What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

Social media marketing (SMM) (also known as digital marketing and e-marketing) is the use of social media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information—to build a company's brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In addition to providing companies with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, social media marketing (SMM) has purpose-built data analytics that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify even more ways to engage.

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Powerful?

The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social media in three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.

How Social Media Marketing Works

As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, social media transformed not only the way we connect with one another but also the way businesses are able to influence consumer behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic, and personal information that makes messaging resonate with users.

SMM Action Plan: The more targeted your social media marketing (SMM) strategy is, the more effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management space, recommends the following action plan to build an SMM campaign that has an execution framework as well as performance metrics:5

• Align SMM goals to clear business objectives
• Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)
• Conduct a competitive analysis on your competition (successes and failures)
• Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)
• Create a calendar for SMM content delivery
• Create best-in-class content
• Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed