Is FOMO Enough to Motivate YOU to Use Social Media Marketing?
Written by: Leslie Siegel
An average person will spend five years of their lifetime on social media. Yes, you heard that correctly, five years — and the number is growing.
People are staring at their computer screens or smartphones for more than two hours per day. And the hours add up. Social media has taken over the world in all aspects of one’s daily life. It’s used to stay connected, it’s used to buy and sell products, it’s used to share news. Is there anything it’s not used for? We’ve all become addicted to our phones and scrolling aimlessly through content. But, social media is so much more than photos of your friend’s sister on vacation in Mexico and videos of food being made; it has the power to cross oceans and reach global audiences.
With over 2.5 billion monthly active social media users, your company will definitely not want to miss out on using social media to its advantage. But, with an overflow of information and notifications already plaguing users, is it worth it?
Yes, it’s worth it. Social media platforms allow people and companies to make a bigger mark in their industry and on the world if done effectively and intentionally. There is a method to the madness behind social media in order to be successful and competitive.
Here are three examples how social media marketing can benefit your company:
1. Segment a large audience
Facebook has 2.19 billion monthly active users and Instagram has 800 million users. With just two social media platforms, social media content can reach almost a third of the world population. Now, even with the possibility to reach so many people, it doesn’t always mean you should. Successful social media marketing happens when the target audience is researched and analyzed. This ensures the people being reached align with the company’s message and brand. Luxury car brand, Mercedes-Benz, used market segmentation to target the Millennial and Generation X age groups. To do so, the company created an online community called “Generation Benz,” from which they collected information about their audience to create successful social media marketing campaigns.
2. Personalize connections
The whole point of social media is to connect with users and to connect users with each other. Facebook isn’t called the social network for nothing. When connecting and networking with users, it is important to keep one thing in mind: personalize content. By personalizing content, a user will feel more human and appreciated making it easier to relate to a brand or company.
Social media users interact with a plethora of online information, but if a message or advertisement is personalized, it will stand out to a user, increasing your brand or company’s reach. Airbnb’s “Live There” campaign took personalization to a whole new level. This social media campaign emphasized the concept of living in and not just visiting the place’s one travels. The campaign targeted the empathy of their audience to connect with their desire to “live like a local” — and the campaign payed off; Airbnb saw a rise in sales and awareness due to this personalized campaign.
3. Use hashtags and tags
There are no rules to social media. Sure, you can’t post inappropriate content, but besides that, no rules. This gives your company freedom to use whatever works. Relating to the personalization of social media, using specific hashtags and tagging on trend with your company’s audience will increase engagement. Tech it Forward’s audience is full of entrepreneurs and innovators. Through research, we learned that our target audience loves dogs! To interact with our audience even further, we have adopted the hashtag, #dogfriendly, and share content relating to our audiences’ interests and love of dogs to keep them clicking and coming back for more.
Social media marketing offers a unique tool to brands and companies to reach millions of people and grow their audiences. Today, so many people just surf the internet and scroll through their feed to see what’s new. But, we can’t all be surfers. This is where you come in — create and use social media to entice users to go below the surface and dive in.
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