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The Covid-19 pandemic limited meet-and-greets but encouraged likes and tweets. When the world came to a standstill, the only thing that kept individuals entertained and businesses in the game was social media among other digital platforms. Now, social media marketing drives digital connections by bringing customers and businesses on the same platform. 

The most interesting part is that social media did not replace any form of marketing, but it expanded its capabilities to be used as a marketing channel. Owning to users’ interest in visual aids, social media platforms brought in video-based marketing. Similarly, owing to eCommerce trends, social media brought in social selling. 

3 years and one pandemic later, social media has taken up an important role in digital marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. Apart from brand building, social media is a place your business can truly connect with the target audience and form a long-lasting connection. 

Let’s see some of the ways social media marketing drives connections. 

Meme-Marketing 

A meme is a picture (typically picked from interviews, movies or a TV show) that spreads online with the purpose to spread humour. A meme is propagated when it strikes a chord with a large number of people via social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, messaging, and more. 

Meme-marketing for businesses brings together facts and adds humour with the intention to make users laugh and relate to it. Irrespective of what you do for a living, a relatable meme would make you laugh and has a high potential for getting reshared among friends, family and communities. A great meme has the potential to go viral and usually boosts the engagement rate of the social media account. 

If your business or brand’s meme-marketing campaigns are perceived as relatable and humorous by the audiences, there are high chances they would want to see more of it. This is how meme-marketing can contribute to forming lasting relationships with target audiences. 

Influencer Collaboration

While choosing the right social media platform for marketing, you may want to consider the opinion leaders, also commonly known as “influencers” of the social media platform. 

Collaborating with influencers on Twitch for marketing is different from doing the same on a platform such as Instagram or Snapchat. However, with influencer marketing and collaboration on social media platforms, you can expedite the process of forming social connections with your target audiences. 

If you are able to collaborate with an influencer that shares the same interests and values as your business does, you can be assured that their followers also have similar interests. This is a great way to put your brand out in the market and attract prospects that you can convert into customers. A brand endorsement from a social media influencer can go a long way if the influencer who is marketing your brand has a loyal follower base. 

Finding influencers can be tricky and negotiating with them requires a bit of experience. If you are not prepared to create an influencer marketing campaign, take the help of a social media marketing agency to help with this for the first few times. 

Direct Feedback & Follow-Up 

We no longer live in an era where having the phone number or email address of your target audience simplified things. In fact, things have become much simpler and easier for businesses and brands. 

Take the example of Instagram Shopping. Say a customer has purchased a product from you and you want honest and direct feedback from them. Since they shopped from their Instagram account, sending them a direct message would help you in attaining valuable and direct feedback from the customer themselves. All you have to do is, direct message (DM) them and before you know it, you’ll be striking a meaningful conversation with them about the experience they had purchasing from you. 

Directly messaging target audiences and prospects can help you create a long-lasting connection which would make it easier for you to guide them in their purchase journey by introducing them to new offerings, getting feedback and following up with them. 

Customer Participation 

To be honest, customers are the real marketers of a business. The very first type of marketing that a new business sustains is word-of-mouth marketing. This works when the first few customers of your business talk about your product or service to their friends, families and colleagues. Word-of-mouth costs little to nothing for a business and yet it is the most effective marketing tool. 

Social media marketing enables word-of-mouth marketing and facilitates your customers to share feedback on your product or service on their personal social media networks. They can do this by tagging their friends on your social media posts, mentioning your business on their accounts or simply posing with your product. This is also called user-generated content (UGC), which is an extension of word-of-mouth. 

If your customers truly enjoy their purchase, they will be intrinsically motivated to tell everyone about their experience via social networks. This will not only improve your brand visibility but also increase your credibility in the market. This results in a cascading effect on your marketing and forms a deeper connection with your customers and target audiences. 

Are you motivated to start an active social media account for your business? Do it now because you might already be late. Take the help of a digital marketing agency to show you the ropes of how you can integrate social media with other marketing strategies for your business. 

All the best!