Social Media is an Integral Part of your Marketing Mix

Why social media should be an integral part of your marketing mix

The use of social media as a marketing platform is evolving at a feverish pace, yet many companies continue to manage social media as a separate initiative, rather than as an integral part of their core marketing strategies.

According to the CMO Survey (via the Wall Street Journal’s CMO network) the overall level of social marketing integration has not increased significantly in the past four years, even though companies are planning to increase spending on social media marketing by 21.4% over the next five years.  It’s easy to understand this increasing investment when you consider the explosive growth of social media usage in recent years.

Compelling Social Media Statistics

Instagram Stats

• Instagram had over 1 billion active users in 2019; a 43% increase over two years.
• 130 million Instagram accounts tap on a shopping post to learn more about products every month.
• An estimated 71% of US businesses were on Instagram in 2018, and 1/3 of the most viewed stories are from businesses.
• 78% of Influencers Prefer Instagram for Brand Collaboration.

Facebook Stats (Source: Omnicore)

• Total users eclipsed 2.2 billion in 2019, with 1.6 billion being daily active users.
• 82% of college graduates are on Facebook.
• 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising regularly.
• Facebook Gets Over 8 Billion Average Daily Video Views.
• 5 billion comments are left on Facebook pages monthly.

LinkedIn Stats (as of 9/6/19; source Omnicore)

• 630 million total users, including 40 million students and recent college graduates
• LinkedIn is the #1 channel B2B marketers use to distribute content at 94%.
• 92% of B2B marketers include LinkedIn in their digital marketing mix.
• 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn vs. 13% on Twitter & 7% on Facebook.

Twitter Stats (source: Omnicore)

• 330 total active users (globally) send a total of 500 million tweets per day
• There are 262 million International Twitter users (users outside the US)
• 38% of Americans aged 18 to 29 use Twitter.
• 80% of Twitter users access the platform on a mobile device
• 56% of Twitter users $50,000 and more in a year.

TikTok

• Opens first European Data Center amid privacy concerns

Social Media Tips and Recommendations

Align social media channels with your target audience‍

Because it may not be practical to have a presence on all the social media channels, your company or brand should select the platforms that align with your target audience and brand positioning. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn users encompass a wide demographic, while Instagram and Snapchat cater to a more youthful base.

Social media as a conversion tool

‍Social media platforms, unlike traditional forms of marketing, allow you to engage and converse directly and regularly with your prospects and customers in a personal manner in real-time, building relationships, transparency and trust. More importantly to marketers, social media is a great tool to help move prospects along the customer journey, ultimately to conversion.  This is how most companies measure the ROI of social media marketing.

Optimize your social media posts

‍Have an SEO Strategy for social your posts. Each time you post a photo, video, or share an article, try to include a keyword at the beginning of the post. If there is ever a description field such as with Facebook, YouTube, and IGTV videos, add keywords. This will help elevate your ranking when people search for content related to your post on Google.

Track your social media activity

‍Properly setting up and tracking analytics on your social media activity will allow you to create actionable steps to keep improving and growing. We recommend setting up KPIs (key performance indicators) for each social media site your company is investing time in.

Create videos for your social media pages

‍Videos have clearly emerged as among the most powerful storytelling and selling tools in the social media space. Professional video production for social media is ideal, but sometimes a simple and casual video shot on your phone can help engage prospects and humanize your brand. We recommend including video in your social media posts at least once a week.

Enlist the help of social media strategy experts

‍To help increase and promote social media integration into the marketing mix, digital marketing gurus suggest adding social media experts to your branding and sales teams. Another solution is outsourcing social media initiatives to agencies that understand your company’s overall marketing strategy and specialize in creating integrated digital marketing campaigns.

Get results by integrating social media into your marketing mix

‍At ParkerWhite, we have long recognized the power of social media as an essential ingredient of our clients’ overall marketing mix.  As a result, we have merged social media strategies into a diverse range of successful integrated marketing campaigns for our clients in recent years. Here’s just one example.

Finance of America Reverse (FAR) wanted to change the negative perceptions and misconceptions about the reverse mortgage industry. Our task was to bring their vision to life with a complete overhaul of their brand, marketing communications, and lead generation strategies through an Integrated digital marketing campaign which includes a robust organic and paid social media strategy.

Bottom line summary

Integrating social media into your company’s marketing strategy can help you better track important customer metrics—segmentation, targeting, positioning, and go-to-market activities.  Social media can help you communicate a clear and consistent understanding of the value the company offers to its customers and how your company seeks to capture value from attracting and retaining those customers over time. 

Ready to learn more about effectively integrating social media into your company’s marketing strategy?  Let’s talk about your specific goals and challenges.