The Impact of Social Media Marketing
by Mentju Legodi | Edited by: Rendani Nevhulaudzi
Social media, over the years, has become a voice of many individuals regarding communication. However, with the decline of traditional marketing, digital marketing has taken centre stage away from the marketing that our forefathers proudly participated in, making social media usage more crucial than ever, especially regarding marketing practices.
Social media is the process of creating content tailored to the context of each social media platform to deliver user engagement and awareness. As a Gen Z/ millennial, social media has become my daily bread as it is the heart of anything media-orientated, with social media feeding every information need to fill.
Therefore, every click counts on social media, especially for new and small businesses, as the active usage of social media can give any organisation the brand recognition and awareness it needs to acquire for success. Although social media started as a way of communication amongst our loved ones, fast forward, social media has become a tool that brands and organisations use to create a community and communication amongst their followers, who soon turn into followers.
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become prominent mediums for organisations in the marketing industry, which helps with growing their brands and keeping up with marketing trends. In this day and age, when an organisation lacks a social media presence, it is bound to be on the back burner and looked over, as more organisations are tapping into utilising various social media features for profit, and while their target audience continues to keep searching for other marketing organisations that are more social media savvy.
It has also been reported that 70% of marketers have found that social media activities can increase website traffic. In comparison, 75% of businesses engaging in social media activities for a year or more reported an even more significant increase in traffic to their website looking for information about the organisation, which is no surprise as more customers are young, vibrant and spend more of their time on their smartphones being active on social media and look into the organisation’s social media creditability.
And with more people adapting to the fourth industrial revolution, it is recommended to take your social media presence and what makes it unique and sells it is the best out there, making social media a yin to a marketer’s yang.
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AUTHOR:
Mentju Legodi is Social Media Intern at Joren Communcations. She is studying her last year in media studies at Boston City Campus in Pretoria, South Africa.
