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 company but, for the typical small to medium sized service, does marketing to social networks actually live up to all the buzz? Is spending a small fortune on working with a SMM company really worth it? And has anyone actually done their research on this prior to they worked with somebody to set up there Facebook company page? Some SMM companies are establishing things like Facebook service pages (which are complimentary) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their customers that they do not require a site since Facebook is the most significant social media network worldwide and everyone has a Facebook account. Now while it might hold true that Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet and yes, Facebook's members are possible consumers, the real question is are they actually purchasing? Social media marketing companies are all too pleased to explain the positives of social media like the number of people use Facebook or how many tweets were sent out last year and how many individuals see YouTube videos etc. but are you getting the full photo? I once sat beside a SMM "professional" at a service seminar who was spruiking to anybody who came within earshot about the fantastic benefits of establishing a Facebook service page for small company (with him obviously) and selling on Facebook. So, intrigued by the abovementioned "experts" guidance I looked him up on Facebook just to find he had just 11 Facebook pals (not a good start). Being the research study nut that I am, I decided to take a great appearance into SMM in regard to selling 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 organisation rely so heavily on social media networks for sales?
As a web developer I was constantly (and now significantly) confronted with a number of social networking obstacles when potential customers would state that having a site sounds excellent however they had a Facebook company page and had been told by various sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that socials media were the important things to do, however after discussing their requirements it ended up being rather clear that those prospective customers didn't in fact know why they needed social media networks or SMM to create online sales, They simply desired it. For little and medium sized organisation I constantly advised constructing a quality website over any type of social media, why? Well it's basic really because social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not company media and company networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). I know that sounds simple but it's true and the stats back it up. The truth is that social media marketing cannot inform you that Facebook is a social media not an online search engine and despite the variety of Facebook users and Google users being around the same, people do not utilize Facebook in the same way that they utilize a search engine like Google (which has around half the search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for company or products. They use it to correspond with friends and family or for news and home entertainment. In a recent research study done by the IBM Institute for Company Value around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brand names over social media at all and just around 23% really purposefully use social media to interact with brand names. Now from all the people who do use social media and who do interact with brand names whether actively or not, the bulk (66%) state they have to feel a business is interacting truthfully before they will communicate.
So how do you use social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well first off I would state that having a well optimized site is still going to bring you even more company that social media in most cases specifically if you are a little to medium sized regional service due to the fact that much more people are going to key 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 possible company. However in spite of all the (not so great) statistics I still believe it is still a good idea for organisation to use social media simply not in the same way that a lot of SMM specialists are today, Why? Because it's clearly not operating in the method they claim it does. Basically SMM Business and Company as a whole took a look at social networks like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the selecting and 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 few equity capital firms have actually made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft revealed that it had actually bought a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. Because Facebook's modest starts up until Logan Williams SEO now (2012) both SMM Companies and Company have actually stopped working to genuinely capitalise on the substantial number of Facebook users online. The fact is numbers does not equal buyers. 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 best interests for individuals to think that companies can offer en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Obviously it is. In early 2012, Facebook revealed that its revenues had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its income which is mainly from advertising had jumped practically 90% to $3.71 billion so plainly the principle of SMM is exercising for them but it is exercising for you? Well ... statistically no, but that does not always suggest that it never will.
One of the most significant issues service face with social networks and SMM is perception. The main reason most individuals offer for interacting with brand names or business on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brands and organisation themselves think the main factor people interact with them on social media is to learn about new items. A lot of companies believe social media will increase advocacy, however only 38 % of consumers concur.
There were some great efforts shown in the IBM research study of companies that had actually gotten some sort of a handle on how to utilize social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked exactly what they do when they interact with organisations or brands by means of social media, consumers note "getting discounts or discount coupons" and "acquiring products and services" as the top 2 activities, respectively an U.S ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery used discounts on their items on their Facebook page. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the advantage is clearly in the favour of the prospective consumer & the great trick to social media marketing is to sell without trying to offer (or looking like your selling) unfortunately most social media marketing is focused the wrong method.
Building a tangible purchaser to consumer relationship through social media is hard and probably the most benefit to service' using social media to enhance their websites Google rankings. Service' need to comprehend that you cannot just setup a Facebook organisation page and hope for the best. SMM needs effort and potential clients need to see worth in what you need to offer 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 actually dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their original cost ... and the lawsuits are flying
As a web designer I was constantly (and now significantly) confronted with numerous social networking challenges when prospective customers would say that having a site sounds excellent but they had a Facebook service page and had been told by numerous sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that social networks were the thing to do, however after discussing their needs it became rather clear that those potential customers didn't in fact know why they required social networks or SMM to generate online sales, They just desired it. Well it's easy 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). In a recent research study done by the IBM Institute for Organisation Value 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 purposefully utilize social media to connect with brands. Well first of all I would say that having actually a well optimized website is still going to bring you far more service that social media in most cases particularly if you are a little to medium sized regional business since far 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 Site and if you do not have a site you're missing out on all of that prospective organisation. The primary reason the majority of people provide for connecting with brands or company on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brand names and business themselves think the main reason individuals interact with them on social media is to learn about new products.
