The advantages of social media far outweigh those of more conventional forms of advertising, such as television, radio, and billboards. If your company knows how to use them to their best potential, they will bring in more potential customers, raise the profile of your brand, improve sales leads, and boost website traffic. Your company’s expansion rate will increase significantly as a result. Let’s take a closer look at each advantage.
Attract a large, worldwide audience
Social media now has 4.59 billion users as of 2022. By 2027, this is expected to rise to 5.85 billion. Considering that the first social networks appeared just around 18 years ago, these are absolutely mind-boggling numbers. One-third of the world’s population is now online and accessible through social media; all you need is a device with internet access to reach them.
Facebook has roughly 2.9 billion users, YouTube has about 2.2 billion, Instagram has about 2 billion, TikTok has about 1 billion, and LinkedIn has about 830 million. Customers of nearly any company can now be located through social media. The largest advantage of social media over traditional media is its widespread accessibility.
Zero in on your ideal clientele specifically.
The vast amounts of user data stored by social media platforms can be leveraged by advertisers to deliver more relevant ads. Included in this category are the obvious bits of information like gender, location, and age, but also a plethora of other details about the person, such as their demographics, interests, and behaviours. Seeking to connect with single Canadian males aged 18–24 who have a passion for cats but despise canines? In any case, you need not worry; access is just a mouse click away.
Finally, if you want to expand your custom audience beyond its current size, you can do so by creating a “lookalike audience.” You could, for instance, provide Facebook with a list of one thousand people who have already bought your product and ask the social media platform to discover another hundred thousand people who fit the same demographic profile.
The cost of advertising on Facebook will vary depending on your goals and the demographics of your target audience, but you’ll save money by reaching only the individuals who are most interested in what you have to offer. By doing so, you can avoid wasting marketing funds and increase company profits.
Keep tabs on information and find ways to improve advertising budgets
There is a metric for everything nowadays, thanks to social media. Find out how many people have seen your video, how many people have liked it, how many people have commented, how many people have shared it, and how many people have visited your link.
People’s online behaviour can be tracked using a tracking pixel and/or the conversion API, which can be implemented by many social media platforms. For instance, if you interact with an ad on social media by clicking on it and then submitting a sales inquiry through a website, that information will be re-shared on social media. To maximise their ROI, marketers may now monitor user actions and adjust strategies accordingly.
Social media channel algorithms further optimise your ad spend to help you meet your marketing goals at the lowest possible cost. They have an incentive to assist you because your success will lead to increased spending on advertisements on their site.
Natural cultivation
To be successful on social media, a significant advertising expenditure is not required. In fact, many social media marketers are raking in the dough and getting a steady stream of visitors without resorting to expensive paid promotion.
The number of individuals who see your social media posts without you paying them to do so is known as your “organic reach” or “free reach.” It’s not the same on every social media site. LinkedIn is hovering at 10-12%, while Facebook and Instagram are both down around 2%. With more likes, comments, and shares from the initial audience, your social media post will be exposed to a larger percentage of your followers and has a better chance of becoming trending content, going viral, and creating significant free reach.
Get them involved
There are just a small number of media publishers in ‘broadcast’ formats like television, print, radio, and outdoor, thus audiences have no way to interact with the content. While these platforms have improved their interactive media options, they still can’t compare to social media.
These days, anyone with a smartphone can become a media mogul. There are billions of people who can view the photo you just posted on social media within seconds, and just as many more who will comment on it. Because of this one-of-a-kind feature of social media, brands can more easily interact with their target audiences and win their trust.
In addition, marketers can track user interaction with their content to improve it. If you want a better return on your investment in content development, you should, for instance, monitor your Instagram engagement rate to see what your followers are interested in (and aren’t interested in!).