Social Media, Marketing Lore, and You

Learning What Social Media Can do for You

In the digital age, you’d be hard-pressed to find a logical reason to ignore the potential of social media. Its influence is everywhere we turn; its scope stretching out from third-world countries to boardrooms across the globe, with innumerable companies clamoring to get in on the action. Taking only a few constraints in mind — mainly your budget and target audience — the modern entrepreneur should be vying for the lead in this marketplace rat race for the ages.

When it comes to social media marketing, the devil is in the details. Social media is a complicated machine, and you need to know what you’re doing at the controls if you want results.

You may be surprised to hear that 95 percent of adults ages 18-34 are most likely to follow a brand via social networking. With Facebook’s reach at 2.2 billion monthly users, you can’t ignore the possibilities for your brand. It’s estimated that 34 percent of the world population is on social media — that’s 2.56 billion people.

You need to know the right social networking site for your product or service. Plus, by utilizing a visual medium — like images or videos — for your initiatives, you’re 40 times more likely to get your work shared on social media. There are optimum times to post, too: for example, 3 p.m. on Wednesdays has been proven as the time slot most likely to yield high traffic on Facebook.

If you approach social media strategically, and with a little knowledge, you will be reaching your target audience in ways you could’ve never imagined with other forms of advertising.