Effective marketing is essential to success in any industry. Without it, there are no leads, and no leads mean zero sales, and that ultimately spells doom for the business.

For a long time, businesses could only rely on traditional marketing methods to find customers for their products and services, but that has changed.

Social media is now a huge part of how businesses find their customers and market themselves.

Last year, over 150 billion dollars (USD) was spent on social media ad spend, and with the number of social media users approaching 4 billion worldwide, that amount is expected to cross the 200 billion mark in coming years as businesses vie to reach more people.

In this article, we take a look at five industries that depend heavily on social media marketing.

Entertainment

Entertainment is such a prominent part of our everyday lives that it should come as no surprise that the industry uses social media, another big part of our lives, to connect with us.

From celebrity news and hot gossip to the latest on our favorite shows, social media plays an important role in how the entertainment industry keeps us locked into what they are putting out.

Tabloids, magazines, media houses, and even entertainment companies all have Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook profiles dedicated to sharing their entertainment news with followers.

Social media offers a direct link between the industry and its audience such that traditional marketing strategies can match the way social media generates buzz, engages audiences, and promotes content.

All it takes to promote a movie or show, nowadays, is a couple of well-positioned social media posts and the news will spread like wildfire. Within minutes of being uploaded to YouTube, a Marvel movie trailer will have millions of fans spreading the news and making plans to get to the cinema on release day.

The virality and direct audience reach social media offers is a priceless tool for the entertainment industry. That is why even actors use their personal profiles to promote and share behind-the-scenes content for their projects.

Movies are the best example of how the entertainment industry leverages social media marketing, but musicians, artists, and smaller budget productions also get in on social media marketing activities. After all, all it takes is one viral TikTok to reach their entire target audience and they don’t even have to break the bank.

Retail

The retail space is another domain in which social media marketing is highly used. Brands and businesses have no choice but to turn to social media to promote themselves because that’s where their customers spend their time and find the products and services they’ll use.

The retail industry depends heavily on social media because up to 60% of all shopping occasions begin online and 54% of social media users use their preferred networks to research the products they buy.

Traditional marketing still has a role to play in the retail industry, but research shows a massive shift to online marketing, with many marketers increasing their social media budget allocations.

The covid lockdowns accelerated the retail industry’s move online as many brick-and-mortar stores weren’t able to operate while their online counterparts were able to operate.

Nearly twice as many people shopped online in the US last year compared to 2020. And, experts expect more people to shop online worldwide, going forward, due to a combination of factors including new consumer behavior, increased internet penetration worldwide, and retail strategies prioritizing online channels.

Fashion

The fashion industry, similar to the retail industry, relies heavily on social media to connect with and drive decisions amongst customers. The world of fashion is fast-moving, and traditional marketing hardly does justice to how quickly trends come and go.

The fashion industry needs social media to influence instant action and meet its objectives. Without it, their messages wouldn’t move nearly as quickly or have the same impact they do.

More than purely for speed, the fashion industry also needs social media because a large portion of consumer choices are driven by social proof. Nothing sells clothing quite like seeing your favorite influencer in it, and the fashion industry capitalizes on this.

The rise of the fashion influencer is largely due to brands wanting to capitalize on huge followings to promote themselves. Popular brands from Fashion Nova to Gym Shark and countless others all rely on the power of social media, primarily Instagram, to reach their customers.

Social media is such a vital tool for the fashion industry because it allows up-and-coming and lesser-known brands to market themselves to niche audiences interested in what they offer.

Marketing

The marketing industry is one industry that obviously relies on social media. Every other industry on this list has marketers dedicated to promoting their goods and services. And, those marketers are all increasingly realizing the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool.

One of the main reasons the marketing industry loves social media is because the cost of effective marketing campaigns is relatively lower compared to other types of marketing. That means marketers can work with more clients as they can still deploy effective marketing solutions even on a low budget.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many other forms of digital marketing including email, SEO, and SEM are key tools for marketers because traditional marketing isn’t as effective at reaching the younger generation, and it doesn’t offer results quite like social media and digital marketing.

Another reason social media has grown in popularity among marketers it is an innovative solution that presents an edge and an opportunity for differentiation.

Real Estate

The real estate industry is yet another industry that’s gone all-in on using social media in a bid to connect to the target market. And, the results speak for themselves, close to fifty percent of real estate agencies that use social media have found that social media returns much better leads compared to traditional lead sources.

Social media, especially Facebook, is a massive part of the real estate industry’s marketing arsenal because more and more of their clientele are the younger generation, looking not only for a place to stay but for experiences and vibrant communities to join.

The new generation of home buyers is a generation that grew up with the internet, and as with everything else, social media is their number one place for research. Over 90% of millennial homebuyers report having begun their search for a home.

To reach this younger generation, many real estate agencies are using social media to highlight the benefits of finding homes in the localities they operate. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are the three main social media platforms used by realtors in their marketing efforts.

A move to digital marketing and more specifically social media marketing was always inevitable for the real estate industry. Finding a new home takes a lot of and requires a lot more leg work than most home buyers want to put up with.

Using social media, realtors, and communities looking to attract homeowners can easily showcase the properties, amenities, experiences, and community they offer without having to get people to drive out there and see for themselves.