Social media marketing is important for your business in 2018, 2019 and the future

Marketing social media is getting more and more important now a days. In 2018, all companies should use social media marketing according to what the social media experts and influencers say. Social media is changing constantly, so says Mark Murdock with the following quote:

"It means being a lifelong learner. It’s become cliché to say that social media changes constantly, but just think about what you were doing two years ago versus today.´

Social media platforms 2018
There are many different platforms where social media marketing can used effectively. In the following chart, we can see all the platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and Snapchat. The Social media chart shows how marketers are currently using all of those platforms. Facebook is still the biggest platform for social media, as well for Business to Consumer (B2C) as for Business to Business (B2B). We can see LinkedIn, a more business wise platform scores very high on B2B social media marketing. Snapchat scores very low on social media marketing, because this platform mainly used between friends and not by businesses.

Choose wise
So we know which platforms are the most important, it is logic which platform to choose based on if you are a B2C or B2B company. However, it also depends on the resources you have. It is important to ask yourself; how many resources in time and money do I want to invest in social media marketing?  Big companies can be active on all the platforms and try to gain leads by all of them. For start-up, companies and small companies it would be a wise advice to focus on one or a few platforms.

What is the use of social media marketing?
There are more than 3 billion people using social media on a monthly base, so it is really a missed chance if a company does not use social media marketing. But what can social media do?
Social media can play an important part in the relationship with your company and the customers. You get more connected with the customers when you use social media marketing in the right way, without over using it. It is essential to keep your followers engaged and interested in your brand. You can achieve more sales and leads of your products with using social media marketing.

How to achieve your goal by social media marketing?
According to the marketing insider group, there are six rules you should follow when using social media:

1. Build awareness, what basically means that people get to know your company.
2. Communicate authority, so make sure that you have your social media and website filled with many useful and informative data.
3. Show authenticity, customers want to see original content and no fake or copied content.
4. Encourage engagement, you can do this by posting stories, or question and answer to your public.
5. Provide support; make It possible for customers to communicate with the social media accounts. Because now a days people prefer to talk with customer service by social media.
6. Grow affordably; Growing on social media can cost a lot of money, so use your money wise according to social media advertising. Only use your budget for what works and test it out.