For small business owners, advertising mediums such as television are too expensive, and radio or print advertisements are outdated and more often than not, don’t reach the target demographic.
Thankfully, the internet and more importantly, its slew of social media sites provide an arena for anybody with an internet connection to view content created or shared by just about anybody. Internet and social media users therefore have access to the largest ever collection of text articles, photographs, and other informati
on, and it’s a resource that is constantly being added to. The amount of websites alone adds up to over 4.5 billion, a number that’s more than tripled since 2014; any estimates of the amount of images online are made obsolete by the second as people are constantly uploading.
While uploading marketing information to social media platforms is relatively easy (and free), the gigantic pool of information present means it is easy to get lost in noise, rendering all efforts wasted.
Succesful marketing via social media often focuses around creating a community and subsequently interacting with the members. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all allow people to share content, and more importantly, allow people to comment or feed back to the creator. This provides marketers with a real-time forum where they can readily view whether the targeted audience’s feedback is positive or negative, and adapt the content accordingly.
The benefits of social
media don’t stop there though; by marketing and presenting information on the audience’s “own turf”, the feel of being marketed to is replaced by the feeling of being communicated with, increasing the likelihood of positive reception. While a marketer can target certain potential consumers incredibly specifically by posting content on only Face
book pages or Twitter accounts that they’re interested in, the viewer of this content rarely feels like they’re being forced to see it, as they’ve almost always liked or followed the page of their own accord.
Small business owners can capitalise on this highly cost effective avenue for marketing, ensuring the correct steps are taken to stand out from the background noise of the world’s busiest marketplace.
The Digital Marketing Insight 
Very interesting article, do you think digital marketing will take over all the traditional channels eventually?
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Absolutely; with the rate people are becoming increasingly more attached to mobile devices, it is certain that digital marketing techniques will become a bigger part of the marketing communications we are exposed to. While traditional marketing channels will always have a place in the world, I see these mediums being overtaken by digital forms, particularly via social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where collaboration between viewer and marketer.
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