Social media is a huge part of our daily lives, whether we like it or not. A study by Global WebIndex shows that over half of the global population have social media accounts, and over 70% of the UK population are active social media users.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been spending even more time on social media, which is unsurprising due to the amount of time we’ve been spending indoors. Research from eMarketer found that Americans spent 7 more minutes a day on social media in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching a grand total of 82 minutes.
With these statistics in mind, it is clear that social media marketing is a vital digital marketing tactic, and one that’ll only continue to grow with possibility as time goes on. In this article, we’ll be discussing the what, how and why of social media marketing so that you can transform your approach to digital marketing and harness the power of social media.
What is social media marketing?
First of all, let’s discuss what social media marketing actually is. In our open step by RMIT, it’s described as a collection of applications, platforms and websites in an online community that allows the creation and sharing of content, information and contacts. In more simple terms, it’s the use of social media platforms to drive traffic to your website.
There is a wide range of social media tools that are used within the field, from forums and blogs to social networks and wikis. The primary role of those who work in social media marketing is to organise and run marketing campaigns over social media platforms through publishing content, engaging with followers, and checking social media analytics to analyse success; as well as running social media advertisements.
You can improve your digital skills and learn about social media in our course Digital Skills: Social Media by Accenture. Alternatively, you can check out our fantastic range of social media courses and find something that suits you.
The types of social media marketing
Social media marketing can be a very broad role, given the amount of social media platforms that are out there. Each social media platform works differently and appeals to different kinds of content and different target audiences, so your social media marketing strategy must consider this. Here, we give a rundown of some of the main platforms and how to use them, with some advice taken from RMIT’s social media tips and tricks open step.
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