The ways of using social media are evolving. The expectation from social media is evolving. Change was and always will be constant in marketing, but the last year has been very aggressive with changes in social media. Social media growth in 2020 was insane. While the world was forced to remain physically distanced, social media bridged the gap and kept the world connected.
Helping Global Businesses and Brands Thrive
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Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, social media was looked at as a mere communication or networking tool. However, amid the global lockdown mandates, social media has been the fuel that’s propelling businesses forward and helping them widen their reach successfully. Clearly, social media has become a must for each and every brand in the post-pandemic world.
Popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc have become the most useful platforms for businesses to establish and grow their digital presence. Consequently, businesses have begun investing time and money into strategizing their social media plans. Brands have also started allocating more budgets for social media marketing as it is one of the best ways today to generate higher ROI.
Transitioning into a Customer Acquisition Tool
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Earlier, brands were using social media to achieve their objectives of brand presence, brand recognition, engagement, brand loyalty, listening, content promotion and advertising. But today, the primary expectation of most brands from social media is the ‘increased acquisition of new customers’. Several reports have suggested that social media is the most effective tool to boost traffic, get leads, and attract new customers in 2021. Thus, social media has evolved from being a platform that merely connects people, to a favourable lead generation platform!
Beneficial Platform Driving Positive ROI
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After transforming into a customer acquisition platform, social media is now in a race to drive positive ROI. The expectation from social media today is :
1. Short term objective of delivering ROI with targeted performance marketing.
2. Long term objective of building digital experiences to win loyalty with crisis response, social customer care and engagement, etc.
Another reason why social media is gaining prominence as an ROI tool is that new groups of audiences are becoming social media friendly. For example, marketers have always targeted baby boomers through traditional & conventional media and not social media as baby boomers were never on social platforms. It was like a generation ignored by digital marketers.
Interestingly, since the pandemic outbreak, baby boomers have started using social media platforms to connect with their friends and relatives. As a result, they are spending a large amount of time on social platforms than they did earlier. Hence brands are now seeking ways to target and attract this increasingly digitally savvy audience through social media.
The growth of social media in recent years, especially during 2020, has been staggering. The transformation of this medium from a simple networking platform to an ROI-generating tool has introduced new opportunities for businesses across the world. It will be interesting to see how social media evolves further and how the expectations from social media grow. Stay tuned to know more!
