Social Apps Overview

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

The benefits of social apps

Social apps can bring a number of benefits to marketers:

• They allow you to visually showcase your product, app, or service. Social apps are multimedia environments where you can use an engaging content mix to attract users.
• You can use live video to build excitement around your product or service, while engaging with users in real-time.
• Social apps are a great platform for communicating and sharing your brand’s unique point of view. You can tell an engaging story that highlights your values while resonating with consumers on a personal level.
• You can use social apps to reach the right people at scale with relevant content in a creative environment. By doing audience research, you’re more likely to target the right customers with the right content.
• Social apps are a cost-effective way to express highly memorable, creative, and distinct visual messages through unpaid posts and advertisements.
• With social apps, you can engage customers by generating awareness, interest, and intent for new products and campaigns
• If you want to expand your brand reach and further increase awareness, you can engage with influencers on social apps.
• You can inspire customers by showcasing your products or service in a visually innovative way.
• One of the key metrics in digital marketing is website visits. You can use your social apps campaigns to drive traffic to your website, with the ultimate goal of increasing clicks and conversions.
• As well as driving website traffic, you can drive mobile app installs. And you can then use your app to further drive engagement.
• In a more general sense, your social apps campaign can drive people down the funnel from awareness through to action and sale.
• Finally, social apps can be used to increase sales through instant checkouts for in-app purchases.

Misconceptions about social apps

Although social apps have become very popular and are recognized as important components in the marketing mix, they are also greatly misunderstood and their value is somewhat under-appreciated. Let’s consider seven misconceptions about social app usage:

The first misconception is that social apps are nothing more than narcissistic platforms full of selfies. It is true that many people use their social apps to share their own personal stories. However, social media is often used to promote social causes and raise awareness of neglected issues. Far from just encouraging narcissism, they can prompt social engagement.

A second misconception is that social apps are only used by millennials and Gen Z. Younger people do indeed form a huge part of the social media audience. (And this, in itself, is a huge opportunity for marketers who want to target that age group.) However, social media is gaining greater acceptance with older people. Did you know that the over 55s is the fastest-growing cohort on WeChat?

The third misconception is that social app marketing works only if you sell visual products. Here again, there’s some truth in the misconception. Socially media is primarily a visual medium, with images and videos the most popular ways to share content. And social media marketing is indeed very effective for visual products. However, social media also works very effectively for B2B services like insurance. Even if you don’t sell visual products, you can tell your brand story in a visual way.

Let’s now look at a fourth misconception about social apps marketing: it’s only used by big brands. Of course, many big brands have run hugely successfully social apps campaigns. But bear in mind that the granular targeting on social media means that any brand can reach its specific audience. When you know your target audience’s social media usage patterns, you can best target your social media content on the most appropriate platforms.

A fifth misconception is that social apps are just used for posting photos or visuals. People do post a lot of photos and videos on social media! But let’s consider the ‘social’ aspect of social media. It’s not just about simply posting content. It’s about taking part in a conversation. It’s about telling your story in the most effective way possible, whether that’s through text, image, audio, video, or a combination of media. Brands can also launch polls and competitions to engage customers further.

Another misconception is that with a social apps campaign, the results can’t be measured or reported on. Fortunately, this misconception is disappearing as brands understand the customer journey better. Social media provides accurate data for the full funnel, from awareness to loyalty.

The final misconception that we’ll consider is that social apps are for vanity metrics, not sales. Of course, there is a certain amount of vanity on social media. That’s why the number of likes and shares are such important metrics for some people. However, consumers can also make purchases across all social media apps. For example, 90% of TikTok campaigns exceed a return on ad spend of $2.50. In fact, TikTok creators have coined the hashtag "#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt" to illustrate the app's ability to convince consumers to make impulse purchases!