User:Monicaoko/sandbox

=History of Social Media and Digital Marketing=

Social Media is a form of online platforms in which users can create and share content on in the forms of microblogging and social networking social media sites are largely user-led, with content often being created and shared by users themselves. In recent years some of the more popular sites include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat

Timeline
Although social media is a fairly new phenomenon the history of it can be linked to Tim Bernes-Lee's creation of the World Wide Web back in 1989. Following on from this came the creation of AOL instant message in 1993 followed by Linkedln and MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, Instagram and Pinterest and Snapchat in 2011

Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a term that is used to describe how marketers use social media platforms and employ different tactics in order to spread content and engagement with different demographics on social media. This can be done via a number of techniques such as promoted ads such as Twitters promoted tweets and Youtube sponsored ads on selected videos. Cookie-based ads which are common on Facebook which in which user browser information is collected and used to tailor ads based on this information. Sponsored posts are also a technique used which has become common on platforms such as Instagram in which companies pay influencers to post pictures of products/services.

Digital Marketing and Social Media Analytics
Social Media Analytics refers to the use of customer information being collected as data by marketers as a way to maximise their reach, engagement and understanding of their target audience. This data can be either geographical, demographical or personal data (at times all three can be used. Some of the advantages of using social media analytics are that it can give companies a competitive advantage by allowing the company to fully understand their market thus tailoring products and services to their exact needs without having to conduct direct market research. Another advantage is that allows for companies to learn from their customers by tracking feedback and responses as well as using that information to improve products and services