What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media is an entity that has quickly made its way into everyday life for most people. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have created platforms for people to interact with one another across the web. From a business and marketing perspective, social media has become a new way to interact with an audience, boost branding and, potentially, drive sales.

Social media marketing (SMM) is the corporate world's way of making use of social media, to gain massive profits. Businesses have become incredibly comfortable online—and although the landscape of social media is always changing, it seems that businesses, both small and large, are finding great success as a result.

Defining Social Media Marketing

In short, SMM is a variety of techniques aimed at social media platforms to boost brand awareness, promote products and create an online persona for a business. SMM generally works through campaigns that are usually focused to establish brand awareness, offer up useful content or gather customer feedback. Due to SMM’s targeted advertising, it is deemed as a very effective tool for branding awareness in particular.

Why Is Social Media Marketing Important?

With the way that technology has advanced, people (and businesses) have become more and more entrenched in their online worlds. There is a sense of immediacy found online that is lacking over the phone, and businesses that deal with people regularly are starting to understand this important point. If your business—big or small—can create a fast and meaningful connection with a customer online, then the customer will naturally trust and be drawn to that brand.

Whether it is being able to connect in a more fluid and instantaneous way than before, or bringing a larger audience to your business, social media marketing uses the internet to improve your profits. The importance of this for any business is obvious, and it does not necessarily cost a lot to see noticeable success.

Using Social Media Marketing

The benefits of getting involved with social media marketing is massive for businesses today. There is a huge audience online, both locally and from afar, that you can reach and resonate with if you use SMM effectively. Not only does this improve your overall brand awareness, but your business can become much more profitable and successful from the new customers. If you are savvy enough, you can reap the benefits of SMM without spending a fortune.