In this topic, we focus on how marketing through social media outlets can positively impact the recognition of your brand and grow the business. You will learn:
- How to get started with marketing your business through social media
- The benefits of using social media and online platforms to market a brand.
Terminology and vocabulary reference guide
As an allied health professional, you need to be familiar with terms associated with basic exercise principles and use the terms correctly (and confidently) with clients, your colleagues, and other allied health professionals. You will be introduced to many terms and definitions. Add any unfamiliar terms to your own vocabulary reference guide.
Activities
There is an automated quiz at the end of the topic. This is not part of your assessment but will provide practical experience that will help you in your work and help you prepare for your formal assessment.
Traditionally, businesses would try to reach a big audience through different mediums such as television advertising or advertising within movies, celebrity endorsements and so on. However, in more recent years, there has been a shift in how customers receive their information. Business owners are now choosing to reach their target audience in more interactive and engaging ways. For instance, through the wide array of online, mobile and social media platforms, they can create, inspire and share brand messages.
If you take Adidas for example, a renowned sportswear brand, they have now chosen to abandon television altogether, opting to use only digital channels to reach their targeted younger consumers as Adidas’ CEO has acknowledged that their younger consumers engage with their brand predominantly over mobile devices.
Social media pages such as Instagram and Facebook are among the most utilised to help promote a brand. The message and vision of the business must be well communicated to an audience in order to not cause a negative reaction from the target market, as a poor reputation online is known to go “viral”. Other online methods to authenticate the business and brand whilst further promoting it, is to create a website or a blog. These marketing mediums will help create an image, a reputation, build the brand and assist in promoting the services the business provides. Things such as discounts, information on training sessions, contact details and trading hours can be some of the inclusions to the business online and social media pages.
The use of online and/or social media presence for marketing the business brand is an effective way to promote what is on offer. Additionally, highly loyal customers can inadvertently promote the brand by sharing, tagging, linking and posting images to their personal social media pages. Advertising through social media takes a little bit of time, thinking and planning to ensure there is an active presence on the social media channels. Some of the considerations needed to be carefully planned out might include:
- What images should be used?
- Is the brand consistent throughout the content?
- What discounts could be applied and when?
- What is the preferred contact method to ensure all enquiries are attended to?
- How often should be posted?
- Are the messages promoted clearly to the ideal target audience?
- Are the services the business provides clear and well highlighted in the content?
- Will there be a theme for posts, for example, motivational posts, educational posts, monthly special posts or a particular colour scheme?
- Who are the influencers in your niche?
- What has been tried and tested already? Are there pitfalls you can avoid?
Once you have a grasp of the content you would like to use when promoting through social media, you can then research which of these marketing mediums will be pursued to better promote the business brand. After making a decision on which online or social media medium to use (it may be one, all or a combination of a few), it is time to get started. Click on each of the following to learn how to create a business page for Instagram, Facebook and also personalise your own website.
Please note, these are not the only providers for building a social media or online presence, further research can be conducted to see what other options and avenues the business would prefer to take.
In this topic, we focused on how marketing through social media outlets can positively impact the recognition of your brand and grow the business. You have learnt:
- How to get started with marketing your business through social media
- The benefits of using social media and online platforms to market a brand.
