Social media marketing facts for kids

Social media marketing is how businesses use websites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to tell people about their products or services. It's a popular way for companies to connect with customers and share what they offer.

Many social media platforms have special tools that help companies see how well their marketing is working. They can track how many people see their posts, click on links, or talk about their products. Companies use social media to reach many different groups, including customers, future employees, journalists, and the general public.

When companies use social media marketing, they often let customers and other internet users share their own thoughts. This could be comments online or reviews of products. This is sometimes called "earned media" because it's like free advertising from happy customers.

Popular Social Media Platforms

Connecting on Social Networks

Social networking websites are places where people, businesses, and groups can talk to each other and build online communities. When a company joins these sites, customers can chat with them directly. This can feel more personal than old-fashioned advertising.

These sites are great for spreading news by "word of mouth," but online! Because the internet reaches so many people, a message can travel far and fast. When people share or "repost" comments about a product, even more people see it. This helps bring more attention to the product or company.

Social networks also help businesses understand what customers like. Marketers can look at what people share and the questions they ask online. This helps them create ads that are just right for certain groups of people. In 2014, over 80% of business leaders said social media was a key part of their work.

Some well-known social networking sites include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Threads.

Marketing on Mobile Phones

Mobile phones have changed how people shop. Now, it's easy to find prices and product details instantly.

QR codes are like special barcodes that you can scan with your phone. They quickly take you to a company's website, special offers, or product information. Mobile phones are very popular, with billions of people using them around the world.

Smart Ways to Use Social Media

Companies use social media in two main ways: by listening and by actively sharing.

Listening to Customers (Passive Approach)

Social media is a great way for companies to learn what customers think. Blogs, online communities, and forums are places where people share reviews and ideas about products. Businesses can read these comments to understand what customers like or what problems they might have.

This is like getting free market intelligence. It's much faster and cheaper than traditional surveys or focus groups. For example, when some people found that the iPhone 6 could bend, many videos and pictures appeared online. Apple quickly responded, explaining that the problem was rare and that they had made the phone stronger. This shows how companies can use social media to quickly address customer concerns.

Talking to Customers (Active Approach)

Companies also use social media to talk directly to specific groups of people. They often work with social media influencers – people who are popular online and have many followers. These influencers share messages about products or services in a real and honest way. This is called influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is very effective because people often trust the opinions of their favorite online personalities. Brands spent a lot of money on influencer marketing in 2022 because it helps them reach their target audience in a genuine way.

Social media can target very specific groups. For example, using tools like Google AdSense, advertisers can show ads to people interested in video gaming or social entrepreneurship. This is much more precise than ads on TV or in newspapers.

Social networks are also a quick way to reach many people. Imagine an athlete who promotes a sports brand. Their millions of fans might be interested in what they wear or use. Now, fans can see the athlete's latest gear online with just a click, often advertised directly on their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

How Algorithms Help

In recent years, social media platforms have started using algorithms to decide what content users see.

TikTok is a great example. It has become one of the fastest-growing apps, with over 1.5 billion users, many of whom are children and teenagers. TikTok's algorithm recommends videos based on what users have watched, liked, and shared before. This "For You" page helps content creators, big or small, get their videos seen by many people.

This is very helpful for small businesses using TikTok for marketing. By following trends and using hashtags, anyone can promote themselves and reach new audiences worldwide. Because TikTok's content is mostly videos and images, it's very engaging for young users, making it a powerful tool for influencer marketing.

Getting People Involved (Engagement)

When customers and others are "engaged" on social media, it means they are actively participating, not just watching. For example, people might join groups that support or criticize companies. Social media lets everyone share their thoughts about a company's products, services, or actions.

Every person who comments or reviews online becomes part of a company's marketing effort. Their positive or negative comments can influence other customers. Getting people to actively participate online is key to successful social media marketing.

With social media marketing, it's important to get customers interested in products. This interest can lead to them buying things. New ideas like "engagement" and "loyalty" have grown, aiming to build customer participation and a good brand reputation.

Engagement on social media has two parts:

• Proactive posting: Regularly sharing new content like photos, videos, text, and conversations. This also includes sharing links and information from others.
• Reactive conversations: Responding to users who comment or message your social media profiles.

Successful Social Media Campaigns

Business use of social media in the UK

Helping Local Businesses Grow

Small businesses use social media to promote themselves. They can offer special deals, like "get a free drink with a copy of this tweet," to encourage local people to follow them. This helps the business get noticed.

Small businesses also use social media to get ideas for new products. By asking customers for feedback, they can learn if a new product will be popular before making a lot of it. This makes customers feel involved in creating products.

Sites like LinkedIn also help small businesses find people to hire. And review sites like Yelp help businesses build a good reputation, as positive customer reviews often influence new customers more than ads.

Nike's #MakeItCount Campaign

In 2012, Nike launched its "Make It Count" social media campaign. It started with YouTubers Casey Neistat and Max Joseph, who made a video traveling to many cities and countries. They promoted the hashtag #makeitcount, which millions of people shared on Twitter and Instagram with their own photos and messages. The video became very popular, and Nike saw a big increase in profits that year.

Why Companies Use Social Media Marketing

One main reason companies use social media is to be easy to reach for people interested in their products. It also helps them be seen by those who don't know about their products yet. Companies use social media to create excitement, learn from customers, and target specific groups. It's a way to connect with customers at every step of their shopping journey.

Social media marketing has other benefits too. Many things that help a website show up high in Google search results are linked to social media activity. This means if brands aren't active on social media, they might not appear as often in Google searches.

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which focus on sharing pictures and videos, often get more interaction than text-based sites. Unlike traditional advertising (like TV ads) which can be very expensive, a social media strategy can be much cheaper, often costing little to nothing for basic use. This has changed how companies talk to customers, as many conversations now happen online where more people can see them. Customers can post reviews, rate service, and ask questions directly to companies.

Over 80% of consumers use the internet to research products. So, businesses use social media to build trust with customers. Some companies even hire special staff, called online community managers, just to handle these online interactions. Good interactions can make customers trust a company more.

Twitter/X for Quick Updates

Twitter (now known as X) lets companies share short messages, called tweets, up to 280 characters long. These appear on followers' timelines. Companies also use Twitter to help customers with questions or problems.

Facebook for Detailed Information

Facebook pages are more detailed than Twitter accounts. Companies can share videos, photos, longer descriptions, and customer stories. Followers can comment on these pages for others to see. As of May 2015, most business marketers used Facebook to promote their brand.

However, Facebook has changed how much content from business pages reaches people for free. This means companies often need to pay to make sure their posts are seen by a larger audience.

LinkedIn for Professional Connections

LinkedIn is a professional networking site. Companies can create profiles for themselves and their business to connect with others in their industry. They can use "Company Pages" to promote products and services and talk with customers.

WhatsApp for Direct Messages

WhatsApp is a popular messaging app used by billions of people. It lets companies send personalized messages to individual customers. It's a cost-effective and quick way to share promotions, and messages are private with end-to-end encryption. As of 2019, WhatsApp did not allow businesses to place ads directly in the app.

Yelp for Reviews

Yelp lists many business profiles. People can search for businesses by location. Users can write reviews and rate businesses on a five-star scale. This helps customers decide where to shop and helps businesses build their reputation.

Instagram for Visual Stories

The Instagram app

Instagram is a very visual platform. In May 2014, it had over 200 million users. People interact with brands much more on Instagram compared to Facebook or Twitter, making it a powerful tool for showing off products with pictures and videos.

Snapchat for Quick, Fun Messages

Snapchat is an app where pictures and messages usually disappear after a short time. This makes it a fun and quick way for brands to share exciting, temporary content.

YouTube for Videos

YouTube is a huge platform for videos. Advertisements on YouTube can be targeted to specific viewers using Google Ads. Companies can also pay for their own special "channels" to promote their products or services with videos.

TikTok for Short, Engaging Videos

TikTok launched in 2016 and quickly became one of the most popular social media apps, with over 1 billion users worldwide. It's mainly used on mobile phones and lets users post short, creative video content, which is great for engaging young audiences.

Blogs for Detailed Information

A Wordpress blog

Blogs are online journals where companies can share longer descriptions of products, stories, and links to their social media. Studies from 2009 showed that people often find information from bloggers more trustworthy than traditional ads. Blogs can be updated often to keep customers interested and attract new followers.

Tumblr for Creative Posts

Tumblr is a blogging website that started showing ads in 2012. Instead of simple banner ads, Tumblr asks advertisers to create their own blogs. The content from these blogs can then be featured on the site.

Types of Ads on Tumblr

• Sponsored mobile post – These are ads (from advertiser blogs) that show up on a user's feed when they are on a phone or tablet. Users can like, reblog, and share them.
• Sponsored web post – These are larger ads that appear on a user's feed when they are on a computer. Users can also like, reblog, and share these.
• Sponsored radar – The "Radar" highlights creative posts from the Tumblr community. Advertisers can pay to have their posts shown here, reaching many users and gaining new followers.
• Sponsored spotlight – The "Spotlight" is a directory of popular blogs. Advertisers can list their blog in one of many categories to help users discover them.

These posts can include images, photo sets, animated GIFs, videos, audio, and text. To help users know which posts are ads, promoted posts have a dollar sign in the corner.

Examples of Tumblr Campaigns

To promote the 2013 movie Monsters University, Disney/Pixar created a Tumblr account called MUGrumblr. It pretended to be run by a student from Monsters University, sharing memes, GIFs, and photos related to the movie.

In 2014, Apple made a Tumblr page to promote the iPhone 5c. It was called "Every color has a story" and featured different colors representing the phone. When a color was clicked, a short video played, showing off the phone's features.

How Marketing Works on Social Media

Social media marketing uses social networks, what customers do online related to brands, and "electronic word of mouth" (eWOM) to advertise. Sites like Facebook and Twitter give advertisers clues about what their customers like. This helps businesses find their "target audience."

When you upload a picture of your new Converse sneakers to Facebook, that's an example of what customers do online. Online recommendations, like a hotel review, are eWOM. A good review gives the hotel free advertising, but a bad review can hurt its reputation.

Since the rise of social media and smartphones, "word-of-mouth" marketing has become very powerful. Businesses know that people are influenced by small groups, often led by popular online personalities or "influencers." These influencers have many followers who trust their opinions.

Working with Influencers

Chiara Ferragni is a fashion influencer and blogger known for her sponsored fashion posts.

Marketers often work with influential people on social media, known as influencers. These people are seen as leaders because of their many followers. When an influencer promotes a product, they share messages with their audience through posts, making the product or brand seem more trustworthy.

Influencers help brands get more customers by promoting products in an honest way. This is why brands find working with influencers to be a smart idea. Influencer marketing works well because it uses real, shareable content to reach many people and often brings good results for the company.

Marketers understand that "consumers are more likely to believe other individuals" they trust. Influencers can share their own thoughts about products. They have a strong following because their opinions are valued. They can review products, which can be positive or negative. When an influencer supports a brand by posting a photo, video, or review, their followers might be influenced to buy the product because they trust the influencer. This helps spread word-of-mouth among friends and family.

Changes to Traditional Advertising

Less Use of Old Methods

Traditional advertising includes ads in print (like newspapers) and on television. The Internet has now become the biggest place for advertising.

Websites often have banner or pop-up ads. Social networking sites don't always have ads; instead, products have their own pages and can talk directly with users. TV commercials often tell viewers to visit a product's website for more information. Advertising is moving from old ways to new digital ones.

While traditional media is still around, social media marketing has become much more popular.

Fast Spreading News (Leaks)

One challenge for traditional advertising is how quickly things can "leak" online. Videos and print ads are often shared on the internet before they are officially released. Social networking sites can make these leaks spread very fast, reaching many users quickly.

Time differences can also be a problem. For live events broadcast on TV, people on the west coast of the United States might see it later than those on the east coast. But social media allows everyone to comment on the event live. This means west coast viewers might learn the results before they see them on TV. The 2011 Grammy Awards showed this problem clearly.

Learning from Mistakes (Mishaps)

Because the internet spreads information so quickly, a mistake by one employee can sometimes cause big problems for a company.

• In 2011, designer Kenneth Cole made a mistake on Twitter. He tweeted about his new spring collection, linking it to the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Many people online were upset, and Kenneth Cole quickly apologized for the tweet.
• In 2012, during Hurricane Sandy, Gap sent a tweet telling followers to stay safe but also encouraged them to shop online with free shipping. People thought this was insensitive, so Gap removed the tweet and apologized.
• Other examples include a McDonald's Twitter hashtag in 2012 that attracted many complaints from customers, and a 2011 tweet from a Chrysler Group employee that was seen as insulting. These incidents show how quickly mistakes can spread and affect a company's image online.

Being Fair and Honest (Ethics)

The rules for being ethical in traditional marketing also apply to social media. But because social media is so personal and global, there are new challenges. A sensitive topic for social media professionals is how to use personal data properly. With social media, marketers can see not just basic information about people, but also what they like, how they interact online, and what they need.

Being ethical on social media means being honest about marketing campaigns, avoiding false advertising, respecting user privacy (not using private information for personal gain), treating people with dignity online, and taking responsibility for any mistakes. Many social media marketers use sites like Facebook to send people to other websites.

While it's ethical to use social media to share messages with genuinely interested people, some try to trick the system with spam. However, social networking sites are getting better at finding and banning those who do this.

Social media platforms collect information about their users to connect with them. For example, Facebook has worked on advertising systems that use the information people share on the site to show them specific ads. Some people might not like this because they feel it invades their privacy. Others might enjoy it because they get ads for things they are truly interested in.

People who make their social media profiles public should know that advertisers might use their interests to send them information and ads. Managers use social media to build relationships and talk with customers. This is an ethical way to share messages about products.

Since social media marketing began, marketers have become smarter about collecting information and showing ads. Companies like Equifax and TransUnion collect and share personal information from social media users. In 2012, Facebook bought information from many households from a company called Datalogix to create a more effective advertising service. For some users, this feels like a privacy concern, but there are no laws preventing these companies from using information shared on their websites.

See also

• Integrated marketing communications
• Internet marketing
• Social media optimization
• Social media spam
• Social video marketing
• Visual marketing
• Web 2.0
• internet celebrity
• Social media analytics