by Clair Rogers, Content Team Lead

Is there something in the water these days that has everyone struck with entrepreneurial spirit? Or is it just that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have made up ­and­ coming entrepreneurs much more visible? The latter is probably more likely seeing as social media platforms are revolutionizing the marketing industry.

Ariele Alasko, a sculpture student from California, was able to turn her woodworking hobby into a full ­time career in New York after posting pictures of her carpentry on her Instagram. The exposure increased her audience of followers­­ also known as potential buyers­­ that see her impressive craft in stylish photographs. Even if Alasko wasn’t purposefully trying to market her woodwork initially, it’s a great example of how social media exposure can help launch a brand or product. Today, Instagram facilitates an advertising venue unlike any other platform. Post a picture with a caption and your target audience is pretty much guaranteed to see it, allowing many of them to funnel through to your website.

While Instagram has just introduced their marketing tool, other sites like Facebook and Twitter have been transforming the industry for years now. Unlike traditional marketing mediums, social media platforms offer low­ cost fees and instant statistics. Facebook allows one to set up goals for each campaign, measures how close you get to those goals, and tracks how many users are following through. Their advertising capabilities are both quantifiable and scalable.

Virtually all of your existing and potential customers are on these websites every day; sometimes multiple times a day. Not using social media to gain exposure for your business means you are wasting your marketing budget. There’s no good reason to avoid creating and maintaining a social media campaign for your company when you compare the cost to the benefits.

Social media marketing also offers audience targeting you can’t get with print or TV ads. For instance, Facebook has localized capabilities that can scale down your target audience to the mile. Your limited time promotions might not be a viable option for everyone viewing a commercial or listening to an ad on the radio, but Facebook can target an audience within a set radius of the store to make sure you aren’t wasting money telling people about your 50% discount on Tuesday when they live in another zip code.

Facebook and Twitter uphold that their services are user­ friendly, but managing your day­ to­ day operations on top of maintaining active social media campaigns is a difficult task and burden. The attention needed to assess when to scale up ads and posts or when to re­target users needs to be consistent and engaged.

Our company offers services to create run social media marketing campaigns to their full potential. Our team has successfully managed the second largest marketing budget in the world and has the experience and confidence necessary to run fruitful campaigns on the platforms that best suit your needs. Contact us today and let’s talk about how we can increase your brand visibility and sales through social media marketing.