S.M.M business are now springing up all over the place these days and they are informing anybody that will listen about how extremely important social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your business however, for the typical small to medium sized organisation, does marketing to socials media actually live up to all the hype? Is investing a small fortune on hiring a SMM business truly worth it? And has anyone actually done their research on this before they hired somebody to set up there Facebook company page? Some SMM business are establishing things like Facebook company pages (which are free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their customers that they do not require a site since Facebook is the biggest social media worldwide and everyone has a Facebook account. Now while it may hold true that Facebook is the biggest social media network in the world and yes, Facebook's members are possible consumers, the real concern is are they really purchasing? Social media marketing business are all too pleased to point out the positives of social media like the number of people use Facebook or the number of tweets were sent out in 2015 and the number of people see YouTube videos and so on but are you getting the full picture? I as soon as sat next to a SMM "expert" at a service seminar who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the fantastic benefits of setting up a Facebook service page for small company (with him obviously) and selling on Facebook. Intrigued by the abovementioned "experts" suggestions I looked him up on Facebook only to discover he had only 11 Facebook friends (not a great start). Being the research nut that I am, I decided to take a great look into SMM in regard to offering to see if it actually worked, who did it work for and if it did why did Social Media Marketing work for them? And should organisation rely so heavily on socials media for sales?
As a web designer I was constantly (and now significantly) confronted with numerous social networking difficulties when possible clients would state that having a website sounds great but they had a Facebook organisation page and had been informed by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social networks were the important things to do, however after discussing their needs it ended up being quite clear that those potential clients didn't in fact know why they required social networks or SMM to create online sales, They just desired it. For medium and small sized service I always suggested constructing a quality website over any kind of social network, why? Well it's easy actually since 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). I understand that sounds easy however it's true and the data back it up. The fact is that social media marketing cannot inform you that Facebook is a social media not a search engine and in spite of the variety of Facebook users and Google users being around the exact same, individuals don't utilize Facebook in the same way that they utilize an online search engine like Google (which has around half the online search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for service or products. They utilize it to keep in touch with friends and family or for news and entertainment. In a recent study done by the IBM Institute for Company Value around 55% of all social media users specified 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. Now out of all individuals who do use social media and who do connect with brand names whether purposefully or not, the bulk (66%) state they need to feel a business is communicating truthfully before they will connect.
How do you use 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 far more organisation that social media in many cases specifically if you are a little to medium sized regional business due to the fact that much more individuals 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 don't have a site you're missing out on all of that possible organisation. Despite all the (not so excellent) statistics I still think it is still a good concept for service to utilize social media just not in the very same way that a lot of SMM experts are today, Why? Since it's plainly not operating in the way they declare it does. Generally SMM Business and Business as a whole looked at socials media like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the picking and when Facebook started getting users measured 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 venture capital companies have made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Nevertheless since Facebook's simple starts up until now (2012) both SMM Companies and Business have cannot really capitalise on the big variety of Facebook users online. The truth is numbers does not equal purchasers. Is it in a Social Media Marketing company's best interest to talk social media networks up? Absolutely. Is it in a Social Media like Facebook's benefits for individuals to think that companies can sell en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Obviously it is. In early 2012, Facebook divulged that its profits had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its income which is primarily from advertising had jumped almost 90% to $3.71 billion so clearly the principle of SMM is working out for them but it Elite Digital Marketing agency is working out for you? Well ... statistically no, but that does not always indicate that it never will.
One of the biggest issues service face with social networks and SMM is understanding. The primary reason many people give for interacting with brands or organisation on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brands and business themselves believe the primary factor people communicate with them on social media is to learn about brand-new items. A lot of services believe social media will increase advocacy, but only 38 % of customers concur.
Business need to find more innovative ways to get in touch with social media if they wish to see some sort of result from it. There were some excellent efforts displayed in the IBM study of companies that had gotten some sort of a handle on the best ways to utilize social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked what they do when they connect with organisations or brand names through social media, consumers note "getting discount rates or discount coupons" and "buying products and services" as the top 2 activities, respectively a UNITED STATE ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discount rates on their items on their Facebook page. Alternatively there is a fantastic program launched by Finest Purchases in the UNITED STATE called Twelpforce where employees can respond to consumer's concerns via Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the advantage is clearly in the favour of the potential customer & the terrific trick to social media marketing is to sell without aiming to offer (or looking like your selling) regrettably most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Building a concrete buyer to customer relationship via social media is challenging and probably the most benefit to organisation' using social media to enhance their websites Google rankings. However company' have to understand that you cannot just setup a Facebook organisation page and expect the very best. SMM requires effort and prospective clients have to see worth in what you have to use by means of your social media efforts give them something worth their social interaction and time and after that you might improve results.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their initial rate ... and the claims are flying
As a web developer I was constantly (and now progressively) challenged with several social networking challenges when prospective customers would say that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook business 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 prospective customers didn't actually understand why they required social networks or SMM to produce online sales, They just wanted it. Well it's basic really since 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 current research study done by the IBM Institute for Service Worth around 55% of all social media users specified that they do not engage with brand names over social media at all and just around 23% in fact actively utilize social media to communicate with brands. Well initially of all I would state that having a well enhanced site is still going to bring you far more business that social media in most cases especially if you are a small to medium sized local organisation since 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 don't have a website you're missing out on all of that potential business. The primary reason a lot of individuals offer for connecting with brand names or organisation on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brand names and service themselves think the main reason people engage with them on social media is to discover about brand-new items.
