S.M.M business are now springing up all over the place these days and they are informing anyone that will listen about how incredibly crucial social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your service but, for the average little to medium sized company, does marketing to social networks 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 study on this before they hired somebody to establish there Facebook business page? Some SMM business are establishing things like Facebook company pages (which are free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their clients that they don't require a site since Facebook is the biggest social media on the planet and everybody has a Facebook account. Now while it might hold true that Facebook is the largest social network worldwide and yes, Facebook's members are prospective consumers, the real concern is are they really buying? Social media marketing business are all too pleased to point out the positives of social media like the number of individuals use Facebook or the number of tweets were sent 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 company workshop who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the amazing advantages of establishing a Facebook service page for small business (with him naturally) and selling on Facebook. Interested by the aforementioned "professionals" advice I looked him up on Facebook just to find he had just 11 Facebook pals (not a great start). So being the research nut that I am, I chose to take a great 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 developer I was continuously (and now increasingly) faced with a number of social networking obstacles when potential customers would say that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook company page and had been informed by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social media networks were the thing to do, however after discussing their needs it ended up being quite clear that those possible clients didn't in fact know why they needed social media networks or SMM to generate online sales, They just desired it. For medium and little sized business I constantly recommended constructing a quality website over any kind of social network, why? Well it's easy actually 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). I understand that sounds simple however it's true and the stats back it up. The reality is that social media marketing fails to inform you that Facebook is a social network not an online search engine and in spite of the number of Facebook users and Google users being around the exact same, people don't 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 Business Worth around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and just around 23% actually actively use social media to engage with brands. Now from all individuals who do use social media and who do engage with brands whether purposefully or not, the bulk (66%) say they have to feel a company is interacting honestly prior to they will connect.
So how do you use social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well initially of all I would say that having a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more organisation that social media in many cases particularly if you are a little to medium sized regional business because 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 all of that prospective service. Regardless of all the (not so excellent) data I still think it is still a great concept for organisation to use social media just not in the exact same method that a lot of SMM specialists are today, Why? Is it in a Social Media Marketing company's best interest to talk social networks up?
One of the biggest problems organisation face with social networks and SMM is understanding. The main factor a lot of individuals provide for communicating with brands or company on social media is to receive discounts, yet the brands and business themselves think the main factor individuals connect with them on social media is to discover about new products. Most businesses think social media will increase advocacy, however just 38 % of consumers agree.
Companies need to find more innovative methods to get in touch with social media if they wish to see some sort of arise from it. There were some excellent efforts displayed in the IBM research study of companies that had gotten some sort of a manage 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, customers list "getting discounts or 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 items on their Facebook page. Additionally there is a terrific program launched by Best Purchases in the USA called Twelpforce where workers can respond to customer's questions by means of Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the advantage is plainly in the favour of the great technique & the prospective client to social media marketing is to sell without aiming to offer (or looking like your selling) sadly most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Building a concrete purchaser to consumer relationship by means of social media is difficult and probably the most benefit to organisation' utilizing social media to boost their sites Google rankings. But business' have to understand that you cannot simply setup a Facebook business page and wish for the best. SMM needs effort and prospective clients need to see worth in what you need to offer via your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time and then you might improve results.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have actually dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their original price ... and the suits are flying
As a web developer I was continuously (and now progressively) confronted with a number of social networking difficulties when potential customers would say that having a site sounds great but they had a Facebook service page and had been informed by different 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 possible customers didn't actually understand why they needed social networks or SMM to create online sales, They just desired it. Well it's easy really 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 Company Worth around 55% of all social media users mentioned that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% really purposefully utilize social media to communicate 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 business that social media in a lot of cases especially if you are a little to medium sized local organisation 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 Site and if you don't have a website you're missing out on out on all of that prospective company. The primary factor many individuals offer for communicating with brand names or organisation on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brands and organisation themselves think the Logan Williams SEO primary reason individuals interact with them on social media is to discover about new items.
