We are living in a technology driven age in which technology has enmeshed itself into the daily activities of our lives. From the marketing perspective, a huge shift in the trends has been noticed. Businesses are all about customer satisfaction and want to take the necessary steps to ensure that their message is reaching the right audiences at the right time. Online reputation is being valued at par with a company’s goodwill, as more and more companies are actively taking part in relevant communities in order to perfectly interact and influence potential customers. The advent of social media marketing can be traced back to the introduction of LinkedIn and Facebook, back in 2003 and 2004 respectively. With Facebook gaining momentum, it launched its first ad in 2005, which can be regarded as one of the first digital marketing ventures in the world. Social media has become the driving force behind online communication in the modern age, and marketers are flocking in numbers to take advantage of its abilities. Thus, social media marketing has become a part and parcel of the digital marketing basket, and work in tandem with other strategies to produce the best results achievable.
Defining Social Media Marketing So what exactly is social media marketing? Generally, it can be agreed that it is a form of digital marketing, which utilizes the various facets of social media to its advantage. Social media marketing usually deals with producing high quality content to engage users who may then be converted to potential customers. The advent of social media has really helped the marketing world, with organizations widening their reach by increasing their brand exposure. Social media marketing lays heavy emphasis on customer relations. Direct feedback and general customer discussions is an effective tool for chalking out future strategies.
Classification of Social Media Networks To further understand and implement social media marketing, we first have to understand the different types of social media platforms available. Even though the term “social media� is extensively used to refer to Facebook and Twitter nowadays, there are a lot of different types of social media platforms in existence today.
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1. Relationship Network Platforms: The first wave of social media platforms included the likes of Facebook, Twitter and the now defunctOrkut, and focused on relationship networking. Relationship networking uses a single platform for combining all of a user’s communications into one cohesive unit. There are personal and professional relationship networks, facilitating different types of communication on a personal and professional level. Simple actions like “likes” and “shares” can positively influence a company’s online reputation.
2. Media Sharing Platforms: Even though sites like Facebook and Twitter have great image and video hosting capabilities, both of these are actually text based. The introduction of newer platforms like Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram present a much more streamlined and specialised image and video sharing platform. Marketers can use this aspect to their advantage, by publishing relevant content like videos, ads, visuals containing offers, etc. to further engage the consumer. Newer applications like Vimeo andSnapchat along with YouTube primarily focus on video. 3. Social Publishing Platforms: Social publishing platforms are designed for sharing both short and long written content with other uses for informative purposes. One of the most popular ones is WordPress, which is extensively being used by digital marketers for increasing brand awareness and visibility. It’s a great way for marketers to develop a niche for the brand in the relevant industry. 4. Online Review Sites: Review sites are a relatively new innovation, focusing on client relationships and how to maintain them. The publishing of reviews and testimonials, especially for customer-oriented businesses like hotels and restaurants, can be helpful for maintaining customer relationships and forming quality oriented strategies.
Why Social Media Marketing Has Become So Important Social media marketing, along with other digital marketing strategies, is dominating markets everywhere, slowly starting to replace the more expensive and traditional marketing media like billboards, print ads, and TV/Radio ads. To understand why this phenomenon has occurred, we need to go through the following points: 1. Increasing Brand Awareness: The most obvious reason for using social media marketing iseasier and more streamlined communications between customers and companies. Simple actions like “liking” or “sharing” content has a positive impact on customer retention rates and brand loyalty. A recent study has found that about 91% of marketers worldwide have admitted that social media marketing is responsible for their monstrous brand exposure.
2. High Conversion Rates: Digital marketing strategies have trumped traditional marketing media when it comes to conversion rates. It presents an accurate way to measure the conversions in real time as well as facilitating higher conversion rates. Posting status updates, commenting, and sharing relevant content can make the brand appear more human, which is a part of the relationship building process.
3. Better Search Engine Rankings: Users extensively use The Internet as a tool for finding relevant information. Although SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the main driving force behind increased ranking, social media further compounds its effect. SEO and social media marketing can be used in tandem for achieving better search engine ranking resulting in increased brand visibility. 4. Customer Satisfaction: Both brand loyalty and customer satisfaction play pivotal roles in the authoritative role of a business.
Social media platforms are increasingly being used as marketers as an effective communication and customer relationship tool. It plays a significant role in the humanizing of a brand, appearing more credible to potential customers. This is more important for customer-oriented businesses, which depend largely on the quality of the goods and services they provide. By effectively communicating with customers, they will have the opportunity to find out which products are popular, and which ones are not favoured by the general public.
Applying Social Media Marketing Strategies in Various Industries It is a given that for any industry, a strong, conversion-optimized website is a powerful tool for driving sales. As days go by, personal relationships are the main priority and social media marketing is being applied across a range of industries including,
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Real Estate: Real estate is a marketing driven industry depending on visibility and charisma for their success. So quite naturally, social media is suitable for real estate agents to acquire business contacts and build up a network of clients.
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Human Resources: Human resource deals with recruiting, sometimes on a wider national scale. This requires a fair bit of reach to find the right candidate possessing the right skill sets. Professional social forums like LinkedIn help human resource personnel to cast a wider net and reach specific candidates.
B2B Retail:As social media forums have great marketing potential, more and more B2B retail brands have started jumping on to the social media marketing bandwagon. Various elements like “influencers” and “brand evangelists” can contribute significantly towards brand recognition. Thus, forums like Facebook and Twitter are most suitable for reaching large audiences in a relatively shorter time period.
Information Technology: Information Technology is a “hot” industry at the moment, increasing in importance as technology evolves. As the industry is very dynamic, customers and marketers have to be updated at all times. Social media can bridge this gap, by providing marketers with a platform to effectively communicate with and assist potential customers. Publishing engaging content with industry related news or offering tips can be a great way for IT companies to stay connected with their customer base at all times.
Legal: When it comes to hiring a lawyer or any other professional for legal requirements, reputation plays an important role. People generally want to work with somebody who they can trust and is effective. Attorneys and lawyers use social media to showcase their services on a larger scale. They often use past client testimonials and blog posts as a leverage for gaining credibility.
Other Industries: Even though the aforementioned industries are best suited for social media marketing, there are some other industries that can benefit from it to some extent. For example, science and engineering, B2B consulting, and even the manufacturing industry can benefit in some ways from social media marketing. The relative absence of competition for these industries in social media spaces makes it ripe for marketing purposes.
“What to Do and What Not to Do�: Rules for Social Media Marketing While the prospects of social media marketing may seem enticing and fool proof, there are certain factors to keep in mind while executing a strategy. Proper implementation can result in increased profitability, but a wrong move can have dire consequences. 1. A good in-depth knowledge and framing of an appropriate marketing strategy and work plan is required before starting any campaign. This is due to the fact that social media marketing works hand in hand with SEO and PPC campaigning for the overall success of a digital marketing campaign. 2. Marketers should never overdo social media marketing and must put equal focus on other digital marketing campaigns. 3. Social media is all about staying fresh and updated. Hence, marketers have constantly looked for new ways to engage the audience. This involves the regular publishing of news, blogs, content and other things of interest. 4. Using a multitude of social media forums is not required. Instead, focus should be put on 3 or 4 major ones and all marketing efforts should be directed towards them. The Big Three of social media: Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook - are almost omnipresent in all major marketing campaigns. 5. Consistency across all platforms is necessary, such as using a distinct handle/hashtag/name in all posts. 6. Social media is designed for listening. Marketers should make this work to their advantage, by receiving customer feedback, reviews and grievances, and accordingly make changes.
7. Social media marketing does not yield immediate results like other paid advertising campaigns, and is more of a long-term process.
The Big Three of Social Media There are a multitude of social media forums in existence today, with newer ones being introduced into the fray every other day. However, the three pioneers of social media are Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. We will now discuss each of these in brief.
FGTwitaceogblrk+ Facebook: Founded in 2004, Facebook has become the largest social media network with about 1.8 billion active users around the globe.
It provides both free and paid marketing options It is a great platform for acquiring subscribers, posting updates, and interacting with the customer base. PPC campaigns provided by Facebook ads are a great tool for publishing targeted ads. Features such as “liking” and “sharing” content are almost tailor-made for increasing brand visibility.
Twitter:The world’s first and largest micro-blogging network, Twitter doubles up as a social networking platform with about 320 million active users. It is generally meant for posting short and frequent updates by celebrities, artists, evangelists, entrepreneurs, and business houses.
Twitter pages are a great way for businesses to reach a target audience. Shorter Twitter posts, or “tweets”, make it compatible with SMS and other platforms. Twitter promoted tweets are an added advantage.
Google +: Regarded as the second largest social media platform in existence, Google + is a social networking platform that integrates seamlessly with other Google services. It has more than 540 million active users worldwide.
Google + is a professionally oriented platform, with features like live video conferencing Since Google + integrates Google place listings, local businesses can use it as an effective tool for conducting local searches. Seamless integration with other Google services like Google Authorship, Google Places and Google’s search engine for increased functionality.
Conclusion It is said that the number of active users on the Internet is growing exponentially with social media becoming an alternative space for communication and interaction. Thus, it has formed a critical part of all modern marketing strategies in today’s modern business landscape. With a world of opportunity for marketers to exploit, more and more businesses are taking the help of digital marketing agencies for the optimal implementation of social media marketing strategies.