Social Media Marketing in Nepal:Tips for Businesses

With the major inclination and dynamic shift to digital media in Nepal in the last two decades, there has been a rapid growth of social media marketing in Nepal. Social media marketing helps to meet the needs of businesses and firms on various platforms in an easier mode. Be it for local ads targeting people to buy hand-made pickles or EVs, social media marketing has been the major medium for years now to adjoin service/ product providers and service/ product users.

On a global scale, the annual compound growth rate of the social media market is set to grow by more than 260+ billion with active 4+ billion users in the social media platforms. According to GlobalStats, Nepal has 13.50 million active social media users, i.e., at least 43.5% of the total population. 

Various types of business firms have got the best results out of the market by catering services and products simply with social media marketing strategies in Nepal. With the dynamic and rapid-growing market, it is set to evolve with newer trends. 

So, if you’re planning to start social media marketing in Nepal as a beginner to boost up your business profile or for other purposes, here’s what we’d recommend you learn in order to establish a firm status in the growing market. 

What is Social Media Marketing?

If a social media marketing page were posting a few random posts every day on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, one would be far from successful in meeting the target audience. Mere presence and activeness in social media platforms often rarely count as social media marketing and are seldom helpful in outstanding amongst competitors to reach customers. To stand out, one must play by the guides and strategies in order to make their target audience notice and choose them.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is defined as the strategic use of social media platforms in order to promote services and products to customers with the help of refined statistics and data. It helps to engage with clients and customers without physical presence and informs them about a business’s services and products. 

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and Pinterest are some of the most used mediums. It helps people share information and connect with friends and like-minded people in a community effortlessly. 

Platforms such as Social Media Marketing act as a bridge connecting services and products to people based on individual and community-level interests while also fostering social connection.

For example - There’s a peak season for treks and hikes in Nepal during September and October because of favourable climatic and weather conditions. A trekking company posts a sponsored ad on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest targeting the youth at that particular time. It would most likely gain the attention of the targeted audience and tempt the customers to check on the post based on their interests and convenient time. 

Why is Social Media Marketing Important for Businesses?

Social Media Marketing is important for businesses because it's a refined and favorable medium that helps in building bridges to connect social media users. The customers and service providers/product suppliers get to express their needs and their services there.
 
It helps in matching interests based on the data gathered by social media platforms on subjects like one’s interests, location and age group. That results in maximum accuracy in meeting the needs of either of the sides, i.e., clients and business establishments. 

According to Statista, people across the globe, on average, spend at least 2 hours (143+ minutes). With the increase in social media users in the coming years, social media marketing is set to be one of the most essential parts of the business. This will be the platform where people get to know about the businesses based on their preferred interactions. 
The following are the major advantages of using Social Media Marketing :

Reach Your Target Audience Effectively

Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., require users to provide basic information like age, location, interests, consumer behaviour and preferences. Based on that, data can be collected and analyzed to set up content for targeted audiences.

Boost Brand Visibility

By using creative strategies based on social media trends and general marketing strategies, A business could make the aimed audiences engage with the brand's posts. That would make people realize the brand of its particular service and products the memory of the brand would embark on clients memory in consistent time intervals. 

Example: A bakery shop frequently uses social media content ideas and strategies to reach the targeted audiences by adhering to data and statistics of users and their preferences. The bakery shop in the long-term would be remembered by social media users and establish its identity in the market. 

Drive Sales and Build Customer Loyalty

Customers would feel attached to brands and prefer them when they are ensured with reliable information fueled with creative content strategies. That would thus boost sales and give a space for brand loyalty for customers. 

Suppose a local brand of bags that were to use social media strategies, targeting students and professionals who are likely to use bags. A creative flow of information and meeting the requirements of the intended customers would help in building brand image in such cases. This would later result in a drive in sales and make the customers loyal to the brand. 

How to Create a Successful Social Media Strategy? 

Social media marketing strategy is one of the most important factors that determine whether businesses would achieve success or not. Primarily, it helps companies to reach the target level of their audience number for selling services and products. With attentive observations based on market trends, one could get recognition of users to build a trustworthy connection. 

The following key points are major successful social media marketing tips that have helped thousands of businesses thrive in the buzzing era of digital marketing :

Set Clear Goals for Your Social Media Campaign

Firstly set your business goals with a realistic approach by researching demands and calculating your financial limitations. Adhere to your strategies and goals to align with the requirements of the business. 

Conduct Competitor Analysis and Audience Research

Execute analysis tools in order to track the traffic, click-through rate, people’s reactions/interactions and preferences. Analyze the weaknesses and strengths of the business and launch strategies to overcome the loopholes of the business. 

Choose the Right Platforms For Your Business

The following are the major social media platforms for establishing yourself in the market of social sites: 

• Facebook: One of the most used platforms of social media sites, it has the highest scope for reaching a wide range of audiences belonging to varying age groups.
• Instagram: The platform is popular among youth, and it thrives on strategic, visually appealing content to engage targeted audiences.
• YouTube: A video-oriented platform ideal for showcasing business information and products/services creatively, ensuring appeal to diverse age groups and targeted demographics.
• LinkedIn: This platform highly focuses on professional social networking and helps in creating authentic connections for brand building. Share precise updates about the business, achievements, and milestones to engage with corporate audiences.
• TikTok: With 2.2 million active Nepali users, it’s popular among younger audiences. Short, humorous, and concise content stands out on this platform.

Create content focused on peculiar needs for better engagement and deeper market penetration of each platform.

Develop a Monthly Content Calendar

By outlining content with developed marketing strategies based on events in the calendar, social media could drive more traffic while being relevant according to the time. 

Certain products could be advertised with discounts to adapt to the timeline of the festivities and the demands of the customers. 

Content Creation and Meta Advertising

Demographics through Facebook/ Meta, millions of people could be targeted for ads based on the data of their preferences could be researched thoroughly. It helps in creating specific content to match their taste. 

For example, If someone is actively present in a Kite Tournament Facebook Group, they could be targeted with ads for Kite Shops and such. 

Monitor Performance and Analyze Results

By actively monitoring and analyzing the situation of business products/ services, sales, demands and mentions, one could track loopholes and strengths of their business. By keeping up with the reviews and comparing the transactions in different timelines, better strategies could be created to win over other top competitors in the relative field. 

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

The pool of Social Media Marketing is full of potential, and businesses could experiment with thousands of ideas on the journey for its success. The major advantages of it remain affordability and reachability with minimal effort. 

The brief of benefits of using social media marketing are below: 

Cost-Effective Marketing

In comparison to TV and Newspaper, Social Media Marketing is a far better alternative not only because of its easy reach with customers and execution but also due to cost-effective modules. By using the minimal amount of cash, the ads could reach the targeted set of audiences for a longer time. Interactive features could also be activated for enhanced customer service experience. 

Currently, with just 10 - 100$, Facebook ads would run for weeks and approach the maximum number of Facebook users with need/ demand for a particular product and service. 

Increased Brand Awareness

By increasing consistent input with interactive content and brand storytelling, brand awareness could achieve huge success. It would help in building the image and foundation of the business while establishing itself as a trustworthy firm for the clients and customers.

Direct Interaction with Customers

By addressing customers with the medium of messaging features on Instagram and Facebook directly, businesses can improvise and customize their services and products. It helps to give better experiences to customers while also fostering customer relations.  

Example: A local cloth shop could establish interactive posts featuring their products. The business owner could establish reliable communication with the customers without the intervention of third-party media and understand the needs of the customers. 

Social Media Marketing Trends To Watch in 2024

It’s essential to observe and take notes on the trends of previous years and how it has helped boost sales of various business firms to learn to adapt to the dynamic market. 
Alongside Tik Tok dances and memes, the year 2024 had a major incline in AI-generated content. It helped to boost their content reach for larger audiences. There was also a huge surge in short-video forms. The trends, however, are always changing. Businesses thus need to adapt to changes accordingly to keep up with the customer’s interactions and behaviour.

Short-form Video Content: 

The attention span of average social media users is declining rapidly. To keep up with the customers, major business hubs are adopting new strategies to put up enhanced and precise content in short-form videos. Platforms like Instagram reels, Facebook reels, TikTok and YouTube shorts are the most popular mediums for short-form video content.
Influencer Partnerships: 
By collaborating with established influencers for product/ service promotion, businesses have thrived with a huge surge over the years. When influencers recommended products/ services, the customers found the products and services credible. They put more faith in them compared to their experience in ones where only informational posts were targeted at them. 
Interactive Content
Be it a news site or sustainable products dispatcher, when many firms had polls to get to know about the preferences of their users/ customers/ clients, they later adjusted their services/ products according to the needs and demands of customers. It led to improved reviews from customers and helped the firms gain the trust of the general population. Quizzes, Questions and Answers and prizes led to a major boost in their social media pages. 

Best Social Media Platforms for Marketing

While new social media platforms arise now and then, there are major platforms with distinct values because of their popularity and convenience for the people. The following are the best social media platforms for establishing your market: 

• Facebook: Use this platform to reach a broader audience as this is the most used social media platform in Nepal (According to Napoleon Cat, 15 million+ Nepali people use Facebook as of February 2024). Ensure that the content is clear and elaborative and can meet the demands and needs of the targeted audience by also making it genuine. 
• Instagram: This is one of the most popular and rising platforms for youths. Use this Instagram to reach audiences with strategic content and strong visuals to capture the attention of the targeted audience. 
  YouTube: The video-oriented platform should have strategies catering to content like information about the business and products and services. Ensure creative content that would make it easier for people of varying ages aimed at targeted groups of service/ product seekers. 
• LinkedIn: The business and global corporate chain of connecting platforms should be used to build connections with similar businesses and professional profiles. Information regarding the brand and their updates with precise information is often posted here. Business achievements could be updated here. B2B, i.e., Business-to-business transaction and connection is one of the most rising active transactions here. 
• TikTok: This platform is mostly used by the younger generation of the population and is on the rise, with 2 million and overactive users in Nepal. The contents with precise information and a humorous approach standout the most in this particular platform. Based on the different requirements of each of the social media marketing platforms, content should be customized accordingly. 

Social Media Content Ideas for Businesses

Now and then, there would be new updates in algorithm processing and new social media trends in varying times. But there are major posts that have been featured on top in search engines based on the ideas analyzed from the data of most watched and interacted posts. These were found to be some of the top and best content ideas for businesses: 

• Behind-the-Scenes Posts: A good number of people are curious about the unseen/ hidden work behind successful videos and posts. At times, the BTS (Behind-the-Scenes) garners far more interactions and views than the original posts, as people are fond of the details and people also feel genuinely connected to the brands. 
• User-Generated Content: By making content based on interactions with likes and comments by customers, it tends to capture viewers and scroller’s attention even more. It makes the customers feel valued and seen. 
• Interactive Polls and Quizzes: Ensuring attentiveness and calling for prizes based on the customer’s knowledge of one’s business makes the customer more attached to the brand. It also creates competition amongst the customers to be more interactive and thus drives the traffic high on one’s page. 
• Seasonal Campaigns: If a light bulb company were to make ads during Tihar to promote their light bulbs based on their quality and durability, it would hit the target audience during Tihar as there is higher demand for products like that. 
• Live Q&A Sessions: These help in ensuring authenticity and establish the notion of genuine care and responsibility for customers. 

Call Softbenz Infosys for Expert Social Media Marketing Services 

One of the top and best social media marketing agencies in Nepal, Softbenz has been providing the best of the best social media marketing services with the most reasonable and affordable social media marketing packages in Nepal. The company has completed over 400+ projects since 
2018 and has the best reviews from clients after the completion of their projects.  
 
Softbenz provides the best social media marketing packages like the Basic SMM, Standard SMM and Premium SMM and tailors detailed work based on the needs and requirements of clients. 

Conclusion

Based on the current digital trends, it's a major requirement for firms and businesses to establish themselves well on social media platforms in order to be relevant as demanded by the present market trends. 

Companies and other establishments should maintain a balanced presence on various social media platforms to gain affirmative support from audiences and clients of different age groups and generations to cater to tailored services/ products. 

FAQs on Social Media Marketing 

How to start social media marketing in Nepal? 

Each of the most successful businesses had its way of succeeding while boarding on the journey of social media marketing and they all differ from each other. 
However, based on the major research, the following are the ways in which social media marketing could be started for progressive presence on social media sites:

• Establish pages for your business on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.
• Gather data about the trends of product/ service demand and requirements.
• Develop content strategies targeting the audiences based on your business.
• Be authentic about your firm and your services.
• Connect with audiences, clients and customers and tailor the services/products/ social media posts accordingly. 

Which social media is mostly used in Nepal? 

Facebook is the top-ranking social media platform used in Nepal, with 13.50 million+ users, with its market occupying 90.78% of the space amongst other social media platforms. 

What is social media marketing?

The utilization of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter (X) for operating services and displaying information for promotion of brand for services or products is social media marketing. 

What are the social media marketing packages in Nepal?  

Social Media Marketing packages help in establishing an active social media presence through social media platforms by means of interaction and post boosting, which results in achieving a standard set of goals for reaching target audiences. 

There are various types of packages based on one’s budget and requirements for the page to reach a certain level of brand popularity, like Basic SMM Package, Standard SMM Package, Premium SMM Package etc. Each of these services utilizes differing services like analytical tools, sprout social for smooth social media operation and advertisements, to create content for assured results as per the needs.