Selling it on social media

If you can create buzz around your product, you can make a hefty return on a free platform.

Social media is great, cost-effective method of marketing; make use of it because if you can create buzz around your product, you can make a hefty return off a free platform.

The cost of advertising has always been a stumbling block for many businesses, large or small. The figures are astronomical: an ad campaign on TV, radio or even a newspaper can run well into the millions. And for a small business to allocate such funds to marketing alone would drain the entire budget, leaving little or nothing to run the rest of the business.

Fortunately for 21st century entrepreneurs, a new marketing phenomenon was created – social media marketing. In essence, social media marketing is the process whereby a business uses social media to advertise itself to potential customers. It involves social communication through the internet via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Such is its popularity that most people with access to the internet are on at least one social media platform. So it was only a matter of time before businesses saw this platform as the new frontier for marketing. In fact, much of the social media frenzy was driven by businesses because most, if not all, of the revenue for social media comes from advertising. Without it, the likes of Facebook would not exist.

There are two conventional methods of (pay) marketing on social media: you could directly pay to advertise or you could use the services of social media marketing agencies who would market on your behalf. (There are various benefits of using these methods).

So how do you freely and effectively market on social media? Firstly, you to determine which platform your target audience frequents. Secondly, consistency: you have to continuously post material if you want any chance of people taking notice. And finally, relevance: you must have relevant material, otherwise your intended audience won’t care.