Social marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. Unlike traditional advertising, which speaks to customers, social marketing is a conversation: customers comment, share, review, and recommend, and their voices often matter more than the brand’s own.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Describe the five steps of the social marketing process.
- Compare the major social platforms and what each is best used for.
- Explain social commerce and influencer marketing.
- Calculate and interpret basic social media metrics.
- Discuss the opportunities and risks of social marketing in Nepal.
1. The Social Marketing Process
Social marketing works as a sequence of five steps. Each step has its own goal and its own measures.
| Step | Goal | Example measures |
|---|---|---|
| Fan acquisition | Attract people to follow the brand’s pages and accounts | New followers, reach, impressions |
| Engagement | Get followers to interact with content | Likes, comments, shares, saves, time spent |
| Amplification | Get followers to spread content to their own friends | Shares, mentions, reach beyond followers |
| Community | Build a stable group of fans who talk to each other | Active group members, repeat commenters |
| Brand strength and sales | Turn attention into a stronger brand and purchases | Clicks to site, messages, orders, sales revenue |
flowchart LR
A[Awareness<br/>Posts and Ads] --> B[Engagement<br/>Likes, Comments, Shares]
B --> C[Conversion<br/>Click to Site or DM Order]
C --> D[Retention<br/>Community and Follow-up]
D --> A
Figure 1: Social Marketing Engagement Funnel
2. The Major Platforms
Each platform has its own audience, format, and best use. A business rarely needs all of them; it should choose the platforms where its customers already spend time.
| Platform | Format and audience | Best used for | Key business tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posts, groups, video; very broad, all ages | Community, local reach, targeted ads, customer messages | Pages, Ads, Groups, Messenger, Shops | |
| Photos, Reels, Stories; younger, visual | Fashion, food, travel, beauty, lifestyle brands | Business profile, Ads, Shopping tags, DMs | |
| TikTok | Short vertical video; young, trend-driven | Fast awareness, product demos, trends and challenges | Ads, creator partnerships, TikTok Shop (some markets) |
| YouTube | Long and short video; broad | Reviews, tutorials, how-to content that stays searchable | Channels, Shorts, video ads |
| Professional profiles and posts | B2B marketing, recruitment, thought leadership | Company Pages, sponsored content | |
| X (formerly Twitter) | Short posts; news and public conversation | Real-time updates, customer service, public announcements | Promoted posts |
| Visual idea boards | Planning categories such as décor, recipes, weddings | Promoted Pins, Rich Pins |
Facebook (Meta) has the largest audience worldwide, with several billion monthly users across its apps, which is why its advertising system is the default choice for many small businesses. Meta also owns Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
3. Social Commerce
Social commerce means buying and selling directly inside social platforms. Instead of sending a customer to a website, the whole journey happens on the platform:
- Shoppable posts and shops: Products are tagged in posts with prices and a buy or message button.
- Message-based ordering: The customer sends a direct message, the seller confirms size, price, and delivery, and payment is by wallet, bank QR, or cash on delivery.
- Live selling: A seller shows products on a live video and takes orders from comments in real time.
- Groups and marketplaces: Community buy-and-sell groups and Facebook Marketplace connect local buyers and sellers.
Social commerce lowers the cost of starting a business, but it also brings risks: no standard checkout, weak buyer protection, and fake pages that copy real sellers.
4. Influencer Marketing
An influencer is a person with a trusted following on social media. Brands pay or gift products to influencers to feature them in posts and videos.
- Mega and macro influencers (hundreds of thousands to millions of followers) give wide reach but cost more and feel less personal.
- Micro influencers (a few thousand to tens of thousands of followers) often have higher engagement and more trust within a niche, such as fitness in Kathmandu or food in Pokhara.
Good practice is to check an influencer’s real engagement, not just follower count, and to make paid partnerships clear to the audience. Hiding that a post is paid damages trust when followers find out.
5. Measuring Social Marketing
| Metric | Formula or meaning |
|---|---|
| Reach | Number of unique people who saw the content |
| Impressions | Total number of times the content was shown |
| Engagement rate | Engagements ÷ reach × 100 |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | Clicks ÷ impressions × 100 |
| Cost per click (CPC) | Ad spend ÷ clicks |
| Conversion rate | Orders ÷ clicks × 100 |
| Cost per order | Ad spend ÷ orders |
Worked example: a boosted Instagram post
A Kathmandu clothing brand spends Rs. 5,000 to promote a Reel showing a new kurta collection.
- Reach: 20,000 people; impressions: 30,000
- Engagements (likes, comments, shares, saves): 900
- Clicks to the shop profile or website: 300
- Orders received (website and DMs): 12, average order value Rs. 2,500, gross margin 40%
Calculations:
- Engagement rate = 900 ÷ 20,000 × 100 = 4.5%
- CTR = 300 ÷ 30,000 × 100 = 1%
- CPC = 5,000 ÷ 300 = Rs. 16.67
- Conversion rate = 12 ÷ 300 × 100 = 4%
- Cost per order = 5,000 ÷ 12 = Rs. 416.67
- Gross profit from orders = 12 × 2,500 × 40% = Rs. 12,000; after ad spend = Rs. 7,000
The campaign paid for itself. If the brand had judged it only by likes, it would have missed the important figures: cost per order and profit after ad spend.
6. Risks of Social Marketing
- Platform dependency: The business does not own its followers. A change in the algorithm, an account ban, or a platform being blocked can cut off its customers overnight.
- Negative publicity: Complaints spread fast. A slow or defensive reply can turn one unhappy customer into a public crisis.
- Fake engagement: Bought followers and likes inflate numbers but produce no sales and can hurt reach.
- Privacy and data rules: Collecting customer data through messages and forms must respect privacy law and platform rules.
Social Marketing in Nepal
Social media is an integral part of the marketing strategy for most businesses in Nepal. With a large and active user base, social media platforms provide a great opportunity for businesses to reach their target audience.
- Facebook: Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Nepal. Businesses use Facebook to connect with their customers, to build their brand, and to drive sales. Facebook is also a popular platform for running targeted ad campaigns.
- Instagram: Instagram is another popular social media platform in Nepal, especially among the youth. Businesses use Instagram to share visually appealing content, to run influencer marketing campaigns, and to drive traffic to their websites.
- TikTok: TikTok has become a very popular platform in Nepal in recent years. Businesses are using TikTok to create short, engaging videos to promote their products and services.
- YouTube: YouTube is a popular platform for video marketing in Nepal. Businesses use YouTube to create and share a variety of videos, including product reviews, tutorials, and brand stories.
- Viber: Viber is a popular messaging app in Nepal, and it also offers a feature called “Viber Communities” which businesses can use to create a community around their brand.
Many Nepali small businesses run entirely on social commerce: a Facebook page or Instagram account, orders by Messenger or DM, payment by wallet QR or cash on delivery, and delivery through a courier partner.
Platform dependency is a real risk in Nepal. Government rules require social media platforms to register in the country, and platforms have been blocked in the past, including TikTok for several months from late 2023 and a wider block on unregistered platforms in September 2025 that was lifted within days after large protests. Businesses that relied only on one platform lost sales during these periods. A sensible strategy is to keep a customer list (phone numbers or email, with consent), a simple website or online store, and a presence on more than one platform.
Summary
Social marketing turns marketing into a conversation with customers. It follows five steps: fan acquisition, engagement, amplification, community, and brand strength and sales. Each platform suits different products and audiences. Social commerce lets businesses sell directly inside platforms, and influencer marketing borrows the trust of popular creators. Success should be measured by clicks, conversions, cost per order, and profit, not by likes alone. In Nepal, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are central to small business marketing, but platform dependency is a real risk.
Key Takeaways
- The social marketing process: fan acquisition → engagement → amplification → community → brand strength and sales.
- Choose platforms by where your customers are and what format suits the product.
- Social commerce is common in Nepal: DM orders, wallet or COD payment, courier delivery.
- Engagement rate = engagements ÷ reach × 100; cost per order = ad spend ÷ orders.
- Do not depend on one platform; keep your own customer list and website.
Discussion Questions
- Which two platforms would you choose for a new bakery in Lalitpur, and why?
- Is a high number of likes a sign of a successful campaign? Explain with an example.
- How should a small online seller in Nepal prepare for a platform being blocked or an account being suspended?
Exam-Style Questions
Short answer
- What is social marketing? How is it different from traditional advertising?
- List the five steps of the social marketing process.
- What is social commerce?
- Distinguish between micro and macro influencers.
- A post reaches 8,000 people and gets 240 engagements. Calculate the engagement rate.
Long answer
- Explain the social marketing process and the measures used at each step.
- Compare Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn as marketing platforms for businesses in Nepal.
- A business spends Rs. 10,000 on a Facebook ad that produces 500 clicks and 20 orders with an average gross profit of Rs. 800 per order. Calculate the CPC, conversion rate, cost per order, and profit after ad spend, and comment on the result.
