Social media seemed like a fad at one point. It appeared and generated some interest, but most companies and industries didn’t see the advertising potential.
That’s not surprising. When TV and the radio first appeared, companies didn’t immediately realize they could make ads and feature them on daily programming. They didn’t think they could bring news about their products and services right into someone’s home.
They learned as time passed, and that’s what happened with social media. When it became clear that social media marketing was possible, many company execs rubbed their hands together gleefully. They suddenly saw that they could generate interest like never before with the right ad campaign on one of these platforms.
In 2023, you can hire a social media marketing agency if you don’t feel like you can create your own ad campaigns. Many companies do that. When they do, they often see more sales, but only if they have the right messaging.
Why do so many companies and niches use social media now, and why have they found such unprecedented success? We will explain in the following article.
You Can Go Viral
For one thing, when you use social media marketing, you can go viral. Going viral works like striking gold. You’ve suddenly tapped into the public consciousness in a very meaningful and profound way, if only for one afternoon or a couple of days at best.
In 2023, people have very short attention spans. Some scientists feel they’re shorter than ever before. You can debate whether that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s undeniable that you must create brief, precisely crafted messaging about your company, products, and services.
You can get almost instant feedback about what you’re putting out there with social media. If you have a marketing campaign or even a single post that makes people sit up and take notice, that can make your company famous if no one knew about it before.
You can sell thousands of products if you go viral, or even more. You can gain international fame seemingly out of nowhere. It’s rare, but it’s possible. It’s part of the reason why so many companies use social media. Going viral tantalizes them like a mirage in the desert.
You Can Target a Very Specific Audience
Social media also rules in 2023 because you have so many different platforms you can use. You can utilize Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and many more.
When you look at the different social media platforms that exist, you can also study which audience uses what platform. You can do research yourself, or you might have a social media marketing agency do it for you. Either way, they’ll report that they have found your desired audience on perhaps one or two different platforms.
At that point, you can target them and start marketing your products and services. You will not waste any time or money that way. You know you can find your potential audience on a specific platform or two, and you won’t spend time creating content for other platforms that no one who buys your products will see.
You can’t target an audience any better than that. You might make TV commercials and show them during a show that you think your target audience watches, but social media lets you zero in with even more precision.
You Can Use Very Particular Branding
You can also use social media as you create a persona around your company and brand. You can quickly describe a certain brand’s persona when you see the content they create for social media.
Perhaps they’re romantic, like a jewelry company. Maybe they’re playful or irreverent. You usually get that with snack companies or toy companies. Maybe they’re serious if they make products that don’t pollute the environment.
When you use your social media posts for your branding, you let your potential customers into your ecosystem in a way that should entice them. When they visit your website, you should feature more content that reinforces the branding that you’re starting with your social media campaigns.
You’re showing your customers what your company values. When you do that, you will get the loyalty you seek. If you don’t have precise messaging or branding, then you probably won’t get the sales and customer dedication that you crave so much.
You Get Honest, Rapid Feedback
Perhaps what makes social media most useful for marketing, though, is the way you can get fast, honest feedback from not just your customer base but the world at large. Think about the disastrous ad campaign that featured Kylie Jenner offering a police officer a Pepsi during a protest.
Even though that wasn’t a social media ad, social media responded quickly and furiously. People thought the ad was so tone-deaf that Pepsi had to pull it and go in a completely different direction.
As a company, you can get swift, sometimes brutal feedback through social media. You might not like hearing that you have gotten something wrong, but it’s helpful.
If the public likes a social media ad campaign or a commercial you’ve created, they will tell you about it. If they think you’ve made a major misstep, they will tell you that as well.
Having a direct pipeline that tells you what people think can help you craft the right messaging. You can always try workshopping your social media ad ideas before taking them live, though. You can also conduct focus groups before you launch a new campaign. That might help you avoid the worst controversies before they happen.
Social media rules the world in 2023. People see companies that don’t use it as dinosaurs. They’re not living in the 21st century.
It has become increasingly obvious that this new communication format isn’t going anywhere. For better or worse, you must use social media. If you don’t, then you can’t reach people as directly and tap into what they most want and need.
