Social media marketing is nothing new. As consumers, we’ve been immersing ourselves in the digital world for over 20 years, and social media has been a key driving force in bringing users online and connecting the world through digital communication.

According to Backlinko’s blog on social growth statistics, there are now 4.48 billion people using social media worldwide, so with those stats, you’d think it’s a given that you should be placing some serious consideration to utilising social media within your marketing, right?

Well, you’d have thought so! But, we recently attended a seminar where everyone present was working within a senior marketing role and, when asked by the speaker if they included social media within their digital marketing strategies, more than 60% of the room said NO!

Yep, we were shocked too, and it got us thinking. If all these marketing individuals aren’t pushing social media, is that really the right way to go?

So, we set out to answer that question, and this blog uncovers what we discovered and answers the question of whether social media is a key marketing channel.

1. The sheer volume of users

When we delved deeper into the general user stats, we found that not only are there billions of people on social media platforms, but we also found, more importantly, that 63% of them are ACTIVE users.

That means there are literally billions of people logging on and actually using social media every day. There is nowhere else and no other channel in the world that has that many active users. It even beats the number of TV watchers worldwide.

“But, there’s so much noise already” we hear you cry! And we agree, there is an awful lot of businesses using social media to market, however, social media marketing makes it easy to specifically target the audience you want to reach, so your message can cut through the noise.

2. The diverse user groups

With 4.48 billion social media users and, a total of 7.75 billion people in the world, that’s nearly 60% of people in the WORLD using some form of social media. With those figures, it’s pretty safe to say that, the people using social media will be a pretty diverse bunch! 

But why does that matter to you and your marketing? Well, it means that you can advertise to people more specifically (something consumers much prefer too!). You can select your audience, and talk to them specifically. This approach works much better than just blindly creating content and hoping for the best and means you can make the most out of your marketing budgets.

3. It’s Free!

Ok, we know not ALL forms of social media marketing are free, you will likely have to pay someone to do it for a start, but it is totally free to have a presence on the main social media sites, meaning your budget can be maximised elsewhere.

Creating a good, well-engaged audience on social media can be completely free to do. If you’re a start-up business, there is no reason you can’t market your business in this way yourself, saving you money and helping you grow your business without having to invest thousands.

We’d obviously recommend outsourcing your social media marketing as soon as you can, so you can focus your time on what you do best!

4. There are paid options to help you grow more quickly.

Paid advertising through social media is a great way of reaching your audience faster. Organic growth takes time, so if you want to give that a boost, paid ads are a good option.

There are not too many other places where you can boost your free advertising with a paid-for option… Imagine getting free TV ads for your business and only having to pay if you wanted quicker results!

And not only that, using the paid advertising route means you can GUARANTEE people in your audience will see your advert and brand through detailed targeting- again, there are not many other channels that can offer such specific targeting.

5. The versatility of social media marketing

If you’re not sold on including social media marketing into your strategy; this one should convince you it’s a good way to go! 

Social media is a versatile tool and can be used for so much more than just generating leads. It gives you a deeper insight into the behaviours and interests of your target audience, you can conduct market research and you can push out a variety of content and so much more.

Rather than thinking of it as a place to push content; look at the bigger picture and think about how you can build communities on the platforms to create an engaged following that lives and breathes your brand. 

Here are a few ideas of what you could use social media for:

Customer service

Networking

Market research

Human Resources and Recruitment

Sales and lead generation

Social media can be used as a vital tool across the whole business and it’s well-worth implementing strategies that encompass its use.

6. It’s massively underutilised

Don’t worry, we’re not totally contradicting our first point about users, this time we’re talking about businesses. It is surprisingly underutilised by businesses as a marketing tool, let alone all the other potential benefits it can be used for… Which is great news for you!

Yes, there are lots of big corporates using it, so it might seem a noisy place to be, but in the SME world, even if they are using it, they’re often not using it well. So, get ahead of your competitors by implementing and delivering on a solid social media strategy, especially on platforms like LinkedIn if you’re a B2B operation.

After finishing digging deeper into the world of social media, we were even MORE convinced that including social media marketing within your marketing plans is absolutely essential to stay ahead of your competition and get some great brand awareness for your business, if nothing else.

So, what do you think; do you already utilise social media for your marketing, or will you now add it into your marketing mix?

We think you should, and if you’re not sure where to start, get in touch and let us help you build and deliver a strategy that works.