S.M.M companies are now springing up all over the place nowadays and they are informing anybody that will listen about how extremely important social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your company but, for the average small to medium sized organisation, does marketing to social media networks truly live up to all the hype? Is investing a small fortune on hiring a SMM business truly worth it? And has anyone really done their research study on this prior to they worked with somebody to set up there Facebook company page? Some SMM companies are setting up things like Facebook organisation pages (which are totally free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and telling their clients that they do not require a website because Facebook is the greatest social media network in the world and everyone has a Facebook account. Now while it may be true that Facebook is the biggest social media network in the world and yes, Facebook's members are prospective customers, the real question is are they in fact purchasing? Social media marketing companies are all too happy to mention the positives of social media like how many individuals utilize Facebook or the number of tweets were sent in 2015 and the number of individuals watch YouTube videos etc. but are you getting the complete image? I as soon as sat beside a SMM "specialist" at an organisation workshop who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the amazing benefits of establishing a Facebook company page for small company (with him obviously) and selling on Facebook. So, captivated by the abovementioned "experts" suggestions I looked him up on Facebook only to find he had just 11 Facebook good friends (not a great start). So being the research nut that I am, I decided to take a good check out SMM in regard to selling 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 service rely so heavily on social media networks for sales?
As a web designer I was continuously (and now progressively) challenged with a number of social networking challenges when possible clients would state that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook company page and had actually 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 became rather clear that those potential clients didn't actually know why they required social networks or SMM to create online sales, They just wanted it. For little and medium sized company I always recommended developing a quality website over any kind of social media network, why? Well it's basic actually because social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not service media and business 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 cannot tell you that Facebook is a social media network not a search engine and in spite of the number of Facebook users and Google users being around the very same, individuals don't utilize Facebook in the same way that they use an online search engine like Google (which has around half the search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to look for company or items. They use it to correspond with family and friends or for news and entertainment. In a recent research study done by the IBM Institute for Service Value 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 actively utilize social media to communicate with brand names. Now from all the people who do use social media and who do engage with brand names whether actively or not, the majority (66%) state they have to feel a business is communicating honestly before they will engage.
So how do you utilize social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well firstly I would say that having actually a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more service that social media in most cases specifically if you are a small to medium sized regional business since even more people are going to type in "hair stylist Port Macquarie" into an online 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 losing out on all of that prospective organisation. In spite of all the (not so excellent) statistics I still think it is still a great concept for organisation to use social media simply not in the very same method that a lot of SMM professionals are today, Why? Since it's plainly not operating in the way they claim it does. Essentially SMM Business and Organisation as a whole looked at social media networks like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the selecting when Facebook began getting users measured by the millions PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested US$ 500,000 for 7% of the company (in June 2004) and considering that them a couple of venture capital firms have actually made financial investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft announced that it had bought a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Nevertheless given that Facebook's modest beginnings up until now (2012) both SMM Companies and Business have cannot genuinely capitalise on the huge number of Facebook users online. The fact is numbers does not equal purchasers. Is it in a Social Media Marketing business's benefit to talk social networks up? Absolutely. Is it in a Social Media Network like Facebook's benefits for individuals to believe that companies can sell en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Obviously it is. In early 2012, Facebook divulged that its earnings had leapt 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its income which is primarily from marketing had leapt nearly 90% to $3.71 billion so clearly the idea of SMM is exercising for them however it is exercising for you? Well ... statistically no, but that does not always indicate that it never ever will.
One of the greatest issues organisation face with social networks and SMM is understanding. The main factor a lot of individuals offer for engaging with brand names or company on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brands and organisation themselves think the main factor people connect with them on social media is to discover about brand-new items. Many organisations think social media will increase advocacy, however only 38 % of customers agree.
Companies have to find more ingenious methods to connect with social media if they wish to see some sort of arise from it. There were some excellent 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 advantage, keeping in mind that when asked what they do when they connect with organisations or brand names via social media, customers list "getting discounts or coupons" and "acquiring services and products" as the top two activities, respectively a UNITED STATE ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discount rates on their items on their Facebook page. There is a terrific program launched by Finest Purchases in the UNITED STATE called Twelpforce where workers can respond to consumer's concerns through Twitter. With both Cold Stone Social Media Agency Creamery and Twelpforce the benefit is clearly in the favour of the fantastic trick & the potential consumer to social media marketing is to offer without trying to sell (or appearing like your selling) regrettably most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Constructing a tangible purchaser to consumer relationship through social media is challenging and most likely the most benefit to business' using social media to improve their sites Google rankings. Organisation' require to understand that you cannot simply setup a Facebook company page and hope for the best. SMM requires effort and prospective customers have to see worth in what you have to provide via your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time then you might improve outcomes.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have actually dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their original cost ... and the claims are flying
As a web designer I was constantly (and now significantly) confronted with several social networking challenges when possible clients would state that having a site sounds great however they had a Facebook organisation page and had been informed 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 possible clients didn't in fact understand why they needed social networks or SMM to generate online sales, They simply desired it. Well it's basic actually because social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not company media and service networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). In a current research study done by the IBM Institute for Business Worth around 55% of all social media users mentioned that they do not engage with brand names over social media at all and just around 23% really actively utilize social media to engage with brands. Well first of all I would say that having actually a well enhanced site is still going to bring you far more business that social media in a lot of cases particularly if you are a small to medium sized local company due to the fact that far 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 Website and if you do not have a site you're missing out on all of that potential business. The primary factor most individuals offer for interacting with brands or service on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brand names and organisation themselves believe the primary factor individuals engage with them on social media is to find out about brand-new items.
