Is Digital Marketing a Waste of Time for Businesses

Digital Marketing Should be an Integral Part of Your Business Marketing Strategy

Social media is a billion-dollar industry, thus cannot be ignored by businesses. Every living generation is on social media, and the oldest generations at increasing rates. Companies must have a digital marketing plan that includes both email and social media.

Because most people have social media and use it on a daily basis, business owners often mistake marketing on social media as just posting a picture or event. However, over the years, social media marketing has gotten more complex. The presence of businesses on social media has grown as has the ability to make a living from being an “Influencer” or “YouTuber”. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have put years of research and billions of dollars into monetizing these platforms.

Knowing how these platforms operate as well as know how people use these platforms is critical to businesses of all sizes. Companies like JetBlue, Mastercard, and American Express have made a name for themselves in the digital marketing world. Each has used social media to create community and customer experience. It is more than just advertising and self-promotion. Social media is about building a brand.

Social media marketing is diverse and each company must come up with goals and strategize around them because there are various platforms, audiences and purposes. Some companies want to sell online. Some want to bring more traffic to their websites. Some want to collect analytics on potential consumers. Most want to do a combination of these things.

Once you have your goals and plans, it is time to start publishing to social media. There are over 3 billion users on social media, so a company’s presence matters. Posting every day and generating content for those daily posts can be time consuming. Many companies use a social media calendar. Creating a social media calendar is a time saver. Rather than spending an hour a day thinking of an idea and creating the content, companies can spend a few hours at the beginning of each month. Or better yet, pay a nominal fee and get a year’s worth of ideas from a marketing professional.

Content posted to social media should be engaging, original and positive. People respond best to posts with pictures, and ideally, these pictures are not stock photos. While there are many free sites that can provide companies with eligible stock photos, creating original material helps build a brand.

But posting is not the end of marketing. Social media platforms have created algorithms that dictate which posts get seen and how often. Business owners on social media need to understand these or have a digital marketing professional who does. Engagement is one of the variables in the Instagram formula. Posts that attract comments and likes are favored. Hashtags (#) are another tool Instagramers use to gain attraction. Understanding engagement and other formulas is important and fairly easy to learn, but actually generating engagement is a daily task. One to which many business owners do not have the time to dedicate.

The use of these algorithms is no secret. In fact, social media platforms created analytics tools so users can see how their posts are performing and who their posts are reaching. This data is robust and free, and companies can use it to make marketing decisions. Facebook and Instagram just recently merged their analytics so users of both platforms can easily see insights for both platforms and multiple accounts.

Social media can sometimes leave a bad impression on users. There is fake news. There are divisions and bullying. There is clickbait and scams. Yet, nearly every adult is using social media. Businesses must be authentic within their social media accounts. Using ploys and tactics will alienate users.