The Importance of Social Media Marketing

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing and other concepts and techniques, which achieve specific behavioral goals.The main difference between social marketing and commercial marketing is their primary goal. While social marketing is focused on the social good, commercial marketing is interested primarily in financial benefit. The basic purpose of social marketing is to promote values and avoid demerit of values, thus it is considered to be focused on the well being of society as a whole. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits, avoid drinking while driving, etc.At the same time Social media marketing provides the platform to companies to expand the exposure of their work, products or services, and activities. Social marketers have to address the larger and diverse audience in order to be successful. Their command over voice and thoughts should be very good if they want to motivate the change of the individual behavior. It is difficult to sustain this until and unless there is support. With the help of social media support the social marketing program can be implemented and become effective. SMO, also known as Social Media Optimisation, provides additional channels for customer support and proves to be beneficial for an organization with a message to promote. It is widely used for competitive insight, recruitment and retention of new customers or business partners and is a method of managing reputation online. Social media marketing is a blend of marketing communication that works towards targeting the market and end-users. There are many Social networking websites that allow people to connect with their friends and share ideas, photos, videos, links and instant messages. This online service is quite popular among youngsters and older people alike as it brings friends together irrespective of distance and time. Social networking sites allow people to get in touch and chat with many people at the same time. Thanks to it the world has become a small place and makes it easier to connect with friends and family members without incurring huge costs in the form of telephone bills or travelling. Therefore, we find that social marketing is working for the awareness of people and promoting good causes. Social media marketing helps to reach larger audience and social networking sites allow companies to meet their target audience. Companies utilise these mediums to implement strategies for reaching out and connecting with their customers and feel the benefits in return.