S.M.M business are now springing up all over the place these days and they are informing anyone that will listen about how exceptionally essential social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your business however, for the average small to medium sized organisation, does marketing to social networks really live up to all the hype? Social media marketing business are all too happy to point out the positives of social media like how lots of individuals use Facebook or how lots of tweets were sent out last year and how numerous people see YouTube videos etc. however are you getting the full picture? Being the research study nut that I am, I decided to take a good appearance into SMM in regard to selling to see if it in fact worked, who did it work for and if it did why did Social Media Marketing work for them?
As a web developer I was constantly (and now progressively) confronted with a number of social networking obstacles when prospective clients would state that having a website sounds good but they had a Facebook business page and had been informed by various sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that social media networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their requirements it became rather clear that those prospective clients didn't in fact know why they required social networks or SMM to create online sales, They simply wanted it. For little and medium sized organisation I always advised building a quality site over any type of social media, why? Well it's easy actually due to the fact that social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not business media and business networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). I know that sounds basic but it holds true and the statistics back it up. The fact is that social media marketing cannot tell you that Facebook is a social media not a search engine and regardless of the number of Facebook users and Google users being around the same, people do not use Facebook in the same way that they utilize an online search engine like Google (which has around half the search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to look for business or items. They use it to correspond with family and friends or for news and home entertainment. In a recent research study done by the IBM Institute for Company Worth around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% really actively use social media to connect with brands. Now from all individuals who do use social media and who do engage with brands whether actively or not, the majority (66%) state they need to feel a company is interacting honestly before they will connect.
So how do you utilize social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well first of all I would say that having actually a well enhanced site is still going to bring you far more service that social media in a lot of cases specifically if you are a small to medium sized regional service due to the fact that far more people are going to type in "hairdresser Port Macquarie" into a search engine like Google, Yahoo and Bing than they ever will on any Social Media Website and if you do not have a site you're missing out on out on all of that prospective service. Despite all the (not so good) statistics I still believe it is still an excellent idea for service to use social media simply not in the very same method that a lot of SMM professionals are today, Why? Is it in a Social Media Marketing business's best interest to talk social networks up?
One of the most significant issues business face with social networks and SMM is perception. The primary reason many people give for interacting with brands or business on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brands and company themselves think the main factor individuals engage with them on social media is to discover about new products. Most businesses think social media will increase advocacy, however only 38 % of consumers agree.
Companies have to discover more ingenious methods to connect with social media if they want to see some sort of result from it. There were some great initiatives shown in the IBM research study of business that had actually gotten some sort of a deal with on ways to use social media to their benefit, bearing in mind that when asked what they do when they interact with businesses or brand names by means of social media, consumers list "getting discounts or coupons" and "acquiring services and products" as the leading two activities, respectively an U.S ice cream business called Cold Stone Creamery provided discount rates on their products on their Facebook page. There is an excellent program introduced by Best Purchases in the UNITED STATE called Twelpforce where workers can respond to consumer's concerns via Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the benefit is plainly in the favour of the possible client & the fantastic technique to social media marketing is to sell without attempting to offer (or looking like your selling) regrettably most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Constructing a concrete purchaser to customer relationship through social media is hard and probably the most benefit to organisation' using social media to improve their sites Google rankings. However service' have to understand that you cannot just setup a Facebook organisation page and expect the very best. SMM requires effort and prospective consumers need to see worth in what you need to use via your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time and then you may get better results.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their original cost ... and the suits are flying
As a web designer I was constantly (and now progressively) confronted with numerous social networking challenges when prospective customers would state that having a site sounds good but they had a Facebook service page and had actually been informed by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their requirements it became rather clear that those possible clients didn't in fact know why they required social networks or SMM to produce online sales, They just wanted it. Well it's simple really due to the fact that social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not organisation media and business networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). In a recent study done by the IBM Institute for Organisation Value around 55% of all social media users mentioned that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% in fact actively utilize social media to connect with brand names. Well initially of all I would say that having actually a well optimized website is still going to bring you far more company that social media in the majority of cases particularly if you are a little to medium sized local business due to Social Media Agency the fact that far more people are going to type in "hairdresser Port Macquarie" into a search engine like Google, Yahoo and Bing than they ever will on any Social Media Site and if you do not have a site you're missing out on out on all of that prospective organisation. The main factor the majority of people provide for connecting with brand names or company on social media is to receive discounts, yet the brands and service themselves think the main reason people engage with them on social media is to learn about brand-new products.
