Before diving into the social media topic itself, it is important to understand society. What is a society? How is it connected? And how are these connections used? According to Cambridge Dictionary, one of the definitions of society is the state of being together with other people. People get together online through common interests and ideas, to obtain and exchange information, and for entertainment. The Internet provides an environment where most people can network, interact, learn, sell and even create relationships.

The Internet created its own culture in which the online society is focused on what is immediate, and if you see something you like, you can purchase it in less than 2 minutes, literally. An online society is being built every day, and the 2021 Global Digital Reports, by Hootsuite shows that the number of people using the Internet worldwide is 4.66 billion, and 4.2 billion social media users. In Finland, the number of people purchasing goods online is 3.84 million, and the average annual spend per user on e-commerce is $1,479. And a piece of bonus information, the most used Social Media channel in the Nordic countries is Facebook.

A quick explanation of Digital Marketing is online actions taken by a company with the goal of doing business. Many channels can be used for this purpose, such as e-mail, social media, and search engines. Considering the data shown above, the conclusion is quite obvious, online presence has its value and social media is an important – and necessary – tool nowadays for any business, of any size. The amount of people you can reach is more than considerable and business owners that are not using social media at all, or are not doing the correct use of it, are definitely missing opportunities and customers.

Hence, the core question is: how to use social media for marketing and selling purposes? The process involves a lot of work and knowledge, differently from what many people might think. It requires massive brainstorming and planning to create the correct strategies to approach your target consumers. When talking about customers, it must be emphasized that most of the time, they don’t buy products or services, they buy solutions to their problems.

Digital Marketing has many advantages, such as the low cost compared to other types of advertisements, being able to choose your focus on a specific target audience, and different kinds of metrics used to measure performances. There are different categories with different functionalities, for example, Search Engine Optimization, e-mail marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, and social media marketing. It is extremely important to set goals when using any kind of Digital Marketing.

Social Media Marketing has focused on, of course, the usage of social media platforms to increase brand awareness, website traffic and customer retention. It is about the online experience and platforms examples are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and TikTok. Content marketing according to Joe Pulizzi, “is owning media as opposed to renting. It’s a marketing process to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating content in order to change or enhance a consumer behavior”. In this case, valuable content is provided, involving the client – or potential client – from the beginning of the buying journey, when every small aspect is considered, the buyer personas construction, engagement, organic growth, till the purchase decision. Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing are different methods of Digital Business, with different goals and processes and perhaps mixing both brings the result of a selling boost and also in loyal customers that really enjoy what you do.

Setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) goals and from that deciding which strategy would fit better to achieve them is the best option. Metrics is a huge advantage and will help to measure if the chosen strategy is working towards the goal or not. It is also worth remembering that most of the social media channels are free of costs, and to manage them it is also easy to find nice and free tools.

Engagement is one of the factors to take into consideration too since it is crucial to have organic and effective growth. It is necessary, then, to create the correct buyer persona, also known as your imaginary perfect customer, which would engage with whatever you are doing, because she or he would be the target for that. As more buyer personas and the number of specifications about them, there is, the better, because that’s how you will know how to talk to your client in a way that will convince them to buy from you, to choose your company at the end of the process. The specifications would be demographic and psychological.

Influencer marketing is a trend currently inside social media marketing, and it has been growing a lot in the past years, especially on Instagram. It is, for many, a method that can be considered as the easiest way to sell, since influencers already have power over their followers, who consider them trustworthy, which gives the product credibility, a bigger online presence, and a likely increase in sales. On the other hand, influencers would also demand an amount of money that can go over the budget if you are a small size company.

There are a lot of possibilities to improve the use of Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing and it is important to take into consideration factors as discovering the right strategy takes time and if the chosen one doesn’t work, there’s always time to change the approach. Organizational tools are good options when it comes to managing the contents, it is necessary to conduct extensive research on the buyer personas profile while constructing it, and finding the best social media channels to reach the correct target customers and connect with them at a level that would make them choose the solution you provide, are the ways of using social media marketing for selling purposes. Originality is also a factor that makes customers choose your product, so copy content or design is not an option if the business wants to stand out.

Sources:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/society

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-finland

https://wearesocial.com/digital-2020

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-marketing

https://marketing4ecommerce.net/usuarios-de-internet-mundo/

https://blog.hubspot.es/marketing/guia-completa-estrategia-marketing-digital

Pulizzi, J., Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break Through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less.

2021 Social Media Trends, Hubspot