What you need to know about social media

If you are looking for a constantly changing world, social media marketing is it! Not only does it have extremely regular updates and added features but it rolls out new networks also very so often! For those who are still trying to figure out how social media marketing could benefit your business, here are a few basics you need to know apart from SEO.

Social media is not a free service

Although setting up an account on networks are free, posts, comments, shares and other forms of interaction are also free, the investment required in social media marketing is that of time or money. Time is that of you or your employees to manage the social networks, engage with the audience and to regularly produce quality content to be posted on your social profile. If you do not have the time, you have to invest money in outsourcing this task to a professional social media marketing company.

If you choose to take the do-it-yourself path, the returns will be on the investment of your time. Don’t undervalue the time of your employees and consider it an on the house benefit where the ROI need not be measured. Look at it from this point of view: what gives you more returns? Is it the creation of more products of is it the time spent on learning the elements of social media marketing and being updated with the vast amount of information?

Social media is simple. But social media marketing requires an expert

Connecting with friends and family is not rocket science. Anyone can take part in a virtual conversation and make use of the neat interactive features available. However, social media marketing is about creating brand awareness with the help of the most popular and cost effective media available today.

Only if you have some marketing knowledge will you be able to apply it to social media marketing. This does not mean that individuals are being discouraged to promote their business on social media. In fact, there are proven results for small business owners who try to establish a personal connection through social media. However, for larger business that needs to come up with marketing strategies, guidance from a professional is required.

Your presence need not be made on every social network

You do not have to be a part of all social networks, unless you are a massive conglomerate like Microsoft of Apple who has enough resources to devote an entire department of employees for managing social media. Instead, conduct extensive research on your target market and see which platforms they are part of and focus on those. SMO professionals advice to stick to 3-4 networks and devote your attention on engaging well there.

Social media is current

Social media is the marketing media of today, not the future. Recent statistics show that more than three fourths of Internet users are a part of at least one social network and they spend a minimum of three hours a day on social media. This time frame is more than what people would spend in other daily leisure activities such as watching TV, movies, or listening to the radio. Young to middle aged adults prefer watching videos at their own times on YouTube rather than on TV.

The most popular social media network is Facebook with over 1.2 billon users, Google+ closely follows with a fan base of more than 350 million, and Twitter and LinkedIn have 250 million users each. This shows that people are often online, and most of the time they are active on social media. If you own a business in today’s worlds, you definitely will be left behind if you ignore social media.