Social network Advertising seems to be the most up to date buzz word for any person wanting to enhance their on-line presence and also sales, however is Social Network Advertising (SMM) all it is cracked up to be?S.M.M firms are now emerging everywhere nowadays as well as they are telling anyone that will listen concerning just how exceptionally crucial social media like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your business however, for the typical small to tool sized business, does advertising and marketing to social networks truly live up to all the buzz? Is investing a small fortune on hiring a SMM company really worth it? And also has any person actually done their research study on this before they worked with a person to establish there Facebook service web page? Some SMM firms are setting up things like Facebook business pages (which are cost-free) for $600 to $1,000 or even more and also informing their clients that they don’t require a web site because Facebook is the greatest social media network in the world and also everybody has a Facebook account. Now while it might be true that Facebook is the biggest social media in the world as well as yes, Facebook’s participants are possible consumers, the actual concern is are they actually purchasing? Social media site advertising firms are all too delighted to explain the positives of social media sites like how many individuals utilize Facebook or the amount of tweets were sent in 2015 as well as the number of individuals enjoy YouTube video clips and so on however are you getting the complete picture? I when rested alongside a SMM “specialist” at an organization seminar who was spruiking to anybody that came within earshot concerning the incredible benefits of establishing a Facebook service web page for local business (with him naturally) as well as selling on Facebook. So, fascinated by the previously mentioned “professionals” recommendations I looked him up on Facebook just to discover he had just 11 Facebook good friends (not an excellent beginning). So being the research nut that I am, I decided to take a good consider SMM in relation to selling to see if it actually functioned, that did it work for and also if it did why did Social Media Advertising and marketing help them? As well as should organization count so greatly on socials media available?
As a web programmer I was frequently (and currently significantly) confronted with several social networking obstacles when possible customers would say that having a web site sounds good but they had a Facebook organization web page and also had actually been told by numerous sources (the ever existing yet anonymous “they”) that social media networks were things to do, yet after reviewing their needs it came to be fairly clear that those possible customers really did not actually know why they required social media networks or SMM to create online sales, They simply wanted it. For small and also medium sized service I constantly recommended building a top quality site over any sort of social media, why? Well it’s easy truly due to the fact that social media sites is Social Media, and social Networks are Social Networks they are not business media and also company networks (that would certainly be extra like LinkedIn). I know that appears straightforward however it holds true and also the data back it up. The fact is that social media advertising fails to tell you that Facebook is a social network not an online search engine and also regardless of the number of Facebook customers and Google customers being around the exact same, people don’t make use of Facebook similarly that they use a search engine like Google (which has around half the search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for business or products. They use it to keep in touch with family and friends or for news and entertainment. In a recent study done by the IBM Institute for Business Value around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% actually purposefully use social media to interact with brands. Now out of all the people who do use social media and who do interact with brands whether purposefully or not, the majority (66%) say they need to feel a company is communicating honestly before they will interact.
Well first of all I would say that having a well optimized website is still going to bring you far more business that social media in most cases especially if you are a small to medium sized local business because 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 buy instagram live video views Media Site and if you don’t have a website you’re missing out on all of that potential business. However despite all the (not so good) statistics I still think it is still a good idea for business to use social media just not in the same way that a lot of SMM professionals are today, Why? Because it’s clearly not working in the way they claim it does. Basically SMM Companies and Business as a whole looked at social networks 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 company (in June 2004) and since them a few venture capital firms have made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. However since Facebook’s humble beginnings up until now (2012) both SMM Companies and Business have failed to truly capitalise on the huge number of Facebook users online. The truth is numbers does not equal buyers. Is it in a Social Media Marketing company’s best interest to talk social networks up? Absolutely. Is it in a Social Network like Facebook’s best interests for people to believe that companies can sell en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Of course it is. In early 2012, Facebook disclosed that its profits had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its revenue which is mainly from advertising had jumped almost 90% to $3.71 billion so clearly the concept of SMM is working out for them but it is working out for you? Well … statistically no, but that does not necessarily mean that it never will.
I believe the major difference between social networks and search engines is intent. People who use Google are deliberately searching for something so if they do a search for hairdressers that’s what they are looking for at that particular time. With something like Facebook the primary intent is usually to connect with friends and family. In October 2008, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search (Search Engines) did … In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today”. One of the biggest problems business face with social networks and SMM is perception. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value study there were “significant gaps between what businesses think consumers care about and what consumers say they want from their social media interactions with companies.” For example in today’s society people are not just going to hand you over there recommendations, Facebook likes, comments or details without getting something back for it, so the old adage “what’s in it for me?” comes into play. So the primary reason most people give for interacting with brands or business on social media is to receive discounts, yet the brands and business themselves think the main reason people interact with them on social media is to learn about new products. For brands and business receiving discounts only ranks 12th on their list of reasons why people interact with them. Most businesses believe social media will increase advocacy, but only 38 % of consumers agree.
Companies need to find more innovative ways to connect with social media if they want to see some sort of result from it. There were some good initiatives shown in the IBM study of companies that had gotten some sort of a handle on how to use social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked what they do when they interact with businesses or brands via social media, consumers list “getting discounts or coupons” and “purchasing products and services” as the top two activities, respectively a U.S ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discounts on their products on their Facebook page. Alternatively there is a great 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 benefit is clearly in the favour of the potential customer & the great trick to social media marketing is to sell without trying to sell (or looking like your selling) unfortunately most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.
Building a tangible buyer to consumer relationship via social media is not easy and probably the most benefit to business’ using social media to boost their websites Google rankings. But business’ need to understand that you can’t just setup a Facebook business page and hope for the best. SMM requires effort and potential customers need to see value in what you have to offer via your social media efforts give them something worth their social interaction and time and then you may get better results.