Social Media Marketing in 2021: Denver Digital Marketing Agency Describes What Your Business Should Know

Most businesses have found social media marketing to be an effective way to promote their products and services. Last year, it was reported that more than half of the world’s population was on some sort of social media. Industry experts expect that number to continue to go up in 2021 and beyond. Here’s what your business should know in the upcoming year when it comes to digital marketing on social media sites.

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Let’s start with the basics and define social media marketing. Social media marketing is the process of creating content for social networking platforms to help you meet the goals you’ve set for your business. Social media content is used to improve brand awareness, to engage your audience, to generate conversions, and to drive traffic to your website. Some businesses focus on a single platform, while others use multiple platforms. 
What Are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing?
These are generally considered the top benefits of social media marketing:

• Social media outreach is an economical way to reach customers and potential customers. This is especially true given the current state of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Social media can streamline brand awareness. You can increase your number of followers by sharing content consistently and interacting with your community to boost brand recognition.
• Social media means that customers can reach out to you directly. By posting or commenting on your business’ page, people can reach out to you in seconds.
• Social media provides a way to find out more about your audience. You can perform data mining to find out demographics, psychographics, geographics, and behavior to better serve these people.
• Social media gives you an opportunity for effective advertising. Social media advertising can mean more people look at your brand in a short amount of time, for quicker than ever results. 
• Social media provides a way to send followers to your website easily. Considered high-intent leads, these people are more likely to buy once they get to your site.

The longer you engage in social media marketing, the more you will understand your audience, your industry, and even your own brand. Having this knowledge can help you see what is working and what is not working for your business, and you can refine your strategies accordingly.

How Can You Maximize Your Social Media Marketing?

Here are some tips you can follow to maximize one of the most profitable pros of social media marketing:

1. Optimize your profile across all social media platforms. This includes things like making sure your website URL is in your company bio.
2. Make sure you post content regularly and post when most of your audience is online. This is the best way to build brand awareness.
3. Create visual content to garner attention and boost information retention. Images, infographics, and videos all count.
4. Be part of the conversation. This means you should engage with your audience by responding to their comments and questions. This will help them associate good customer service with your brand. They might also check out your website out of curiosity, leading to a purchase when they are ready to buy.

Are There Disadvantages to Social Media Marketing?

There is always a disadvantage, and if you talk to a social media marketing company that tells you otherwise, they are probably just out for your money.

Here is a list of some of the cons of social media marketing:

• Creating content can take a lot of time, effort, and money to produce. If you’re on TikTok, for example, you’ll have to spend the time to produce clips regularly. This will be a huge test of how resourceful and creative you can be. If you decide to hop onto a platform you aren’t familiar with, there can also be a steep learning curve to figure out how to use it properly and effectively. (Of course, there are easy solutions to this: Hire someone with the experience or partner with a trusted digital marketing agency to help reduce long-term costs.)
• You open up your business to the possibility of negative online reviews. The upside is that you can get positive reviews, but you have to take the good with the bad. Even if you are not at fault, your business is still vulnerable to negative reviews. The best way to handle these is to deal with them in a straightforward, polite manner. Not responding or responding poorly can be damaging. A positive response that attempts to rectify the situation greatly improves your chances of keeping customers, even if they were unhappy about something.
• You will have to deal with internet “trolls.” These people usually have anonymous identities, and they like to post off-topic or inflammatory comments online. They hide behind the anonymity of the internet and generally don’t suffer any consequences. There are social media marketing tools that help you moderate these comments—or you can try to deal with internet trolls in a humorous manner.
• It can take a while before you see any results of your social media marketing. You need to take the time to build momentum—and this can take a while. If you are particularly eager for results, this might be a good time to partner with a digital marketing agency, which can give you advice on the most effective way to up your social media game.

Will Social Media Still Be Relevant After the Pandemic?

In a word, yes! Even before the pandemic, social media had evolved into a valuable marketing tool for many businesses. Your customers and potential customers are already on social media, and even after the pandemic and there is a return to normal—whatever that may look like—people will still be on social media. Social media is cost-effective—and it’s entertaining and fun. It levels the playing field for businesses because social media is accessible to all businesses. 

Does your business need a digital marketing strategy? Give us a call! Our digital marketing strategists can help your Denver business—and businesses anywhere—meet its goals. Find out more about how your new digital marketing strategy might work by giving us a call at 303-498-9000 to schedule an appointment!

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