1. Definition
Social media, also known as social media, refers to websites and technologies that allow people to write, share, evaluate, discuss, and communicate with each other. Social media is a highly interactive platform created using mobile technology and web technology, through which individuals and communities can share, co-create, discuss, and modify original content. Social media allows users to connect with each other through information sharing on online homepages, and has become an important way for people to create, share, and exchange information and opinions in online communities and interpersonal networks.
Social media marketing is a method of using social media to conduct marketing, maintain public relations, sell, develop, and serve customers. With the help of social media, companies listen to the voice of users, promote their products, and influence customers in a subtle way. This is social media marketing.
Social media marketing is an extension of content marketing – sharing relevant information with the “right” people. Therefore, overseas social media marketing = audience x content x channel.
2. The role of social media marketing
Today, social media based on mobile Internet has become the information dissemination platform that is closest to people’s lives. In the era of social media, consumers are becoming more savvy, more opinionated, and more skeptical. The behavior and methods of information creation and sharing through social media enable consumers to connect with each other and have greater power. With the popularization of mobile payment functions, social media not only directly affects consumers’ purchasing decisions, but also guides and facilitates consumers to purchase directly on social media platforms.
Social media users are not only the receivers, but also the content creators, sharers, and disseminators. Consumers will publish a large amount of original comments and information, understand the brand value in multi-directional interactions, and brand communication based on social media is the communication of relationship chains. Therefore, social media marketing can obtain free media coverage in the form of word-of-mouth communication, thereby accumulating value for the brand. For enterprises, social media marketing has the following functions:
(1) Satisfy different marketing strategies of enterprises
As a marketing model that is constantly innovating and developing, more and more enterprises are trying to display their strengths on SNS websites, whether it is carrying out various online activities for product placement, or market research (conducting surveys in cities where target users are concentrated to understand users’ opinions on products and services) and viral marketing (videos or content with corporate elements can be quickly shared and forwarded among users like a virus), all of these can be achieved here. Why do I say that? Because the biggest feature of social media is that it can fully demonstrate the interaction between people, which is precisely the basis of all marketing.
(2) Effectively reduce the marketing costs of enterprises
The “many-to-many” information transmission model of social media marketing has stronger interactivity and attracts more attention. As netizens’ online behavior becomes more mature, users are more willing to actively obtain and share information, and community users show a high degree of participation, sharing and interactivity. The main medium of social media marketing communication is users, and the main method is “word of mouth”. Therefore, compared with traditional advertising, social media marketing does not require a large amount of advertising investment; on the contrary, due to the user’s participation, sharing and interactivity, it is easy to deepen the user’s understanding of a brand and product, easily form a deep impression, and achieve good communication effects.
(3) Achieve precision marketing for target users
Users in social media marketing are usually friends who know each other, and the user registration data is relatively real. When conducting online marketing, companies can easily screen target audiences according to region, income status, etc., find out which users are their own, and interact with these users in a targeted manner.