely say that it can make or break a brand.
I have seen bad social media marketing strategies burn budding businesses and established brands to the ground. In contrast, smart and innovative SMM strategies catapulted relatively unknown brands to the forefront of their niche.
So my advice is to put time, effort, and care into your social media marketing efforts. Set the social media marketing goals perfectly. Ensure they are aligned with your business’ vision and execute it without prejudice, and you should see good returns.
And that’s about it. If you still have any questions about a social media marketing or want to know more about creating the perfect social media marketing campaign, then reach out to me.
You can set up a call, drop the questions in the comments below or simply hit me on my socials, and I will answer all your questions without fail. But that’s about it for today. I will come back with something new about the world of social media marketing soon. Until then, see ya!
