Firstly, if you've made it to this post, it's more than likely that you got here because you clicked through from me posting it on social media. I rest my case.
Ok, I'm not going to end it here, let's look a little deeper.
Social media is nothing new, it's just another channel that enables a business to distribute messages, engage and connect with an audience. However, it's grown at an exponential rate and has become one of the most prominent means of communication today. If you have an iPhone, I dare you to look at the 'screen time' section. I bet that social networking is the highest ranked activity on your phone; if not, this is a bit awkward, but let's move on.
The three basic marketing opportunities
We've already said that most people are using social media for hours a day, but with that, there is a depth of information they are giving away to the social media platforms. Things such as demographic data, interests, behaviours and so much more are being captured every second. This allows marketers to create and deliver highly targeted messages, which are more likely to engage a user than in any other channel
There is the ability to retarget audiences on social media based on visits to a company website for example. Did they look at a product, watch a video or abandon cart? ...well marketers can go directly back to them and offer something more, which may entice them to complete the action or purchase they started. Retargeting is an extremely valuable tool, not only to increase conversions, but to make the overall budget go a bit further too
It's easy to test different messages, creatives and calls to action, with real-time analytics and budget optimisations - no more waiting around for that monthly analytics meeting where five different people need to pull together data from different places to figure out what the story was and what you should do with that information next
You've probably heard the saying 'fish where the fish are' many times; well, social media is the biggest ocean out there, so if you aren't doing these three things already, your potential customers are being taken by your competitors who are.