Why is Social Media So Important?
Social media is an influential part of our day-to-day lives… here’s why.
Everywhere you look, you will see a connection to social media. This is why it is so essential to get yourself out there on social media to make people aware of you. If you make use of this incredibly powerful tool then you will be able to gain a rather large following that you wouldn't be able to gain either way.
When making a post on social media, you need to make sure you get it right. It's the same as every other form of advertising. Look at it and see if it is punchy, that it has a flare to it, this way it will stand out amongst all of the other posts on a person's timeline. Make sure it is attractive, bold and gets your message across.
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Also, make use of hashtags! They may seem silly however you can do a lot with them. Hashtags can be used to targeting specific audiences, this is really clever. Say for example you are posting about clothes then you may want to add #fashion or something along those lines. Using these hashtags means you can specifically target the people that matter most to you. It can seriously help you gain new followers/likers etc; hash-tagging will help you get the recognition you need.
Sometimes you have to make sure you make use of your tools on social media. There are so many tools on social media, such as social monitoring, that you can use to specifically target your audience to make sure your content reaches the exact audience you are trying to engage with.
WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES SHOULD I USE?
Instagram is a very good social media platform for online marketing depending on what you are trying to sell. For example, if you are social selling physical products such as clothes or electronics, then Instagram can allow you to post images of your products that are well photographed with professional filters that can add some levity to your posts. However, if you are an online service of some kind, Instagram is not the place for you as you most likely will not have anything visual or physical to show the world.
If you know what is good for you, you will stay away from Facebook...
Twitter is an interesting form of social media but in my opinion; the best - certainly from a B2B perspective. Now is it the best for advertising? Not necessarily but just like Instagram, it depends. Twitter is a lot more of a social platform made for opinions and discussions among people and their followers. Twitter is the most high profile social media as many celebrities use Twitter as a way to connect with their fan base. Therefore Twitter may not be the best social media site to advertise on unless you are trying to get clever with publicity.
If you are a business then you need to get on LinkedIn. It is the perfect site for not only connecting with other businesses and business people, but also to advertise. LinkedIn is particularity useful when it comes to engaging with potential buyers/customers as the people who look on LinkedIn are people who are involved in the industry you are in and are aware of what goes on in there, therefore they will be able to identify what you are doing in your business. This may also be used as a gateway to attracting clients and potential co-operations to work alongside with you.
So with all of the main forms of social media discussed; you can see that some will be more beneficial to you than others. Therefore, you need to look at what you are intending to market and then decide what social media to advertise on and then what is the best way of advertising on that particular form of social media, it's pretty simple really.
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WHY SHOULD I IMPLEMENT SOCIAL MEDIA INTO MY MEDIA PLAN?
The question raised above is definitely justified, even if social media presents some key challenges in terms of suitability in the pharma industry. As I have mentioned previously, people tend to forget about social media when discussing advertising. However social media may give you the opportunity to bring in a whole new audience to your business. Now just like all forms of marketing, it will not always work as marketing is very dependant on audience interaction and attention. However social media platforms prioritise one particular audience... Teenagers! Therefore you can use this tool to draw in particular audiences.
As you can see, social media is an extremely powerful tool. It can be implemented in every form of your media plan. Whether it is using a full-on digital campaign on social media or just having links on your newsletters to your social media pages, you should put social media anywhere you can.
Guest contributor: Declan McKinney.