Has Social Media Killed Marketing?

Today I had one of those serendipitous moments when I’m scheduled to write a blog about using Social Media for business marketing, and a post appears on LinkedIn asking the question, “What’s wrong with Marketing…. Has Social Media killed it?”

Well, thank goodness, because I had reluctantly been planning on writing about Threads – the new social media platform from Meta, owners of Facebook, that was set up to compete with Twitter (or X, as we now should call it!)

We now know that if I was going to write about Threads, I should have done it last month because, after a flurry of sign-ups, accumulating 100 million users inside 5 days, the usage on Threads crashed so fast that it resembles the apocalyptic wastelands in the 1980’s post-nuclear drama of the same name!

I digress…. Has social media killed marketing? Sure it has, don’t worry about the boring things like looking at your offering, finding your niche target market, discovering their wants and needs, and finding out where they are and what channels they use. That’s all old hat!

Make a video of you and your team doing a dance, pop it on TikTok and wait for those sales enquiries to come flooding in!

NB: We do have clients based in the USA, and I know our American friends mostly don’t get English sarcastic humour, so please be clear I’m joking, and this is a really dumb idea!

Let’s be clear, social media has not killed marketing, and the idea that you should get good at social media and ignore everything else, such as SEO, Paid Search, Email, Print, Networking, telemarketing, events, exhibitions….. etc, is pretty dangerous in my opinion.

That said, there are compelling reasons to why you should use Social Media for your business marketing and include it as part, repeat part, of your marketing mix.

Wide reach: Social media platforms provide access to billions of potential customers worldwide, allowing your business to reach a vast audience far beyond your physical location. That said, you can also use social media to market within your local community or niche market.

Cost-Effective Marketing: Compared to traditional advertising channels, social media marketing offers a cost-effective alternative, making it ideal for small and medium-sized businesses with limited cash budgets. However, as I often caveat my blogs, Time is Money, and creating engaging content is an investment in itself.

Targeted your niche: Social media platforms allow you to precisely target your audience based on demographics, interests, hobbies, behaviours, and more. Belonging to the right groups, forums, or networks increases the chance you are going to be communicating with prospective customers.

Building Brand Loyalty: Engaging regularly with your audience on social media presents the human face of your business, developing trust and loyalty among customers. Responding to queries, addressing concerns, and sharing valuable content establishes your brand as a credible and customer-focused authority.

Driving Website Traffic: By sharing links to your website or blog on social media, you can drive targeted traffic directly to your website, which not only increases the chance of them becoming a customer, but Google will increase your rankings due to the greater visitor numbers.

Competitor Analysis: Social media platforms provide a unique opportunity to keep a close eye on your competitors. Obviously, I would never do this, but if you wanted to, it would be a great way to analyse their strategies, content, and strategies to help you identify potential gaps in the market and fine-tune your marketing approach accordingly.

In conclusion, embracing social media as part of your business marketing strategy is important, but for most businesses, it’s unlikely to be a game-changer on its own. As part of a marketing strategy, there can be immense potential to reach a wide audience, build brand loyalty, gather valuable insights, or indeed get inspiration for your blogs!

So, maybe it’s time to get started on your social media journey. In our next blog, we will look at which platforms to consider, what content to post and how on earth you will find the time!