Social Media is only one tool in the box, though it should be an essential component to your overall strategy. If you are not using Social Media, you cannot ignore the fact, Social Media has now become the most popular Online activity.
We still hear many smaller companies say they do not see a return from their Social Media Marketing. All we can say to that is you must not be doing it or you're just three feet from gold. Social Media when used with the correct strategy could make your business go viral overnight, but you must create a plan and follow it. At the same time, measuring your rate of return from Social Media can be challenging.
Measuring Social Media Rate of Return
One of the major reasons measuring the return on investment (ROI) on anyone's Social Media Marketing is it's hard to judge what comes from Social Media and what comes from traditional offline marketing. It is amazing to us that business cards did not go out of business years ago with this type of thinking. For example, If we asked what was your rate of return on your business cards, most of us would not have a clue, but yet we continue to buy them. Such is similar with Social Media marketing.
Social Media Numbers are Simply to Big to Ignore!
If you have not begun and/or are on the fence about Social Media marketing or even If you have begun your Social Media campaign, here are a few Social Media tips and figures that we hope will help you get motivated to get started or to get started on improving your Social Media marketing efforts.
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Social Media marketing should not be a web shop on Facebook. Whatever your business is, use Social media to connect with your potential customers. Create a sense of community by asking opinions and share what would be interesting to your group of followers.
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Social Media is used by more people to get real user opinions before making purchase decisions. So if your Social Media site is nothing but offers and broadcasts to what you are selling, you are missing what Social Media is about and not using it to it's full potential.
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A new figure released this week announced that over 85% (87% was the exact figure) search about a product and/or service before they purchase. Social Media is nothing more than an online site where people can make their decisions based on marketing materials from the brand and augmented with feedback from potential and existing customers. Your viewer will see and base their opinions about buying from ratings, reviews and comments on your Social Media platforms.
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People have to find your Social Media. The best way for people to find you is from the Search Engines, but not everyone will be searching your company name. Most, (if not all) searchers will not know your company name until after they find you from a search phrase that has to do with your product or service. With that being said, Search Engine Optimization should still be an integral part of your Online Marketing Strategy. As powerful as Social Media is, it is worthless if people can't find you.
- Dec 14, 2011 – AddThis releases a infographic about sharing trends in 2011:
– Twitter was responsible for 13.5% of sharing, growing 576.9% in 1 year
– Facebook accounted for 52.1% of all sharing on the web over the past 12 months – that’s four times the size of Twitter. - US Virtual Goods Market To Hit $2.9 Billion In 2012! Virtual goods on Facebook are continuing to grow at an outstanding rate.
-2010 $835 Million
-2011 $1.2 Billion
-2012 estimated to be more than $1.6 Billion - Two-Thirds Of Online U.S. Adults Use Social Media – The most common reason U.S. adults use social networks is to stay in touch with friends and family members and they spend a lot of time doing it! So being part of their 'online friend browsing' can put you in front of a lot of potential customers.
- Social Media Mobile use grows 126% in 2011! More than half of social mobile audiences read a post from an organization, brand or event on their mobile device.
- Today, nearly 3-in-4 online seniors use social media in a typical month as do 82% of those ages 55 to 64.
The whole point of all this is this:
- If you are not using Social Media yet, you are missing the boat!
- If you are using Social Media and NOT getting results, it is time that you stop what you are doing and figure out what you need and should be doing.
Social Media allows us to level the playing field with the major advertisers and allows everyone to compete in one of the largest online markets, Social Media.
Social Media also allows us to do one thing that in that past was difficult and expensive for most companies to do.. getting your message out there! Remember, it is not your customers job to remember that you are in business and Social Media is a fantastic tool to be able to get your message in front of thousands if not millions of potential customers every single day for absolutely nothing other than your time to make a post.
- Understand your followers and deliver value to empowered your followers to become customers.
- Create lasting relationships with those customers by keeping them engaged and re-engaged.
- To engage and re-engage, use relative content that is informative and useful to your followers. Content has longer shelf life and it can be reused, (re-tweeted and re-posted). Informative and useful content also has high perceived value for customers. This means that content may and should be a bigger part of your marketing budget. It wouldn’t be surprising to us if some brands will kill advertising in favor of content creation.
So, if you haven't started your Social Media Marketing campaign or you already have and are not getting the results you think you should be, we hope that is enough information for you to begin thinking differently about Social Media Marketing and the continued value it will bring to your brand, product or service.
