Social media marketing and social selling are indispensable tools for the success of any business in the digital era. Social media marketing involves the use of social media platforms and social networks to advertise and market a company’s services and products. Social selling communicates with potential customers via social media to achieve the company’s sales goals. It allows a business to focus on sales leads by interacting with the public in a less intrusive way than cold calling or by using traditional marketing and sales techniques.
The online Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing program from Lamar University can help professionals develop in-demand skills to prepare for roles in social media marketing and social selling. Engaging with existing customers and reaching out to new ones on social media platforms require effective strategies.
5 Best Ways to Achieve Effective Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing helps a business market its goods and services while promoting its brand, vision, voice and culture. This type of marketing helps businesses increase brand awareness, build engagement, advertise, provide customer service, monitor public opinion about the company, analyze performance and more. Here are five ways to maximize brand reach and ensure successful marketing outcomes:
- Set marketing goals. The first step is to establish marketing goals. By setting specific objectives, you can measure success and achieve real results.
- Get to know your audience. Understanding that different social media platforms attract different audiences is a good start. Focus on the platforms where your core audience is active.
- Create a calendar. Scheduling content guarantees the posts are published at the best times and spaced out accordingly based on past click data and engagement rates.
- Interact with your customers. Having genuine interactions with your audience via social media creates credibility and extra visibility.
- Track performance. When you look at performance metrics and track social media visitors, you’ll be able to tell what parts of your social media marketing tactics are working and not working. Evaluating social media campaigns can help you achieve your marketing goals.
How Does Social Media Marketing Overlap With Social Selling?
Social media marketing and social selling build a relationship between a company and potential customers. When a business acts as a resource, it can build credibility and trust. Both approaches provide value by interacting with an audience. The marketing side offers brand awareness and confidence, and the selling aspect targets a more personal interaction by answering questions, sharing content and responding to comments. Social media marketing can reach a large audience, while social selling involves a narrower focus that can target the specific, individual needs of a customer with a personal touch. Since the lines between social media marketing and social selling are blurred, the concepts will continue to interact and assist each other to spread brand awareness and trust while supporting a lifetime value for the company.
Next Steps
Lamar University’s online Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing program provides an opportunity to study digital marketing, market research and analysis, pricing theory, consumer behavior, import/export, promotional strategies, brand development and more. Students in this program will learn marketing research, market analysis, product promotion and valuable oral and written communication skills. By gaining highly sought-after abilities, graduates will be ready to work in a broad range of marketing roles in any business sector such as sales, advertising, media planning, account management, market research and product management. With multiple start dates, this online degree program can accommodate your busy schedule.
Learn more about Lamar University’s online Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing program.
