Social Media: what is it?

Social networking sites

Social networking websites enable individuals, businesses and other organizations to interact with each other and build relationships and communities on the Internet. When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly. This interaction can be more personal to users than traditional external marketing and advertising methods. Social media sites act like word of mouth, or more precisely, electronic word of mouth. The Internet's ability to reach billions around the world has given the online mouths a powerful voice and spread far. The ability to rapidly change purchasing patterns, as well as the acquisition and operation of products or services for a growing number of consumers, is defined as a network of influence. Social networks and blogs allow subscribers to “retweet” or “post” comments made by other people about the promoted product, which is quite common on some social networking sites with a unique social media graphic design. By repeating the message, user connections can see the email, allowing more people to reach. As the information about the product is placed there, it gets repetition and more traffic goes to the product / company.

Communities

Social media is based on the creation of virtual communities that allow consumers to express their needs, wants and values ​​on the Internet. Social media marketing then connects these consumers and audiences with businesses that share the same needs, wants, and values. Through social media sites, companies can keep in touch with individual subscribers. This personal interaction can instill a sense of loyalty in followers and potential customers. In addition, by choosing who to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience. Social media sites also contain a lot of information about which products and services might be of interest to potential customers. With the help of new semantic analysis technologies, marketers can detect purchase signals such as content people are sharing and questions posted online. Understanding buy signals can help sellers target relevant leads and marketers with micro-targeted campaigns.

2014 Stats

In 2014, more than 80% of business leaders indicated that cheap social media marketing is an integral part of their business. Business retailers increased their social media marketing revenues by 133%.