With over 80% of consumers reporting that social media—especially influencer content—significantly impacts buying decisions, marketers across industries are driving the evolution of social media marketing (SMM) from a stand-alone tool to a multipronged source of marketing intelligence on an increasingly important—and growing—audience.
Within 18 years, from 2004 (when MySpace became the first social media site to reach one million users) to 2022, the dramatic growth of interactive digital channels took social media to levels that challenge even the reach of television and radio.
By Q1 of 2022, there were 4.6 billion social media users globally—over 58% of the world’s population—an increase of over 10% in one year alone.
As the use of social media trends upward, marketers are perfecting strategies to capture the significant competitive advantage that engagement with this key audience can deliver even more rapidly and effectively than traditional marketing.
What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
Social media marketing (SMM) (also known as digital marketing and e-marketing) is the use of social media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information—to build a company’s brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In addition to providing companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, social media marketing (SMM) has purpose-built data analytics that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.
Why Is Social Media Marketing So Powerful?
The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.
Connection: Not only does social media enable businesses to connect with customers in ways that were previously impossible, but there is also an extraordinary range of avenues to connect with target audiences—from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like Facebook) to microblogging services (like Twitter).
Interaction: The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media—whether direct communication or passive “liking”—enables businesses to leverage free advertising opportunities from eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) recommendations between existing and potential customers. Not only is the positive contagion effect from eWOM a valuable driver of consumer decisions, but the fact that these interactions happen on the social network makes them measurable. For example, businesses can measure their “social equity”—a term for the return on investment (ROI) from their social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.
Customer Data: A well-designed social media marketing (SMM) plan delivers another invaluable resource to boost marketing outcomes: customer data. Rather than being overwhelmed by the 3Vs of big data (volume, variety, and velocity), SMM tools have the capacity not only to extract customer data but also to turn this gold into actionable market analysis—or even to use the data to crowdsource new strategies.
How Social Media Marketing Works
As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, social media transformed not only the way we connect with one another but also the way businesses are able to influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic, and personal information that makes messaging resonate with users.
SMM Action Plan: The more targeted your social media marketing (SMM) strategy is, the more effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management space, recommends the following action plan to build an SMM campaign that has an execution framework as well as performance metrics:
- Align SMM goals to clear business objectives
- Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
- Conduct a competitive analysis of your competition (successes and failures)
- Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)
- Create a calendar for SMM content delivery
- Create best-in-class content
- Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing has several distinct advantages, including the fact that SMM has two kinds of interaction that enables targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools: both customer-to-customer and firm-to-customer. In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value primarily by capturing purchase activity, SMM can track customer value both directly (through purchases) and indirectly (through product referrals).
Shareable Content: Businesses can also convert the amplified interconnectedness of SMM into the creation of “sticky” content, the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at first glance, gets them to purchase products, and then makes them want to share the content. This kind of word-of-mouth advertising not only reaches an otherwise inaccessible audience but also carries the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts—which makes the creation of shareable content one of the most important ways that social media marketing drives growth.
Earned Media: Social media marketing (SMM) is also the most efficient way for a business to reap the benefits of another kind of earned media (a term for brand exposure from any method other than paid advertising): customer-created product reviews and recommendations.
Viral Marketing: Another SMM strategy that relies on the audience to generate the message is viral marketing, a sales technique that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth product information. Once a marketing message is shared with the general public far beyond the original target audience, it is considered viral—a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.
Customer Segmentation: Because customer segmentation is much more refined on social media marketing (SMM) than on traditional marketing channels, companies can ensure they focus their marketing resources on their exact target audiences.
Tracking Metrics
According to Sprout Social, the most important social media marketing (SMM) metrics to track are focused on the customer: engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks); impressions (how many times a post shows up); reach/virality (how many unique views an SMM post has); share of voice (how far a brand reaches in the online sphere); referrals (how a user lands on a site); and conversions (when a user makes a purchase on a site). However, another very important metric is focused on the business: response rate/time (how often and how fast the business responds to customer messages).
When a business is trying to determine which metrics to track in the sea of data that social media generates, the rule is always to align each business goal to a relevant metric. If your business goal is to grow conversions from an SMM campaign by 15% within three months, then use a social media analytics tool that measures the effectiveness of your campaign against that specific target.
What is an Instagram business account?
An Instagram business account tells Instagram that you are using the platform for a marketing or business purpose, and provides features that make it easier to market your business and analyze your activity on Instagram.
What is the difference between a personal and a business Instagram account?
“The difference between a personal and a business Instagram account is that the business account gives you the ability to track your analytics and also has several other features not included in a personal account,” said Mark Lamplugh, head of marketing and growth at Maryland Oncology Hematology. “Business accounts should remain a little more structured and have clear directions on the content published.”
Pros and cons of a personal Instagram account
Most of Instagram’s 1 billion registered users have personal accounts, so it’s undeniably a popular option. However, businesses often have different uses and goals for Instagram than personal users do, so it’s important to consider the pros and cons of each type of account. Although there are a few benefits to using a personal account for your business, there are some serious drawbacks to taking this approach.
Pros
Here are a few of the benefits of using a personal account for your business on Instagram:
- Organic reach. The biggest benefit of using a personal account as a business is that you know that if the content does well, it’s because it is reaching your followers and they genuinely like and want to see it. All engagement is natural and organic, and you don’t have to second-guess if it’s because of a paid ad or boosted post.
- Ability to connect to multiple Facebook pages. With a personal profile on Instagram, you can connect to multiple Facebook pages, whereas a business account allows you to link to only one. If your business has more than one Facebook page – say, for multiple locations – a personal Instagram profile may be better for your business.
- Choice of going private. Another potential advantage of a personal account is that you have the option to make your profile private, meaning Instagram followers must request to follow you and you must accept that request for them to be able to see your content. This also means that your content will not show up in the Explore tab, and your posts will not appear in relevant hashtag searches. This can be a benefit if you want to remain private and potentially entice your followers’ friends to join your follow list, but it can be a major detriment if you are trying to expand your reach and brand awareness.
Cons
There are also some limitations to using a personal Instagram account for your business. Here are some of the cons:
- Lack of features. The biggest benefit of an Instagram business account is the wealth of features designed specifically for small businesses, and if you use a personal account, you do not have access to any of these features. This can limit your growth potential and reduce your chances of increasing brand awareness.
- Lower credibility. When people search for a business, they will expect to see a business account, so it can be off-putting to find that you are using a personal account. It can also make your business look less professional and cause people to question if you’re a real business.
Pros and cons of a business Instagram account
An Instagram business account provides multiple features that can aid your digital marketing strategy. However, business accounts could have a few potential drawbacks. Here are the pros and cons of using an Instagram business account.
Pros
There are many benefits of using an Instagram business account:
- Instagram Insights. Instagram offers its own analytics tool, called Instagram Insights, which provides detailed analyses of the following metrics:
- Audience information
- Post-performance
- Story performance
- Hashtag analytics
- Reach
- Follower count
- Paid ad performance
- Best time of day to post
- Click-through rate
- Visitor information
Instagram Insights provides valuable information that can help you tailor your posts and other Instagram content to better suit your audience and reach your goals. For example, you can use Insights to determine which campaigns are the most effective, which types of posts perform the best, and what stories result in the most engagement from your followers, all of which help you drive more traffic and sales.
- Contact button. A business account provides a contact button, which lives in your account bio and provides information such as an email address, a phone number, or a physical address. This information lends your business credibility and makes it easy for potential customers to reach out to you.
- Links in Stories. If your business account has at least 10,000 followers, you have the option to add swipe-up links in your stories, which means any follower watching your Stories can swipe up to any link you provide, such as a link to your website, a product, or a review. This makes it easier for you to direct followers to other sites, as opposed to directing them out of the Instagram Story to click a link in your bio.
- Instagram ads. A business account lets you create your own paid ads, which you can also track using Insights. An Instagram ad is a great way to increase brand awareness, extend your reach and target specific audiences.
- Boosted posts. Boosting or promoting posts – another feature unique to business accounts – allows you to amplify a successful post, sending it to all of your followers, a recommended audience, or a targeted group of your choosing. A boosted post shows up as a sponsored post on your followers’ Instagram feed.
- Scheduled posts. A business Instagram account allows you to schedule posts, which can save you a great deal of time and effort. Keep in mind, however, that you cannot schedule posts within Instagram; you must use a scheduler, such as Later.
Cons
Although the cons of business Instagram accounts are limited, keep these potential drawbacks in mind:
- Less-personal feel. Because social media is all about engagement and making connections, an Instagram business profile may make followers less inclined to engage with you than if you were a personal profile, since they may view your account as promotional.
- Potential for decreased visibility. If your followers’ feeds are filled with businesses and Instagram influencers trying to sell their products or services, your followers could get overwhelmed and frustrated with the lack of organic content and unfollow business accounts. You can avoid this by limiting your promotional content and striving for an organic, natural tone while partnering with an influencer who matches your brand.
- More work. “One of the cons of a business account is that you have to manage that account and continue to use man-hours to grow it,” Lamplugh said. “Not staying consistent and posting regularly reflects negatively on the account’s performance.” In other words, your business Instagram requires more maintenance and forethought (and money, if you have employees who work on it) than your personal Instagram account, which you can update whenever you feel like it without a business reputation and potential customers at stake.
