Social Media is a powerful communication channel but it’s also very complex. That’s why we developed the Social Media Communication Tool that provides you with clear recommendations for what your social media strategy should be and how to execute it.

Social Media — A Powerful Communication Tool

Social Media, in simple terms, is the sharing of ideas, opinions, and images by publishing them on online media. It has emerged as a major trend lately, mainly because of the development of information and communication technologies. A recent study found out that the number of people using social media around the world was approximately 2.65 billion in 2018, and by 2021 it is expected to increase to almost 3.1 billion (Clement, 2020).

So why did social media suddenly become a trend and a primary source of communication? According to (Frentasia, 2012), the ease of communication is one of the prime reasons for social media emerging as a trend. It offers a two-way interaction model, where people can communicate with one another, even when they are miles apart at no to little cost. Social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, etc. provide convenient means to share viewpoints, knowledge, and personal moments, and this is what drives people towards using social media more frequently.

We tend to be influenced by what we see or read online through different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc., and we tend to bring those changes in our lives. With the easy availability of medium to share ideas, and instant feedback or reaction, many people are becoming creators, than just the quiet consumers of the information. More than 57% of youth that uses the internet can be considered a creator (“57% of Teen Internet Users Create, Remix or Share Content Online,” 2005).

The online community supports the creation and sharing of artistic expressions, collaborations, informal teaching, and mentorship. Every small contribution matters, and we can hear the voice of a person sitting in a secluded corner of the world too. When this information travels around the globe through blogs, vlogs, podcasts, Facebook/Twitter posts, it becomes an important aspect leading to cultural transformation.

Furthermore, social media plays a notable role in influencing business’ visibility and status. Business owners can reach out to their potential customers by using proper social media marketing strategies. It is also a great way to understand your customers’ requirements, respond to their feedback, and consequently improve your service/product to be able to provide the best customer experience. Social media has the power to make or break a brand. 71% of the customers will recommend your brand to others if they have had a positive social media service experience (Epstein, 2013).

As opposed to traditional marketing, online and social media marketing provides the ability to reach a more specific target audience at lower ad costs, and with an instant real-time performance evaluation.

88% of business marketers use social media marketing techniques and spend nearly $60 billion annually on it (Whiting and William, 2013).

One of the most popular social media marketing techniques is through celebrity endorsements. Brands use celebrity endorsements to create awareness about their work, product, or service by making celebrities or well-known influencers talk about the business through their social media channels. Many people use social media for interaction and entertainment, in addition to seeking information. By knowing what service their favorite celebrities are using through social media, fans feel closer to them and tend to invest in the same service or product.

A celebrity endorsement tends to increase sales by roughly 4% (Bradic, 2015).

The lack of sincerity in product endorsement by a celebrity can harm a business’s credibility and overall sales.

Social media touches every part of an individual’s life. People use online media to collect information, exchange knowledge, share stories, and discuss critical viewpoints. It is one of the most effective ways to share and broadcast local as well as international news.

Facebook is one such platform that lets users inform friends about their safety during an emergency with a feature called Safety Check (McLymore, 2019).

With the recent outburst of COVID-19 across the world, many platforms are providing information documents for people to read and understand the disease and situation better. The consequent lockdown of COVID-19 has also helped people stay entertained because of content shared on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Social media has proved to be of great assistance both during the worst and the best times that the world experiences.

A customer’s relationship with the business is of utmost importance, and it must regularly evaluate that relationship to be able to plan better marketing strategies. Social currency is a way to understand the customer’s view of a business. The degree to which your business can impress people and influence them to share about it on their social media channels plays a significant role in determining whether you have a high social currency or not. While it is easier to influence and pull people to become prospective customers of your business, it is one step extra to be able to push your customers to advocate your business before others.

Social currency measures your brand’s ability to fit into its consumer’s online social presence. Your consumer is spending their “social currency” on your brand if they share positive reviews about it online. Consequently, if the followers of your consumer become interested in your brand after reading about it online, it implies that there is an increase in the “social currency” for both the brand as well as the primary consumer. So, building a trustworthy and reliable brand is necessary for increasing social currency, and in turn, improve brand awareness and development.

For me, social media has proved to be of great assistance besides being an entertainment source. I have been able to keep in touch with my high school friends and faraway relatives. So even if we are distant, I stay updated about big events in their lives, and we are a part of each others’ lives because of the available social media channels.

Apart from this, if I need information or knowledge about a particular topic, social media is especially helpful. Educational platforms like Coursera and Udemy have provided me the ease of studying any course of my interest sitting at home. Not only this, but social media has also been a perfect means for me to engage in like-minded communities and be able to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge.

But despite the many advantages of social media, there are a few downsides to it too. For example, in the case of small brands and businesses, although social media provides cheaper and reliable means of advertisement, with so much information present online, the competition seems to get harder. And this is why many such brands start portraying wrong information online, which defeats the whole purpose of creating a genuine online presence. This false or incomplete information leads to many frauds, and it is also one of the prime reasons why people you meet on social media, or businesses that you engage with online, should not be blindly trusted. Amongst all the advantages, we must not ignore the possible threats that social media usage holds because of unmonitored information and communication.

We must always act responsibly and evaluate our actions as well as actions of those around us, to stay safe and not become vulnerable to possible false portrayals.

References

Clement, J. (2020, April 1). Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2023. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

Frentasia, Jennifer. (2012). Social Media and Electoral Strategies: Evidence from Indonesian Legislative Branch

57% of Teen Internet Users Create, Remix or Share Content Online. (2005, November 2). Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2005/11/02/57-of-teen-internet-users-create-remix-or-share-content-online/

Epstein, J. (2013, August 4). Social Customer Service (Infographic). Retrieved from https://www.getambassador.com/blog/social-customer-service-infographic

Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013). Why People Use Social Media: A Uses and Gratifications Approach, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal,Vol. 16(4) pp.362–369

Bradic, L. (2015, September 30). Celebrity Endorsements on Social Media Are Driving Sales and Winning Over Fans. Retrieved from https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/09/brands-using-celebrity-endorsements/

McLymore, A. (2019, August 28). Facebook expands “Local Alert” tool in bid to help in emergencies. Retrieved from https://in.reuters.com/article/facebook-local-alerts/facebook-expands-local-alert-tool-in-bid-to-help-in-emergencies-idINKCN1VH2ET

Social media is a great communications tool for businesses today. Connecting with consumers through platforms like Instagram and Facebook is beneficial for brands across various industries.

However, using social media for business often requires more than simply having a profile; you need a solid strategy to provide consistent, relevant content to your followers. One way to make this process easier is by using a social media management platform. We asked a panel of Forbes Communications Council members to share their preferred tech tools for managing social media accounts and why they’re fans of the service.

Members of Forbes Communications Council share their preferred tech tools for social media management.PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.

1. Sprinklr And Spredfast

I’ve had the opportunity to use multiple enterprisewide social media management tools. Most recently, one I’ve found to be comprehensive and valuable is Sprinklr. Sprinklr has all the bells and whistles and allows you to listen, respond, manage assets, publish and report. It’s easy to collaborate among team members. Another tool, Spredfast, has similar capabilities. They are both great. – Lizzie Roscoe, Meraki.Social

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2. Hootsuite

I am a complete fan of Hootsuite. I have found it meets my needs effectively for organizing multiple campaigns across every platform. I also like the prompted suggestions it provides for content as well as the monitoring features. However, being able to simply just click the owl when you organically find content online is key. – Cynthia Salarizadeh, KCSA Strategic CommunicationsForbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

3. Buffer

One of my favorite tools for managing social posts is Buffer. It’s lightweight yet contains some incredibly powerful features, and it works across platforms. It has a great mobile app that makes it easy to create and schedule content wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. Keeping a consistent cadence of content posted throughout the week takes less than an hour using Buffer. – Scott Schoeneberger, BlueWater Technologies Group, Inc.

4. Sprout Social

Our team really enjoys the experience of working with Sprout Social. Sprout provides all of the tools that have become table stakes in today’s environment—management of all mainstream social networks, ability to easily schedule and manage content, analytics support—in an easy-to-navigate interface. More importantly, their team has been incredibly responsive to and supportive of our specific needs. – Colby Reade, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

5. Clearview Social

It’s critical to have a tool that helps organizations spread and amplify messages on social media as well as track and quantify engagement. This has become a crowded space in marketing tech. Most solutions are offered by juggernauts, and few of these offer personal support and reasonable prices. Clearview Social is scrappy and dedicated, and their tool works. – Adam Giffi, Alexander Mann Solutions

6. Hubspot

We recently switched over to Hubspot for our social media management. As we were vetting tools for our email marketing, we realized the capability that Hubspot provides in connecting all of our channels was so valuable that we chose to move as many of our strategies as possible under one roof to better track our efforts and have all of our reporting in one place. – Maria Juan, Peerfit

7. MarketBeam

One of my favorite tools is MarketBeam. It allows me to manage multiple social media accounts (executives and employees), and each post can be randomized. This helps because I manage 200-plus people on the platform, as well as multiple groups. Also, there is a feature that enables me to customize a post per person without having to create separate posts. – Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brand and Buzz Marketing, LLC.

8. Plann

I am a longtime Hootsuite user but have just recently discovered the Plann app. Easily integrated with an iPhone, it has plenty of creative flair available for Instagram posts, including overlays and frames. The app is a great all-around tool that allows me to plan out content weeks in advance and stay organized on the go. – Jennifer Brantley, The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar

9. Muck Rack

Muck Rack gives insights that uplevel our communications strategy. It enables us to go beyond seeing who shared an article and view, in real time, conversations from the media that matter most. Thanks to Muck Rack uncovering a passion point that aligns with a specific campaign or brand overall, we’ve developed meaningful relationships with the press that we never would have discovered. – Courtney Love Gavin, Studio71

10. Google Data Studio + Supermetrics

If you can’t benchmark performance, you cannot optimize. This is why our team is a huge proponent of Google’s Data Studio for social strategy. Our clients love having real-time access to their data through easy-to-digest dashboard reporting. Supermetrics is a great tool for creating templates in Data Studio that organize your marketing data seamlessly for Facebook Ads, Instagram Insights and more. – Amelia Castellanos, Grass Monkey

Conclusion

Social media is on the rise, therefore you need to be present on as many channels as possible. This will increase your reach and save you some time. The Social Media Management tool with scheduling for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram takes care of your posting needs at one place, with one login and two clicks. The software is easy to use and your social media updates are shared on the scheduled time without any human intervention.