Social media started as an entertainment tool but now it has evolved to become a powerful marketing tool. While serving its primary purpose of connecting people, social media also plays a major role in connecting marketers with customers.

The United States is, by far, the largest social media advertising market in the world, as more than 14.8 billion U.S. dollars were spent on social media ads in the country in 2016 alone. Social media marketing in the US has helped grow a large audience for small and medium businesses.

According to Statista, about 91% of American use social media in 2019.

History of Social Media

The advent of the internet gave birth to online communication that shaped the early history of social media. When the internet found its way into public in the 1990s, it gave birth to the idea of the personal computer. More people started using the internet at home.

Yahoo messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and MSN Messenger were the first social media sites. The origin of social sites such as Hi5, Orkut, Facebook, and Twitter gave birth to the new age of social media. The launch of Instagram in 2010 helped social media reach its zenith.

The marketing in real terms started when Facebook launched advertising in 2016. It allowed marketers to place a targeted advertisement that helped to generate leads through social media sites.

Back in 2005, social media penetration in the U.S. was just 5%, and most of the world was still unfamiliar with the concept of social media.

Importance of Social Media Marketing for Small Business

The popularity of social media has helped the small and medium business to gain leverage in terms of marketing, sales, and branding. With more customers using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram, the benefits of social media marketing for small and medium businesses remains like an untapped large resource.

Although the impact made by social media is both positive and negative, the positive always exceeds the negative aspects.

a. Improved Brand Awareness

The prime objective of business marketing is to increase brand awareness. The popularity of any brand is its greatest asset. Social media sites help to increase your business’ visibility and increase your outreach to more people.

Social media marketing is one of the most cost-efficient digital marketing methods today, hence, it has become the most used online tool to syndicate content and increase the audience base. Like, Share, and Re-share is the three most powerful elements of any social media. Implementing the right social media strategy will not only increase your brand recognition but help to decrease the overall marketing cost.

Almost Three Billion people around the world use Social Media.

b. Cost-Effective

The prime objective of every marketing is to increase brand awareness. The popularity and reliability of any brand is its greatest asset. Social media helps to increase your business’ visibility and increase its outreach to more audience.

Social media marketing is one of the most cost-efficient digital marketing methods today, hence, it has become the most used online tool to syndicate content and increase the audience base. Like, Share, and Re-share is the three most powerful elements of any social media. Implementing the right social media strategy will not only increase your brand recognition but help to decrease the overall marketing cost.

c. Engage with your customer

Social media is the best channel to engage with your customers. With most people using social media on a daily basis, you can interact with them through engaging posts, videos, chats, and polls. It’s also easy to receive feedback from your customer through comments.

Social media is the best way to engage and interact with your customers. The more you communicate with them, the more chances you have of conversion. Set up a two-way communication with your target audience so you can best cater to their needs. Moreover, communication and engagement are one of the ways to win their attention and loyalty.

d. Higher Conversion

Marketing is goal-centric. The ultimate goal of being engaging more users for higher conversion. With increased visibility, brand awareness, and customer satisfaction comes to an increase in sales.

Personalization and personifying are two great tools of Social media marketing that helps your business to make a positive impact through a humanization factor. The closer the message is to your customer, the higher the chances they will engage with you. Personifying helps to re-image the brand as a human that actually interacts with people, inquire about their troubles, and share informative news.

Social media has a better trust-factor than any other marketing tools in the world, thanks to people’s reliability on social media for entertainment, business, and communication.

Over 51% of marketers claimed that taking the time to develop relationships with consumers showed positive results in sales.

As reported by Social Media Examiner, about 66% of marketers saw lead generation benefits by using social media platforms at least 6 hours per week.

e. Cost Effective Marketing

Social media marketing is possibly the most cost-efficient marketing in the world. Anyone with internet can sign-up for social media accounts use them for free. A business can build a corporate page on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Instagram completely free of cost. The only stuff you have to pay for are paid advertising and campaigns targeted to grow likes, followers, or the audience.

It is cost-effective also because you can see a greater return on investment in a smaller budget or expenses. Advertising on social media tends to be cheaper than using Google Adwords.

Social media sites like Facebook offers market data and demographics that help to fine-tune your marketing campaign. Optimized marketing campaigns help to lessen the overall cost of advertising.

f. Customer satisfaction

With most people using social media on their smartphone and laptop on a daily basis for either work or entertainment, engaging with them through Social media is easier. They appreciate knowing that when they post comments on your social media pages they will receive a personalized response rather than an automated message. Being able to acknowledge each feedback shows that you are attentive of your visitors' needs and aim to provide the best experience.

Customers demonstrate strong voice. If they dislike any service or a business, they will share their experience in social media that will be read by thousands of readers. This can turn your marketing process in a disaster. Rather than earning profits, you’ll be spending on damage-control instead.

A brand devoted to customer satisfaction will excel for a long time.

The State of Social Media in Small Business