Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses social media networks. The social nature of these platforms allows for conversations, connections and interactions.
Social media marketing strategies range from having a company blog and adding click-to-tweet links to organizing an extensive campaign that features a content-rich Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram account and videos on YouTube.
Social media marketing provides an opportunity to gain earned media as an alternative to traditional, paid media advertising.
Earned media is free publicity distributed by third parties, as in press coverage and word-of-mouth marketing, generating greater visibility for a brand, product or service. In social media this includes likes, mentions, shares, reposts, recommendations and reviews. It is typically stimulated by public- and media-relations efforts (e.g. content creation, content sharing, paid influencers) but carries more credibility than paid media or owned media.
Find these key terms and more in Oxford Reference.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's Social Media Marketing course is a 30-minute program designed to show you how to utilize social media marketing to grow your business. Learn research processes and strategies to help you harness the power of social media marketing. Features a social media marketing design checklist and action plan.
Facebook is a social networking website that connects people with common interests. Facebook enables its users to keep up to date on one another’s activities. Users can send messages to one another and share pictures, videos and interesting websites or articles. They can also join networks set up by such organizations as schools, businesses and charities. Millions of people use Facebook around the world.
Facebook. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. (2018, June). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://library.austintexas.gov/virtual/funk-wagnalls-new-world-encyclopedia
Twitter is a social networking website that allows users to post extremely short messages, called tweets. Tweets must be 280 or fewer characters in length. A user’s tweets can be read instantly by other people connected through the website. Twitter’s simplicity has helped it become an important means of communication around the world. Twitter users connect by becoming followers of one another. This concept is similar to becoming “friends” on other social networking websites, such as Facebook. Users can follow acquaintances, businesses, celebrities, politicians or even random strangers on Twitter.
Twitter. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. (2018, January). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://library.austintexas.gov/virtual/funk-wagnalls-new-world-encyclopedia
Instagram (2010) A photosharing app enabling users to post photographs and very brief video clips and to share them on a variety of social networking platforms. It includes digital filters which can be used to give photographs a more professional appearance.
• Chandler, Daniel and Rod Munday. "Instagram." A Dictionary of Social Media: Oxford University Press. Oxford Reference. 2016.
The video-sharing Web site YouTube allows users to upload their own videos and to view and comment on original videos created by millions of other users worldwide. ... Some television shows and motion pictures are also available for viewing on the site, either for free (with advertisements running alongside the programs) or for a rental fee.
YouTube. Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica. (2021, November 13). Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://library.austintexas.gov/virtual/britannica-library
known in China as Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to ten minutes.
TikTok. Wikipedia. (2022, October 30). Retrieved November 2, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok