Social media can be a powerful marketing tool. According to aggregated social media statistics from Smart Insights, “62.3% of the world’s population uses social media” as of January 2024, totaling over five billion user identities. Given this, businesses cannot ignore the potential of social media to help them reach their customers. A social media marketing course can help professionals develop practical skills and social media platform knowledge to combine online advertising with social media marketing strategies.
As part of the Southeastern Oklahoma State University online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Concentration in Marketing program, students complete a 7-week course in social media marketing. This specialized training prepares students for careers in marketing, consulting and brand management. Statista estimates that nearly 92% of U.S. marketers from companies with 100 or more employees used social networks for marketing in 2021, representing a steady upward trend in the social media marketing usage rate. Clearly, social media marketing is a steadily growing industry.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a way to reach consumers online, drive website traffic and get attention through social media platforms. By creating content that consumers want to share with their social networks, the marketing message appears to come from a trusted source instead of a faceless business. This is a digital form of word-of-mouth or peer-to-peer marketing.
Why Use Social Media Marketing?
The most important reason for using social media marketing is its effectiveness. Businesses’ investments in social media advertising reflect this. Sprout Social projects that social media ad spend will reach nearly $220 billion in 2024, accounting for roughly 28.8% of all digital advertising spend.
Compared to traditional marketing methods, social media marketing is relatively inexpensive. It allows marketers to focus on a niche with personalized marketing messages. For example, companies can mine social data to target married females of a specific age in Boston with children in school. This kind of low-cost targeted marketing means businesses can easily experiment with new campaigns and make changes as necessary. Advancements in generative AI further increase the potential of both personalization and automation in social media marketing.
In addition, marketers can build a community around their brand through social media, utilizing direct engagement, targeted ads, influencer marketing, user-generated content and more. According to HubSpot, 90% of social media marketers believe fostering an online community is key to effective social media strategy.
Create Value for Consumers
Savvy marketers understand that social media is an opportunity to connect with consumers and build stronger relationships. This does not mean bombarding them with endless marketing messages or cluttering their social feeds. Marketers who take time to listen to what customers are talking about on social media will begin to understand what matters to the brand’s community and potential audience. Once this is understood, marketers can create useful, engaging content that consumers value and share.
Know Your Platform
Determining which platforms to focus on is one of the biggest challenges for today’s social media marketers. According to a Statista ranking of social media networks, Facebook has more than three billion active accounts, YouTube usership nears 2.5 billion accounts, Instagram has roughly two billion monthly active users, and TikTok usership is skyrocketing with over 1.5 billion monthly active users and counting.
These are impressive numbers, and there are also platforms like Pinterest, LinkedIn and X — the list goes on. Knowing where to begin focusing marketing efforts can overwhelm the new social media marketer. A social media marketing course can help a professional understand the differences between the various platforms and choose the ones that best fit their strategic goals.
Businesses that ignore social media are missing out on valuable marketing opportunities. Similarly, marketers who do not develop their skills in this field risk missing out on job opportunities. By completing an online MBA program with specialized studies in social media marketing, graduates can position themselves as strong candidates to potential employers.
Learn more about Southeastern’s online MBA in Marketing program.