S.M.M business are now emerging all over the place these days and they are telling anybody that will listen about how extremely important social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your organisation however, for the average little to medium sized service, does marketing to social media networks really measure up to all the buzz? Is spending a little fortune on hiring a SMM company really worth it? And has anybody truly done their research on this before they worked with somebody to establish there Facebook business page? Some SMM business are establishing things like Facebook business pages (which are free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their customers that they don't require a website because Facebook is the greatest social media network in the world and everyone has a Facebook account. Now while it might hold true that Facebook is the largest social media on the planet and yes, Facebook's members are potential consumers, the genuine concern is are they in fact purchasing? Social media marketing companies are all too happy to point out the positives of social media like the number of people use Facebook or the number of tweets were sent out last year and the number of people see YouTube videos and so on but are you getting the complete photo? I once sat beside a SMM "professional" at a business workshop who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the fantastic advantages of setting up a Facebook organisation page for small business (with him of course) and selling on Facebook. So, captivated by the previously mentioned "professionals" guidance I looked him up on Facebook just to discover he had just 11 Facebook friends (not an excellent start). So being the research study nut that I am, I decided to take an excellent look into SMM in regard to offering to see if it really worked, who did it work for and if it did why did Social Media Marketing work for them? And should company rely so greatly on social media networks for sales?
As a web designer I was constantly (and now progressively) confronted with numerous social networking challenges when potential customers would say that having a website sounds good but they had a Facebook business page and had actually been told by numerous sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that social networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their needs it ended up being rather clear that those potential clients didn't actually know why they required social networks or SMM to generate online sales, They just wanted it. Well it's basic actually since social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not business media and service networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). In a recent research 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 just around 23% in fact purposefully use social media to connect with brands.
How do you utilize social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well firstly I would state that having a well optimized site is still going to bring you even more business that social media in many cases especially if you are a small to medium sized regional organisation because much more individuals 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 website you're losing out on all that potential company. Nevertheless regardless of all the (not so good) statistics I still think it is still a smart idea for organisation to utilize social media just not in the same way that a great deal of SMM professionals are today, Why? Since it's plainly not working in the way they claim it does. Essentially SMM Business and Business as a whole looked at social media networks like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the selecting and when Facebook started getting users determined by the millions PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested US$ 500,000 for 7% of the business (in June 2004) and since them a few equity capital companies have made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft revealed that it had actually purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Because Facebook's simple starts up till now (2012) both SMM Companies and Company have actually stopped working to genuinely capitalise on the huge number of Facebook users online. The truth is numbers does not equal purchasers. Is it in a Social Media Marketing business's best interest to talk social media networks up? Definitely. Is it in a Social Network like Facebook's best interests for people to think that business can sell en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Naturally it is. In early 2012, Facebook divulged that its profits had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its profits which is generally from advertising had jumped almost 90% to $3.71 billion so plainly the idea of SMM is exercising for them but it is exercising for you? Well ... statistically no, but that does not necessarily imply that it never ever will.
One of the most significant problems company face with social networks and SMM is perception. The primary factor the majority of individuals offer for connecting with brand names or organisation on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brand names and organisation themselves believe the main reason people interact with Website them on social media is to find out about brand-new items. Many businesses believe social media will increase advocacy, however just 38 % of customers concur.
Business need to find more innovative ways to connect with social media if they wish to see some sort of arise from it. There were some great initiatives shown in the IBM study of business that had actually gotten some sort of a deal with on ways to use social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked exactly what they do when they engage with organisations or brands via social media, customers note "getting discount rates or discount coupons" and "purchasing products and services" as the leading 2 activities, respectively a UNITED STATE ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discount rates on their products on their Facebook page. Alternatively there is a great program released by Finest Buys in the U.S called Twelpforce where staff members can react to client's questions via Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the advantage is clearly in the favour of the potential customer & the excellent technique to social media marketing is to offer without attempting to sell (or appearing like your selling) regrettably most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Developing a tangible purchaser to customer relationship through social media is hard and most likely the most benefit to business' utilizing social media to improve their websites Google rankings. Business' require to understand that you can't simply setup a Facebook service page and hope for the best. SMM needs effort and potential consumers have to see value in exactly what you need to offer by means of your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time and then you might get better outcomes.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have actually dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their original rate ... and the suits are flying
As a web developer I was continuously (and now increasingly) challenged with a number of social networking challenges when possible customers would say that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook service page and had been informed by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social networks were the thing to do, however after discussing their needs it ended up being quite clear that those potential customers didn't really understand why they required social networks or SMM to produce online sales, They simply desired it. Well it's simple truly because social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not organisation media and company networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). In a current study done by the IBM Institute for Organisation Worth around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brand names over social media at all and only around 23% in fact purposefully utilize social media to communicate with brand names. Well first of all I would say that having actually a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more company that social media in the majority of cases especially if you are a little to medium sized local business since far more people are going to type in "hair stylist 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 website you're missing out on out on all of that prospective organisation. The primary factor many individuals provide for interacting with brand names or business on social media is to get discounts, yet the brand names and business themselves believe the primary reason individuals communicate with them on social media is to discover about new items.
