For years, marketing gurus have extolled the virtues of social media marketing. Reaching out to people over platforms like Twitter and Facebook seemed like one of the best ways to create deep and meaningful relationships with audiences. 

Businesses resisted the idea for a long time. Traditional marketing methods seemed so much more professional and low-risk. You could customize your marketing messages to reflect your predefined corporate image. And you could edit out anything that might impact reputation. 

Web-users - particularly millennials - however, had different ideas. They didn’t just want companies to spam them with corporate marketing messages. They wanted something more authentic. 

Social media, therefore, was the ideal platform. Here, companies had access to the entirety of their target market and could communicate with them one-on-one if they wished. What’s more, they were free to develop long-form marketing that explained more about their values. Memorable jingles and soundbites were no longer the aim of the game. 

According to data from Index and Empower, 45 percent of people used social media in 2019 globally. People are highly active on these platforms. A subset of users views social media platforms as the internet, rarely venturing outside of them. 

Firms, however, have been slow on the uptake. They’re used to one kind of marketing, but social media presents quite another. The traditional approach is to extract value from customers using advertising. Companies talk about their brands and then hope that customers listen and convert. 

Social media, though, is fundamentally changing the game. Firms now have to provide users with value if they want to stand any chance of gaining their attention. Advertising, therefore, is becoming more like outreach. It is offering customers something that enriches their lives - not just wastes their time. 

In general, this takes a couple of forms. The first is entertainment. Here the advertiser on social media attempts to get the customer to associate their brand by making them laugh or keeping their eyes glued to the screen. 

The second is through education. Marketers look for ways to teach their customers about their products and services in a way that benefits them. Therefore, a company that sells swimming pools might produce a video that helps people determine which type of pool to buy for their home. The hope is that the customer will eventually convert. 

Entertainment And Inspiration Have The Biggest Impact On The Bottom Line

Going back a few years, offering discounts through social media was the primary strategy companies used to pick up additional sales. Facebook and Instagram were a little bit like voucher websites - a place where you went for bargains. 

In the last year or so, however, there’s been a shift. Users don’t want money off or big discounts. Instead, they want entertainment and inspiration - a big turnaround from just a year earlier. 

The turnaround is probably starker than you’re imagining. Data suggests that twice the number of social media users prefer entertaining content to discount ads. It suggests that companies need to rethink the type of content they produce radically. Discounts aren’t profitable, but providing entertainment could be. 

Employee Advocacy Helps To Attract Top Talent

We’re also seeing a significant rise in the number of companies using employee advocacy to attract top talent. Here the idea is to use existing staff from the firm to talk about how great their work is so that new people will join. High-skill employees are much more likely to believe the words of the people who work for the firm already. Hiring managers just don’t have the same level of sway on their decision-making. 

In a sense, social media allows companies to offer budding candidate employees “social proof” (a bit like regular review scores). It is mimicking the insight that people can gain from services like Glassdoor, but providing your company with more control over the process. Employees are unlikely to say anything on social media that might damage your brand. 

Social Listening Helps To Understand Your Target Audience Better

Small businesses like to believe that they understand their target audiences, but rarely is that the case. Customers will hardly ever provide you with insightful, constructive feedback that allows you to push through problems. Instead, you often find yourself having to guess - and that’s not ideal. 

Using a digital marketing consultant, however, can help. The basic concept is to improve your “social listening” or your ability to interpret the needs and desires of your audience from their conversations on social media. 

Social listening isn’t as easy as it sounds. Usually, it requires using sophisticated software able to pick out sentiments. Typically, you need the help of an agency to set it up and point you in the correct direction. Once you get to grips with it, though, it can prove a massive boon to your enterprise. Being able to understand your audience's true desires provides you with a big leg up over the competition. 

How Marketers Use Social Media To Drive The Bottom Line

Social media, therefore, has turned a corner. In the past, only a small subset of companies say the outreach potential of these platforms. But, as time has worn on, more and more people are coming to terms with its benefits. 

Marketers are now developing systems that prioritize how they use social media platforms to maximize their revenues and boost their bottom lines. 

The main draw of social media is the opportunity to tap into a much larger audience. The potential reach of these platforms is genuinely staggering. Instagram and Whatsapp both have about a billion users. Facebook has two billion users. And Twitter has a lot of users who all share a particular political persuasion. 

Marketers also like social media because it allows them to sidestep the costs of paid ads. If you can create a compelling account, you can create a kind of tribe of customers and avoid spending loads of cash on attracting people from outside. Lead generation is a massive draw. 

Social media marketing, therefore, is no longer a gimmick. It’s downright profitable.