Ever wonder why certain advertisements appear in your social media feeds? Or why do people feel obligated to leave comments on social media posts? All of this is a component of social media marketing, which is a crucial tool for companies and digital marketers. Thanks to it, they may engage an audience and achieve business outcomes.
Using social media—the platforms where people create social networks and exchange information—to enhance a business's brand, boost sales, and improve website traffic is known as social media marketing, sometimes referred to as digital marketing or e-marketing. Along with giving businesses a means of connecting with current clients and attracting new ones, social media marketing (SMM) offers built-in data analytics that let marketers monitor the effectiveness of their campaigns and find new methods to interact.
The Importance of Social Media
Using social media, you can stay in touch with people. Sometimes we work so much daily and that’s why we cannot meet anyone. With social media, you can still keep up good communication with your loved ones or coworkers by sending them a quick text to enquire about their day or to share your accomplishments. Social media platforms have effectively bridged this communication gap.
We might not always be surrounded by people who share our viewpoints in our daily interactions. Differences of opinion are inevitable. On social media platforms, we may freely express our thoughts and even connect with like-minded others. This can even lay the path to having a productive conversation and developing a strong voice for the issues you believe need to be discussed.
Social media encompasses so much more than just branding, communication, and employment. Sometimes all we want is a little entertainment. Social media platforms provide tired people with personalized feeds with news, memes, and short clips of videos as per the user's activity. It provides people with the opportunity to take a short break from their busy work schedule.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
According to We Are Social, social media now has 5.22 billion users globally. This is almost 63.8% of the world’s population!
To better understand social media marketing, here we can list a few of the many benefits that are reflected in today's world.
- Increased brand awareness: Social media platforms can enable a business to reach a wider audience, increasing its visibility and reach.
- Increased Website Traffic: A business’s website can get a lot of traffic from social media. Businesses can increase their conversion rates by directing customers to their websites through the sharing of blog posts, product updates, or other valuable material on social media. Strategically placed links and call-to-action buttons can direct users to specific actions, such as buying something or subscribing to a newsletter.
- Customer loyalty: Businesses can monitor customer moods, quickly answer questions, and resolve issues before they get out of hand. Customers often value quick and effective responses to their issues, so this instant communication increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. A social media management tool like Planly can help you to easily engage with your customers.
- Better rankings: A business's search engine rankings can benefit from social media signals. Search engines are alerted that a business is authoritative and relevant when users engage with its material on social media.
- Increased sales: Social media provides a platform for you to promote your products and services, which can help increase your sales. Social media posts about your products and services can help you reach a wider audience and generate interest in what you offer.
- Brand credibility: Loyal customers will promote your brand on social media, which will give you credibility and help you attract followers. The more people talk about your brand, the more authority it becomes. Getting brand ambassadors or engaging with social media influencers can also help increase your visibility.
The Role of Social Media Marketer
As a social media marketer, you’re not just throwing together posts and uploading content over to a social media scheduler. That won’t get you anywhere. It’s about creating an engaging and interesting strategy while appealing to the right audience with the goal of achieving business goals. As a social media marketer, you need to fulfill a number of important roles, including:
- Crafting a Winning Content Strategy
Create a clear plan that outlines what type of content idea to create, what the important topics are, and when to post for maximum effect. Each piece of content has a specific purpose and supports the main goals.
- Knowing Your Audience Inside and Out
This involves knowing target demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences through in-depth research. Good strategy requires one to be sure of whom it is talking to and what that audience cares most about.
- Creating and Managing Irresistible Content
Design, curate, and manage scroll-stopping visuals, engaging videos, and shareable graphics. Whatever you publish will be of value and will speak louder for your brand story.
- Building and Caring for a Strong Community
Be the voice of the brand by speaking directly with the community. Listen, respond, and encourage the important conversations that create loyalty and trust.
- Owning Design and Branding
Oversee the development of all social media assets: channel logos, thumbnails, paid advertising, landing pages, blogs, and so much more. All design components need to be cohesive and identifiable.
- Building Relationships That Matter
Grow the community through thoughtful engagement and collaboration with influencers. Build real connections with your audience—grow your reputation and expand your reach.
As a social media marketer, you contribute to the broader marketing strategy, branding, customer engagement, and insights. At the same time, you must collaborate with other departments to drive overall goals and success.
How Social Media Marketing Drives Consumer Behavior in 2025
Marketers using social media have to understand the customer journey. It has five stages including awareness, interest, consideration, conversion, and retention. Social media plays an important role in these stages of the consumer journey.
- Awareness: This is the stage at which prospective customers become aware of a brand or product. Social media platforms are avenues through which brands reach out to great numbers with captivating content, ads, and partnerships with influencers, increasing their visibility.
- Interest: Once aware, consumers start looking for more information. Brands can ignite interest through the sharing of useful and relevant content that identifies with the needs and interests of their target audience.
- Consideration: This is where customers decide to purchase or not. Social media offers customer testimonials and reviews, enabling consumers to make educated purchase decisions.
- Conversion (Purchase): Though social media isn't all about hard selling, it does support conversions through integrated promotions, seamless shopping integrations, and solid calls to action.
- Retention: The key after the sale is to keep things going. Use social media to provide customer support, share updates, and build a community that breeds repeat business and loyalty.
Why It Matters to Marketers:
When it comes to helping your potential clients go through the marketing funnel, social media can be extremely important. Marketers should make sure that the right kinds of messaging and content are employed in the initial phases of the funnel in order to impact and guide consumers through the various stages of the consumer journey.
You may contribute to making sure that budgets are distributed appropriately by carefully considering the consumer journey. Metrics like reach and impressions, as well as secondary effects like profile visits and an increase in brand searches when people learn about your product or social campaign activity, can also be used to gauge success.
Understanding social media's role in the entire purchasing process enables you to comprehend how it affects the financial results of your multi-channel digital marketing initiatives. Keep in mind that social media marketing aims to raise awareness and encourage contemplation rather than necessarily increase direct purchases. People are more likely to think about your brand as a purchasing option when they're ready to make a decision if you employ community and brand activity to change perception.
Case study: IKEA
IKEA used “Shop Now” tags to link each of its visually appealing room setups posts to its online store. Users could browse and purchase products directly from these shoppable posts. Using a combination of static and video content, IKEA also used Instagram Stories to showcase its style advice.
The e-commerce site saw a 50% increase in visitors and a 25% increase in purchases made through Instagram. The campaign received 20 million impressions in a single month. When combined with shoppable features, social media can encourage lower-funnel action. Bridging the gap between consideration and action is achieved by combining motivational information with realistic purchase possibilities.
Case study: Duolingo
Duolingo has made extensive use of the eccentric, funny, and sometimes cheeky nature of its owl mascot. The company has managed to stay engaging and relevant by combining personal, short TikTok videos that encourage language acquisition with popular cultural events. They’ve built a strong sense of community by responding to comments frequently.
Duolingo saw a 12% increase in app downloads during the promotional period. Their network felt personally connected, as evidenced by a 40% increase in comments and shares on posts. Evaluation can be increased by using humor and cultural relevance in your social media approach. Direct audience interaction humanizes the brand and creates relatability.
