As a marketer, are you using social media to reach the 67.4% of internet users who are on it? If not, you're missing out on a huge audience base.  Social media is now status quo in a business digital presence. Users expect to see their favourite brands on social media and are having conversations about your brand's whether or not you're a part of them. And these users are multiplying rapidly research from Social Media Today shows that 12 new active mobile social users join every second, so in the time it's taken you just to read to this point, 180 new users have already joined a social platform 180 new users who could be part of your target audience. Let's study the important definitive guide to social media marketing:

1) Drive Brand Awareness and Preference

Because social media platforms are where people increasingly spend their time, it's naturally a great way to keep in touch with your audience, offer them insight into your brand's personality, and share valuable content. Do this well, and you'll have a loyal base of followers, subscribers, and more. But that's not the only way you can build awareness and preference. In the past, influencer marketing was typically owned by your PR team, who tracked and cultivated relationships with key players in your industry and market, but social media has changed the name of the game. Now, it's critical that you not only identify social celebritie's (commonly known as influencers) who love and engage with your brand, but everyday people with a large network and influence.

2) Increase demand:

Social media offers marketers more than a way to reinforce your brand. It's also a good way to drive people's to a conversion or sale, either immediately (sometimes even on the platform) or by bringing in new marketable contacts into your database and nurturing them across all channels. With offers, promotions, contests, and content, you can engage your audience more deeply and drive conversion from a form fill to a purchase. Not to mention, you can use these platforms to do social selling, which involves reaching out to your buyers on a 1 to 1 level to accelerate them toward a purchase. 3) Multi-Channel Campaigns:

Just like any other successful marketing channel, social media doesn't work in a silo. Many great brands use social networks as a critical component of their marketing mix and communications, but it's important to understand that social media marketing is most effective when its messages and content support and reinforce those on other marketing channels. Coordinated messages across channels (including social media) allow marketers to carry on a continuous conversation over time with their audience.

4) Networking and Peer -to-Peer influence:

One of the best ways to engage your audience is by providing them with a compelling reason to share your message with their networks in a way that is natural and seamless. Word-of-mouth marketing and peer recommendations are an extremely powerful way to increase brand visibility through social proof, as people believe their network of peers more often than a branded campaign.

From brand awareness to influencer engagement and peer-to-peer sharing, social media marketing is not a soft metrics-only channel. Today, it drives real and trackable revenue attributed to your social media marketing activities. With the help of the right tools, like marketing automation and a social media management platform, you're not only able to listen and respond to your audience across channels, but track the revenue associated with your social media marketing activities making its impact crystal clear.

Courtesy: