Social media has been called the modern era’s version of the town square; a place where communities congregate to share news and connect. In traditional communities location dictated who belonged, however in 2022 people, via social media, choose what town square they show up in.
In these spaces, they can curate who will be there, what will be discussed and, most importantly, who they will be listening to. For the marketer this makes social media an ideal tool for getting out a message; not only can you spread to word to a large audience but those audiences can be targeted so they only contain ideal listeners.
The social media world is full of people; People demonstrating their baking triumphs (or fails), advocating for their political causes and showing off the newest dance moves. With this vast and varied audience, marketers have two main ways of getting their message to the right people.
Partnering with an influencer – Here the work has already been done. An influencer with a large following has essentially grouped together a demographic with largely similar tastes and demographic qualities. Marketing a new hair product to teens? Find a 16-year-old with thousands watching her demonstrate the best way to braid and have her praise the product to her followers. In one simple step, the product has reached exactly the people who will buy it.
Creating a viral moment – A more labour-intensive move, but one with a huge potential payoff. A video, picture or story that both conveys the intended message and entertains can be shared millions of times, creating a huge audience. As these messages travel along social groups they benefit from the friend effect; namely that any message shared by a friend is inherently more trustworthy than any other source.
Social media is incredibly dynamic, and new tools are constantly being added to the savvy marketers’ arsenal. One of the more interesting trends in the past years has been the virtual event, where a platform like Twitter spaces act as a pseudo-event space. While this isn’t ideal for creating mass appeal, it is a great way to strengthen connections with pre-existing customers at a fraction of the cost of a real-life event. This is a great tool to reward loyalty and strengthen the community, who can then can go forth and spread the word. On their social media accounts of course.
Author Bio-
Margie Heaneythe has been helping people get more social media followers for their personal and brand accounts since 2013 and loves sharing her knowledge with others on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube marketing strategies,
