The traditional marketing model was to obtain as many eyeballs on your product or service’s message as possible and hope a percentage of customers purchase. Yellow pages, radio advertising, direct mail, television commercials, magazine ads, etc.. are examples of these traditional advertising methods. These conventional forms of marketing are no longer effective as many consumers have grown to be blind to the ‘one way’ messaging. The message has been overdone and people no longer trust advertisers. A recently available survey discovered that only 14% of people trust ads while 76% of people trust consumer recommendations. Accordingly, more marketers began seeking alternative methods to connect with potential consumers.
Making Social Media Management services was originally made popular by utilizing Websites and optimizing the websites through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. While still an advisable strategy, SEO has been updated by Web 2 2.0 strategies, such as for example social media marketing. Social media marketing is when companies utilize Web 2 2.0 platforms, such as for example blogs, social networking sites (like Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, Twitter, & YouTube) and other emerging online marketing tools. The advantage of web 2 2.0 platforms versus traditional means of advertising, and even traditional website marketing, is that it involves ‘two-way communication’, where users are empowered to create content and businesses are incentivized to communicate with their customers.
The times of broadcasting your product or services message out to the masses and hoping for a response have died. People don’t want to purchase from nameless, faceless companies. Not only are consumers watching the ‘man behind the curtain’, however they also want to know what others say about your service or product. A recent study concluded that 80% folks Internet using moms were influenced by word-of-mouth from friends and family when coming up with a purchase decision. No other media platform permits small businesses to benefit from consumer person to person advertising like social media marketing.
Benefits Of Social Media Marketing
Increased New Customer Acquisitions – The benefit of social media marketing is that you will have the opportunity to connect with networks of potential prospects that you would otherwise be unable to come across utilizing other conventional marketing techniques and even SEO.
Word of Mouth Marketing- Referral marketing has always been probably the most influential solution to generate sales. With social media, you are able to create raving fans who’ll voluntarily promote your product and services with their networks of friends. Needless to say, if your service or product is poor, you might suffer the reverse great things about this.
Brand Awareness – Branding your organization using social media marketing is much simpler, faster, and less expensive to achieve compared to the traditional advertising medium or even website marketing.
Customer Retention – Blogging platforms 2.0 platforms are the perfect places to communicate with your customers about new products, special promotions, or just to educate them on your business. Through consistent, FREE communication, you can keep your company before your customer’s eyeballs which will in turn result in repeat business and referrals. Remember, the main element to this type of communication is usually to be content rich; avoid these avenues to pitch your service or product.
Rapid Results – The effective and successful implementation of a social media plan will create almost instant results for the business. This increase can be quantified through increased site traffic, increased lead acquisition, and ultimately more sales. Unlike radio or TV ads, where your customers disappear once the ads set off air, these blogging platforms 2.0 platform benefits will continue long-term provided that the communication and updating of one’s social media marketing presence is maintained.
