Social Media Marketing seems to be the most recent buzz word for everyone looking to improve their online presence and sales, but is Social Media Marketing (SMM) all it’s cracked as much as be?As a net developer I was constantly (and now increasingly) confronted by several social networking challenges when potential clients would say that having a website sounds good but they had a Facebook business page and have been told by various sources (the ever present yet anonymous “they”) that social support systems were the move to make, but after discussing their needs it became quite clear that those potential clients didn’t actually know why they needed social support systems or SMM to generate online sales,
They just wanted it. For small and medium sized business I always recommended building a quality website over any type of social network, why? Well it’s simple really because social media marketing is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they’re not business media and business networks (that will be more like LinkedIn). I realize that sounds simple but it’s true and the statistics back it up. The fact is that social media marketing marketing fails to inform you that Facebook is a cultural network not a research engine and despite how many Facebook users and Google users being around the exact same, people don’t use Facebook in the exact same way which they work with a internet search engine like Google (which has around half the internet search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for business or products. They use it to keep in touch with family and friends and for news and entertainment. In a recently available study done by the IBM Institute for Business Value around 55% of all social media marketing users stated that they don’t engage with brands over social media marketing at all and only around 23% actually purposefully use social media marketing to communicate with brands. Now out of all the people who do use social media marketing and who do communicate with brands whether purposefully or not, almost all (66%) say they have to feel a business is communicating honestly before they will interact.
So how will you use social media marketing marketing? And can it be even worth doing?
Well first of all I would say that having a well optimized website continues to be going to bring you far more business that social media marketing typically particularly if you certainly are a small to medium sized local business because far more people will key in “hairdresser Port Macquarie” into a research 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 this potential business. However despite most of the (not so good) statistics I still believe it is still a good idea for business to utilize social media marketing just not in the exact same way that many of SMM professionals are today, Why? Because it’s clearly not employed in the way they claim it does. Basically SMM Companies and Business in general viewed social support systems like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the picking and when Facebook started getting users measured by the millions PayPal co-founder Peter.
Thiel invested US$500,000 for 7% of the organization (in June 2004) and since them a few venture capital firms have made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft announced so it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. However since Facebook’s humble beginnings until now (2012) both SMM Companies and Business have failed to seriously capitalise on the huge amount of Facebook users online. The fact remains numbers doesn’t equal buyers. Can it be in a Social Media Marketing company’s best interest to talk social support systems up? Absolutely. Can it be in a Social Network like Facebook’s best interests for folks to believe that companies can sell en masse by advertising and marketing using them? Obviously it is. In early 2012, Facebook disclosed that its profits had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the earlier year as its revenue which can be mainly from advertising had jumped almost 90% to $3.71 billion so clearly the concept of SMM is working out for them but it’s working out for you personally? Well… statistically no, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that it never will.
I think the major difference between social support systems and search engines is intent. Individuals who use Google are deliberately trying to find something so when they do a search for hairdressers that’s what they are looking for at that one time. With something similar to Facebook the principal intent is normally to connect with friends and family. In October 2008, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think social support systems can be monetized in the exact same way that search (Search Engines) did… In 36 months from we have now to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today” ;.Among the biggest problems business face with social support systems and SMM is perception. Based on the IBM Institute for Business Value study there have been “significant gaps between what businesses think consumers worry about and what consumers say they want from their social media marketing interactions with companies.” As an example in today’s society people are not just going handy you over there recommendations, Facebook likes, top smm panel comments or details without getting something back for this, therefore the old adage “what’s inside for me?” has play. So the principal reason most people give for interacting with brands or business on social media marketing is for discounts, the brands and business themselves think the key reason people communicate with them on social media marketing is to master about new products. For brands and business receiving discounts only ranks 12th on the listing of reasoned explanations why people communicate with them. Most businesses believe social media marketing increases advocacy, but only 38 % of consumers agree.
Companies need to find more innovative ways to connect with social media marketing if they wish to see some sort of derive from it. There have been some great initiatives shown in the IBM study of firms that had gotten some sort of a handle on how to use social media marketing for their advantage, keeping in mind that whenever asked what they do if they communicate with businesses or brands via social media marketing, consumers list “getting discounts or coupons” and “purchasing products and services” as the most truly effective two activities, respectively a U.S ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discounts on the products on the Facebook page. Alternatively there is a good program launched by Best Buys in the U.S called Twelpforce where employees can respond to customer’s questions via Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the power is actually in the favour of the potential customer & the fantastic trick to social media marketing marketing is to market without attempting to sell (or looking like your selling) unfortunately most social media marketing marketing is focused the wrong way.
Building a tangible buyer to consumer relationship via social media marketing is difficult and the absolute most benefit to business’ using social media marketing to boost their websites Google rankings. But business’ need certainly to realize that you can’t just setup a Facebook business page and a cure for the best. SMM requires effort and potential customers need certainly to see value in what you have to provide via your social media marketing efforts let them have something worth their social interaction and time and then you can find better results.