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 business however, for the typical small to medium sized business, does marketing to socials media actually live up to all the hype? Is spending a little fortune on employing a SMM company actually worth it? And has anyone really done their research study on this before they hired someone to establish there Facebook service page? Some SMM business are setting up things like Facebook organisation pages (which are totally free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and telling their customers that they do not require a website because Facebook is the greatest social media on the planet and everybody has a Facebook account. Now while it may hold true that Facebook is the largest social network worldwide and yes, Facebook's members are prospective consumers, the genuine concern is are they actually purchasing? Social media marketing companies are all too happy to mention the positives of social media like the number of people utilize Facebook or how many tweets were sent out in 2015 and how many individuals watch YouTube videos etc. but are you getting the complete picture? I when sat beside a SMM "specialist" at a service workshop who was spruiking to anyone who came within earshot about the fantastic advantages of establishing a Facebook business page for small business (with him of course) and selling on Facebook. So, intrigued by the abovementioned "specialists" guidance I looked him up on Facebook just to find he had only 11 Facebook buddies (not a good start). So being the research nut that I am, I decided to take a great 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 company rely so greatly on social networks for sales?
As a web developer I was continuously (and now significantly) challenged with numerous social networking difficulties when potential clients would state that having a website sounds great but they had a Facebook company page and had been told by numerous sources (the ever present yet anonymous "they") that social media networks were the thing to do, however after discussing their requirements it became rather clear that those potential customers didn't actually understand why they required social media networks or SMM to create online sales, They just wanted it. For medium and little sized company I constantly recommended developing a quality site over any type of social media, why? Well it's simple truly because social media is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not company media and organisation networks (that would be more like LinkedIn). I know that sounds easy however it's true and the stats back it up. The fact is that social media marketing fails to inform you that Facebook is a social network not an online search engine and despite the number of Facebook users and Google users being around the very same, people do not utilize Facebook in the same way that they use an online search engine like Google (which has around half the online search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for organisation or products. They utilize it to correspond with family and friends or for news and home entertainment. In a recent research study done by the IBM Institute for Organisation Value around 55% of all social media users mentioned 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 connect with brands whether purposefully or not, the bulk (66%) say they need to feel a business is communicating honestly prior to they will interact.
How do you use social media marketing? And is it even worth doing?
Well initially of all I would say that having a well enhanced site is still going to bring you far more business that social media in a lot of cases specifically if you are a small to medium sized regional service since far more people 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 don't have a site you're missing out on out on all of that potential organisation. Despite all the (not so great) data I still believe it is still a good idea for organisation 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 best interest to talk social networks up?
One of the greatest issues organisation face with social networks and SMM is understanding. The main factor a lot of people provide for communicating with brands or business on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brand names and service themselves think the main factor individuals engage with them on Social Media Agency social media is to discover about new products. Many businesses believe social media will increase advocacy, however just 38 % of customers concur.
There were some good efforts revealed in the IBM study of business 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 interact with organisations or brand names through social media, consumers note "getting discounts or coupons" and "acquiring items and services" as the top 2 activities, respectively a UNITED STATE ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery used discount rates on their products on their Facebook page. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the benefit is plainly in the favour of the fantastic trick & the possible consumer to social media marketing is to sell without attempting to offer (or looking like your selling) sadly most social media marketing is focused the wrong method.
Developing a tangible purchaser to consumer relationship via social media is not easy and probably the most benefit to company' utilizing social media to boost their sites Google rankings. However business' have to comprehend that you can't simply setup a Facebook company page and hope for the very best. SMM requires effort and potential consumers need to see worth in exactly what you have to use through your social media efforts give them something worth their social interaction and time then you may get better outcomes.
Now just as a footnote Facebook shares have dropped to under $20 per share, that's half their initial cost ... and the lawsuits are flying
As a web designer I was constantly (and now significantly) confronted with numerous social networking difficulties when possible clients would state that having a website sounds good however they had a Facebook company page and had actually been told by various sources (the ever present yet confidential "they") that social networks were the thing to do, but after discussing their requirements it became rather clear that those potential customers didn't really know why they required social networks or SMM to create online sales, They just wanted it. Well it's basic really due to the fact that 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 study done by the IBM Institute for Service Value around 55% of all social media users specified that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and just around 23% actually actively use social media to engage with brands. Well initially of all I would say that having actually a well optimized site is still going to bring you far more company that social media in most cases particularly if you are a little to medium sized regional business since 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 website you're missing out on out on all of that potential service. The primary factor most individuals give for connecting with brands or organisation on social media is to receive discount rates, yet the brands and organisation themselves think the primary reason individuals connect with them on social media is to discover about brand-new products.
