Mahmud still wakes up every day and first checks Facebook and other social media platforms. When he starts scrolling through the Facebook app, instead of seeing just a couple of posts, he immediately encounters an advertisement. He often sees these advertisements. Without scrolling much further, he finds himself seeing advertisements again in sequence. However, this is different from before. When he went to check Messenger, the same thing happened. After viewing four to five “Days,” he noticed an advertisement interspersed between them. This wasn’t always the case on Messenger. However, now, even on Messenger, Mahmud has to see ads from the Facebook app.
Mahmud’s experience is familiar to those around us. It happens to all of us incessantly. But have any of us ever questioned why this happens? Yes, this is solely due to digital marketing. We call it social media marketing because it takes place on social media. Today’s topic is social media marketing.
Table of Contents
- What is social media marketing?
- Why is social media marketing popular?
- Marketing on popular social media platforms
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing (SMM) involves sharing content on social media platforms with the aim of marketing and branding. This can include posting text, videos, and images to build an audience and market products or services. To achieve greater reach, social media platforms offer paid advertising options.
We abbreviate social media marketing as SMM. In our discussion, we will use SMM instead of writing out social media marketing repeatedly for the sake of brevity and readability. We trust that readers will understand this abbreviation.
Why is social media marketing popular?
Social media marketing, or SMM, is a crucial part of digital marketing. Before diving into SMM, it’s essential to understand what social media is. Social media refers to websites or applications that enable users to connect with friends and engage in social networking.
Approximately 51% of the world’s population is active on social media. 3.96 billion people, on average, spend 144 minutes per day on social media, according to research. Excluding children under the age of 13, statistics show that 65% of the world’s population uses social media.
From a user perspective, the Philippines leads the statistics, with people spending an average of three hours and 53 minutes per day on social media. The United States is also notable, with Americans spending an average of two hours and three minutes daily. Additionally, over one million people globally join social media platforms every day.
These statistics highlight the immense popularity of social media. With so many people spending their valuable time on these platforms daily, it presents a fascinating opportunity for marketers. The large user base allows for easy access to a large audience, which explains why social media marketing is so popular.
Popular Social Media Platforms for Marketing
In this section, we will discuss some promising social media platforms from a marketing perspective.
Facebook When thinking about social media platforms, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook. According to the Sprout Social Index, Facebook remains the most used social media platform by both marketers and consumers globally. Here are some key notes:
- 89% of marketers worldwide use Facebook for marketing.
- 83% of consumers (users) use this platform.
- 66% of users follow their favorite brands on Facebook.
- On average, 2.5 million people are active on Facebook each month.
- Live marketing has become highly popular, with Facebook being the most booming platform for it. Around 42% of marketers prepare their live program content specifically for Facebook Live.
- On average, each brand shares 0.97 pieces of content on Facebook, with marketers promoting more than six posts per week. The engagement rate, or the number of reactions per post, is about 0.09%.
By looking at these statistics, we can get an idea of the market scope—how much time people spend on each social platform and the engagement rates. This knowledge is essential for any marketer.
Instagram is a social platform that has gained immense popularity in a short time. It is known for its dynamism and ability to introduce new features quickly, making it a favorite among users. The more users a platform has, the more valuable it becomes from a marketing perspective. Instagram has become a fast-growing social media platform, ranked second in popularity among marketers.
- Currently, Instagram has over 1 billion active users per month, up from around 700 million in 2017, showing a significant increase in popularity over the past three years.
- Most users follow their favorite brands on Instagram. Statistics show that 90% of users follow at least one brand.
- Instagram is particularly popular for influencer marketing, with 89% of influencer marketers considering it the most suitable platform. In a future post, we plan to discuss influencer marketing in detail.
- 78% of people believe that Instagram is effective for content boosting through posts, and 73% think Instagram Stories are more effective for influencer marketing.
- In 2019 alone, Instagram’s followers grew by approximately 9-16%, indicating a large and growing user base.
- About 500 million people check Instagram Stories daily.
- Marketing spending on Instagram was $23 billion in 2018, rising to $28 billion the following year, and reaching $34 billion in 2020. This shows a substantial amount of money being spent on marketing on Instagram.
- Video marketing is particularly effective on this platform. Statistics show that video engagement rates are 49% higher compared to photo posts.
Instagram is a highly popular platform for those interested in digital marketing or social media marketing.
Twitter has consistently managed to retain a large elite user base. Some of the world’s most influential personalities use Twitter as their social media platform of choice. Therefore, marketing strategies on Twitter are somewhat different and can be more costly. Despite the limitation on post length, Twitter’s user base remains strong. According to Oberlo, Twitter has 330 million monthly active users, with 145 million daily active users. Most Twitter users are older, between the ages of 35-65, making up 63% of its total user base.
- 79% of people visit Twitter at least once to enjoy the “What’s New” feature, which makes it easy to discover trending topics worldwide.
- 330 million people check Twitter at least once a month.
- 26% of users feel comfortable viewing ads on Twitter.
- Each brand posts an average of 0.86 posts, with more than five posts per week.
- The engagement rate per post is 0.048%.
- Twitter’s revenue grows by an average of 9% per year. In the third quarter of 2019 alone, its revenue increased by $824 million.
- Twitter’s revenue is increasing by 24% in the United States and 12% worldwide annually.
Currently, Pinterest holds a very strong position from a marketing perspective. Most of its users have buying intentions, meaning they use Pinterest primarily to search for products to purchase. To clarify for readers, buying intention refers to searching the internet to buy a product. On Pinterest, users often search for home decor products, unique recipes, gifts, and DIY crafts. These are mostly buying intention searches. Let’s look at some impressive statistics about Pinterest.
- Pinterest has around 300 million active users monthly.
- These active users pin over 200 billion posts on average, more than any other digital platform.
- 77% of users discover new brands and products from their pins weekly, which helps Pinterest retain its regular users.
- 98% of surveyed users report using Pinterest to find new things.
- Pinterest’s user base grows by over 30% annually, making the community stronger each day. In the second quarter of 2019, its revenue reached $261 million.
- The popularity of Pinterest in digital marketing is increasing daily, and the platform is creating a substantial audience. Most clients today want their products posted on Pinterest.
LinkedIn is a completely different type of social media platform, used primarily by professionals. This platform is used by B2B marketers, employees, and job seekers, making it very important from a marketing perspective. Here are some more insights:
- LinkedIn has 660 million registered users and 303 million monthly active users.
- 90 million users are senior-level influencers, and 63 million are decision-makers.
- LinkedIn is considered the best website for lead generation, with leads being 277% more effective than those from Facebook.
- 45% of marketers acquire customers through the LinkedIn platform.
- 65% of B2B companies run paid ads on LinkedIn to target customers.
- 95% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic content marketing.
- In 2018, LinkedIn’s revenue was $5.2 billion, rising to $6.7 billion a year later.
Marketing through these social media platforms is highly prevalent because they are the major social media platforms. We conclude today’s post here. We hope this content will be of some help to you. Feel free to leave comments about what you liked or didn’t like. Goodbye for now, and stay well.