S.M.M companies are now emerging all over the place these days and they are informing anybody that will listen about how extremely essential social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your company however, for the typical little to medium sized business, does marketing to social media networks truly live up to all the buzz? Is investing a little fortune on employing a SMM company really worth it? And has anybody really done their research on this before they employed somebody to set up there Facebook company page? Some SMM business are establishing things like Facebook business pages (which are free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and telling their customers that they do not require a website since Facebook is the biggest social media network worldwide and everyone has a Facebook account. Now while it may hold true that Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet and yes, Facebook's members are prospective consumers, the real concern is are they in fact buying? Social media marketing companies are all too delighted to point out the positives of social media like the number of people use Facebook or how many tweets were sent out in 2015 and how many individuals watch YouTube videos and so on however are you getting the complete image? I once sat next to a SMM "professional" at a company seminar who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the incredible advantages of setting up a Facebook service page for small business (with him naturally) and selling on Facebook. Interested by the previously mentioned "specialists" guidance I looked him up on Facebook only to find he had just 11 Facebook friends (not an excellent start). Being the research study nut that I am, I decided to take an excellent look 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 service rely so greatly on social networks for sales?
As a web designer I was constantly (and now significantly) faced with numerous social networking obstacles when possible clients would state that having a website sounds good but they had a Facebook organisation page and had actually been told by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social media networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their needs it ended up being quite clear that those prospective customers didn't really understand why they needed social networks or SMM to create online sales, They simply wanted it. For little and medium sized business I constantly advised constructing a quality website over any type of social media, why? Well it's easy truly since social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not company media and business networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). I know that sounds basic however it's true and the data back it up. The fact is that social media marketing cannot tell you that Facebook is a social media network not an online search engine and regardless of the variety of Facebook users and Google users being around the very same, individuals do not utilize Facebook in the same way that they use a search engine like Google (which has around half the online search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to look for company or items. They utilize it to keep in touch with friends and family or for news and entertainment. In a current study done by the IBM Institute for Business Worth around 55% of all social media users specified that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% in fact purposefully use social media to connect with brands. Now from all individuals who do use social media and who do engage with brand names whether purposefully or not, the majority (66%) state they need to feel a business is interacting truthfully before they will interact.
So how do you use social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well initially of all I would say that having actually a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more business that social media in many cases particularly if you are a small to medium sized local service 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 Site and if you don't have a site you're missing out on out on all of that prospective service. Despite all the (not so excellent) statistics I still think it is still a good idea for business to utilize social media simply not in the same way that a lot of SMM specialists are today, Why? Is it in a Social Media Marketing business's finest interest to talk social networks up?
One of the most significant issues company face with social networks and SMM is perception. The primary reason most people offer for connecting with brand names or organisation on social media is to get discounts, yet the brand names and company themselves think the primary factor people interact with them on social media is to learn about new products. A lot of organisations believe social media will increase advocacy, but just 38 % of customers agree.
There were some excellent initiatives shown in the IBM research study of companies that had gotten some sort of a manage on how to use social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked exactly what they do when they communicate with businesses or brand names through social media, consumers note "getting discounts or coupons" and "buying products and services" as the top 2 activities, respectively a UNITED STATE ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery provided discounts on their items on their Facebook page. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the advantage is clearly in the favour of the possible customer & the excellent trick to social media marketing is to offer without trying to sell (or looking like your selling) regrettably most social media marketing is focused the wrong method.
Developing a tangible purchaser to consumer relationship by means of social media is difficult and most likely the most benefit to company' using social media to improve their websites Google rankings. Business' require to understand that you cannot just setup a Facebook organisation page and hope for the finest. SMM requires effort and prospective customers have to see value in exactly what you have to use through your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time and after that you may improve results.
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 designer I was constantly (and now increasingly) faced with several social networking difficulties when potential customers would say that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook business page and had been informed by different sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their requirements it ended up being quite clear that those prospective clients didn't really understand why they needed social networks or SMM to generate online sales, They simply wanted it. Well it's easy really since social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not business media and organisation 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 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 state that having a well enhanced website is still going to bring you far more service that social media in many cases specifically if you are a small to medium sized regional company due to the fact that far more people are going to type in "hair stylist Port Website 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 potential service. The primary reason the majority of people offer for interacting with brand names or business on social media is to get discount rates, yet the brands and organisation themselves think the primary factor people connect with them on social media is to learn about brand-new products.
