Everybody today is on social media. From Gen Z, millennials and the generation who may not be ever aware of what these terms mean. Social media basically is a new way for people to connect, communicate and bond with others. This is something that most of us would not have imagined a few decades ago but is a truth today that most of us experience and live on a daily basis. 

However, social media is no longer a platform for people to connect but also brands and businesses to establish themselves and get tons of revenue coming their way! 

So if you are a digital marketer who wishes to explore the online marketing side of things, stick till the end because of this blog. We are going to be covering and taking you through the entire journey of knowing the what, why, and how’s of social media marketing. 

What Is The Difference Between Digital Marketing And Social Media Marketing? 

A lot of people assume digital marketing is all about social media marketing and vice versa. However, there lies a whole lot of differences between the two. Digital marketing is an umbrella term and social media marketing is a huge part of it that falls under the umbrella. Even though digital marketing’s scope covers a lot more than only the social side of things, social media is considered a strong and integral part of digital marketers' specialization. 

To help you understand these two terminologies better, here’s a simple to decode distinction for your clarity:-

> Digital media involves both online and offline channels to build a brand and carry on its marketing activities. While social media only leverages the online channels to spike up the marketing activities. 

> Digital marketing focuses on various marketing channels like paid advertisements, search engines, television, billboards, print, and magazines to build and grow their presence. Social media on the other hand focuses on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, to drive engagement and build relationships with their customers. 

> A digital marketer needs to be a jack of all trades when it comes to the success of marketing any product or service digitally and see its positive results reaping. As a digital marketer is responsible to oversee engagement across multiple digital formats and not just one. While social media marketing entirely depends on the content strategy that you create for individual social platforms for a particular brand. This includes you deciding a certain kind of brand voice, look and feel for every individual social platform your users see of your business. 

> Digital marketing is a broad term that consists of various marketing tactics and social media is a specialization that you need to master to fetch desired results from your online marketing efforts. 

What Is Social Media Marketing?

The success of your digital marketing efforts is determined by many platforms and one of them is social media. The online technique of attracting your potential customers, driving engagement, inducing sales, and retaining the customers for life is what social media marketing actually is. 

This includes having a content strategy in place, getting active on social channels which is absolutely critical for your business to be seen on, and adding value through content for the ones who choose to follow you. If you use social media you already are well aware of the drill of following, unfollowing, liking, commenting, and sharing! Well, when you do so, this means you are not only consuming content online but also feeling it worthy enough to be shared with the ones you love and can relate to. 

Also, social media is not restricted to you creating content and publishing it. Marketing in a highly saturated and competitive market requires you to shift your attention to other significant elements that matter too! Yes, we are talking about analytics. Once any content goes live on your official social media handle, you can track its analytics and see what sort of content is working and what not. Based on this, you will know exactly what are the pain points of the customers you need to come with a solution for. 

Why Is Social Media Important To Grow Business Today?

Social media offers great opportunities for any business to get to know their target customers via tapping into their likes, dislikes, and interests to create better social media marketing strategies. Using social media is a routine or more like a ritual for people today. You cannot deny that we probably check our Instagram first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. And marketers should be present where their customers spend the most time! 

Like a business’s website, social media presence is becoming a brand identity that people take extremely seriously. Social media does more than sell but also has a huge role in adding value, creating awareness, and cultivating a brand voice, which indirectly leads to sales! 

The power of social media is one thing that every big business is investing hugely without considering it a mere checklist to tick. 

Below are 3 prime reasons how social media plays a crucial role for any business that is existent today:-

> Builds brands awareness and attention

> Creates a personalized touch without sounding salezy 

> Drives direct engagement and promotes real conversation

What Are The Popular Social Media Platforms And What Is Their Potential?

There are tons of social media platforms people use nowadays, but the most prominent ones are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Snapchat, and Youtube. We all keep switching between these apps all day long, sharing our pictures, memories, thoughts and using them as an escape when we want to entertain ourselves. 

But something brands do while we scroll is make sure we notice them throughout our scrolling. It can be via ads that keep popping, or quirky content we can relate to, or the weird but sweet brand rivalries that make it through our online feed.  All these are legit ways used by businesses of all sizes to use social media to grab our attention. 

1. Instagram

A platform that started as a picture-sharing social media app but does more than just that today. Instagram is immensely popular among youngsters and adults. It has now also become a short video-sharing channel that challenges youtube in some way. Digital marketers are leveraging all its new features to create value in their existing follower community and also to attract more followers on their way. 

Potential of Instagram In SMM

> Effective way for brands to connect with their audience

> Intensify sales and drives engagement among the Instagram community

> A space to share knowledge, thoughts, and reviews of customers with other potential customers

2. Facebook

Started as an app that used to bridge the gap between people by sending and accepting friend requests. Today has become a social media giant for brands to advertise and popularize their products and services. Facebook marketing is known to drive enormous results with targeted marketing that digital marketers love to leverage to the fullest. 

Potential Of Facebook In SMM

> Businesses connect with users and customers like friends

> Boosts sales and attracts quality traffic to the website, supplies meaningful leads, etc.

> Customized and personalized listings of products and services

3. Youtube

A video sharing platform that is loved and used by people all over the world. Given the content consumption is slowly being taken over by video soon, the popularity of Youtube is only expected to grow.  And that is a good enough reason for all digital marketers to set their footprints as well. One can educate their target audience not only through their website or blogs but also through creating meaningful videos directly related to their products and services. 

Potential Of Youtube In SMM

> Second largest search engine after Google which needs companies to buckle up their game on video based marketing. 

> Easier way for your audience to absorb, utilize and understand the content. 

> Great for ranking higher on Search engines through organic SEO. 

4. Twitter

A social media platform that encourages its user to share short, quirky, and insightful thoughts throughout the day. Twitter is not like other apps that let you put long captions. But the idea behind Twitter is to create a massive impact with fewer words possible. Big and budding brands use Twitter to infuse real-time communication with their target audience to get noticed by their followers more often. Any big to small events are put on Twitter before any platform today! 

Potential Of Twitter In SMM

> Encourage conversation

> Increase sales

> Boost website clicks

> Skyrocket downloads

5. Snapchat 

Consider Snapchat as Twitter in a visual format. Instead of tweets, you can share short stories to give insight into what’s going on in your day. Brands that deal in physical products take advantage of it to represent their products in an aesthetically pleasing way. Snapchat is extremely popular among youngsters today because of its quirky appeal. And various brands are making use of it to get noticed in the eyes of their target and potential customers. 

> Personalised and humanized approach

> Targeted ads based on interests

> Insightful collection of metrics to improve your existing products and services

6. Linkedin

A professional social media channel to shed light on the workaholic side of you. Linkedin is a place where B2B businesses can flourish and if you are someone who wants to land a dream job, grow your professional network, or work on your personal brand. Linkedin works like a community wherein you can help your peers and also grow professionally at the same time. 

> Help you establish strong grounds on the business side of the things

> Social way of improving customer relations 

> Best platform to generate leads for business

> A community to hire the best talent

What’s Next?

That’s the power of social media! It is an online way to leverage and unlock the full potential of your business. 

Now that we have covered the basics of what social media is, why you need to care about it, and what’s the potential of every social media platform,  we will now take you through the exact strategies to follow to make the most of these popular platforms. 

Stay tuned until next time when we share with you definitive guides for each platform to get you started.