Long gone are the days when social media usage was limited to communicating with family and friends. Today social media is the core of Ecommerce and the leading division of digital marketing. Social media is where new trends are set and discovered, which makes social media marketing an excellent tool to promote goods and generate sales. Thanks to advanced smartphones, social apps are constantly at our finger tips, and only few of us can resist their control over our lives. In the past, we used to refer to our peers when we had doubts about buying something. However, asking around was a time-consuming process that often proved to be futile.
Now when people need an honest review of a product, they look it up on a social platform like YouTube or Facebook. You get instant access to an infinite number of comments and opinions that shape your day-to-day decisions. If something is praised by the majority on social media, you can count on your satisfaction as well. Let us discuss 5 ways social media marketing affects consumer trends:
1. Prevalent and Targeted advertising
Social media marketing is smart and persistent. Most ads and marketing content you come across on social media is suggested with reference to your online activity. Social media advertising is tailored to the audience needs and you can’t ignore it because it pops up again and again. When something remains in sight, it embeds into your subconscious and that’s how you’re unknowingly drawn to it. When you look up something online, you may have noticed that you start seeing related ads while browsing social sites on the same network.
2. Personalized and Engaging
Social media marketing content is designed to appeal to the consumer in a non-mechanical manner. The conversational tone, high readability, and implementation of visuals make it enticing. Consumers prefer businesses that showcase a human-like personality and seem eager to solve their problems. The key is to make a sales pitch sound like a recommendation from the customer’s best friend.
3. Majority is Authorit
When a massive audience shares a similar opinion of something on social media, you can bet it is legit. Social media is a place where strangers from all over the globe connect, and the universal fact is that there is strength in numbers. If an overwhelming amount of people from different walks of life and backgrounds vouch for something, you know the hype is real, and vice versa. If you ever want to find out the vote of majority on a subject, simply post a poll on social media and wait for the big revelation. To conclude, when a bunch of consumers on social media say that something is worth buying, more people end up buying it.
4. Romanticizes and simplifies the purchasing journey
It is evident that Ecommerce is at its peak right now. Online shopping is much more convenient for many consumers, particularly those who never have enough time, cannot leave home too often, or feel uncomfortable at public places. Now that individuals from all generations spend so much time on social media, it makes sense for businesses to utilize it as a marketplace. It allows effective communication between vendors and customers, and saves several expenses associated with physical shops. Social media marketing glamorizes products and showcases them in a way that the public is convinced that they need it in their life. A lot of the things purchased everyday on social media are rarely noticed in tangible stores.
5. Growing competition generates competitive pricing
Ecommerce has developed tremendously over the past decade and has now become a necessity for all businesses; hence, every sensible company/corporation has embraced it. Given that almost everyone is advertising their goods and services on social media nowadays, the competition is tough. If you are still a new contender, consumers won’t turn your way unless you offer an incredible incentive. In most cases, this is big discounts, cut-rates, or any promotional scheme that allows the purchaser to save money. When something is rare, it has more value; when an object becomes widely accessible, the value runs down.