S.M.M business are now springing up all over the place these days and they are telling anybody that will listen about how extremely essential social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your company but, for the average small to medium sized company, does marketing to social networks really live up to all the hype? Is investing a little fortune on employing a SMM company really worth it? And has anybody actually done their research study on this before they hired somebody to establish there Facebook company page? Some SMM companies are establishing things like Facebook business pages (which are totally free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their customers that they don't require a site due to the fact that Facebook is the most significant social network on the planet and everybody has a Facebook account. Now while it may hold true that Facebook is the biggest social media worldwide and yes, Facebook's members are prospective customers, the genuine concern is are they in fact buying? Social media marketing business are all too delighted to point out the positives of social media like the number of individuals use Facebook or how many tweets were sent in 2015 and the number of people enjoy YouTube videos and so on however are you getting the complete picture? I once sat next to a SMM "specialist" at an organisation workshop who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the incredible benefits of setting up a Facebook service page for small company (with him naturally) and selling on Facebook. Interested by the aforementioned "experts" guidance I looked him up on Facebook only to discover he had only 11 Facebook good friends (not an excellent start). So being the research study nut that I am, I decided to take a good look into SMM in regard to offering to see if it in fact worked, who did it work for and if it did why did Social Media Marketing work for them? And should business rely so greatly on social media networks for sales?
As a web developer I was constantly (and now increasingly) confronted with a number of social networking obstacles when potential clients would state that having a site sounds good however they had a Facebook organisation page and had been informed by various sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that socials media were the important things to do, but after discussing their requirements it became quite clear that those potential clients didn't really understand why they needed socials media or SMM to create online sales, They simply wanted it. For medium and small sized company I constantly advised constructing a quality site over any type of social media, why? Well it's basic actually 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). I understand that sounds basic but it holds true and the statistics back it up. The truth is that social media marketing fails to inform you that Facebook is a social media network not a search engine and regardless of the variety of Facebook users and Google users being around the same, individuals do not use Facebook in the same way that they utilize a search engine like Google (which has around half the online search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for business or items. They use it to stay connected with friends and family or for news and home entertainment. In a current 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 just around 23% in fact purposefully use social media to communicate with brand names. Now from all the people who do use social media and who do connect with brands whether purposefully or not, Elite Digital Marketing agency the bulk (66%) say they have to feel a business is communicating truthfully prior to they will communicate.
So how do you use social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well first of all I would state that having actually a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more company that social media in a lot of cases specifically if you are a little to medium sized local company due to the fact that far more people 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 do not have a site you're missing out on out on all of that potential service. Regardless of all the (not so good) stats I still believe it is still a great concept for service to use social media just not in the very same way that a lot of SMM experts are today, Why? Is it in a Social Media Marketing business's finest interest to talk social networks up?
One of the biggest issues organisation face with social networks and SMM is perception. The main factor many individuals offer for communicating with brand names or organisation on social media is to receive discounts, yet the brand names and organisation themselves think the primary factor people communicate with them on social media is to discover about new products. Most organisations believe social media will increase advocacy, but only 38 % of consumers agree.
There were some great initiatives revealed in the IBM research study of companies that had actually gotten some sort of a handle on how to utilize social media to their benefit, keeping in mind that when asked what they do when they connect with organisations or brand names by means of social media, customers list "getting discount rates or coupons" and "buying products and services" as the top 2 activities, respectively an USA 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 client & the great trick to social media marketing is to offer without trying to offer (or looking like your selling) sadly most social media marketing is focused the incorrect method.
Building a concrete purchaser to consumer relationship by means of social media is challenging and probably the most benefit to organisation' using social media to boost their sites Google rankings. Company' require to understand that you can't just setup a Facebook company page and hope for the finest. SMM requires effort and possible clients have to see value in exactly what you have to offer via your social media efforts provide something worth their social interaction and time then 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 significantly) confronted with several social networking difficulties when prospective clients would state 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 became rather clear that those potential customers didn't in fact know why they required social networks or SMM to create 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 business media and company networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). In a current study done by the IBM Institute for Service Worth 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% actually actively utilize social media to interact with brands. Well first of all I would say that having actually a well enhanced site is still going to bring you far more organisation that social media in the majority of 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 out on all of that potential service. The main factor a lot of individuals give for engaging with brand names or company on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brands and company themselves believe the primary factor individuals interact with them on social media is to find out about new products.
