06 May Why Social Media Marketing Matters
The use of the Internet has grown worldwide, and Internet connectivity is growing faster than ever on the African continent. According to a United Nations report, Africa has the world’s highest growth in terms of the move from fixed telephone lines to mobile devices.
For brands, this means that there is a whole new audience that can be accessed through new methods of marketing and advertising. The use of traditional marketing as the only way to advertise is now being replaced with a diversity of methods, including social media. There are many benefits to using social media advertising to complement or enhance your traditional advertising campaign. To remain competitive and present, your company or organization needs to embrace the new world of social media.
Targeting your audience.
Social media marketing helps brands advertise to a more targeted audience. Most social media platforms can help target an audience that is most likely going to respond, engage or buy the product or service that is being offered. With traditional advertising, making use of a billboard or television advertisement does not necessarily guarantee that you will be reaching a specific audience that one has in mind. With social media, there are algorithms that can help a brand to ensure that it is reaching the correct audience and the returns on the advertising are easily measured.
Faster analysis of results.
Social media marketing can be measured almost immediately. This means that the impact, or how far your advertising campaign has reached, can be measured faster. While traditional advertising has its benefits, an analysis of the consumer reach can take a longer period of time, depending on what platform, such as radio or television, has been used. Social media platforms each have different ways of measuring engagement levels, as well as enabling brands to use the insights found in these measurements to see if a campaign is working or not. Social media engagement is measured through shares, likes, comments, and saves.
Costs
The cost of advertising on social media is lower than that of traditional advertising. But that does not mean that print, radio, or television are not a necessary platform for advertising for any company – it remains an important space in any marketing campaign.
The cost for a social media campaigns is attributed to time and labour, is effective and can reach an audience that is targeted towards always responding to your brand. That is what a good marketing campaign needs to be able to do: to reach the desired consumer, and to make sure that your money is put to good use.
The digital space is growing exponentially in Africa. This means that, now more than ever, brands need to rethink their marketing budgets to include advertising on social media. There will always be a space for traditional advertising and the benefits it offers, but the global reach and benefits of social media marketing continues to show significant promise and success.