Social networking sites like Facebook and social bookmarking sites like Digg lend themselves to viral marketing, or word-of-mouth, as friends share information with each other. Devising a campaign that communicates directly with customers will allow faster feedback. Also, establishing a presence on social media sites gives potential customers a new avenue to hear about or contact a business.
The key is to create a ‘social media synergy’ that totals a sum far greater than the individual parts. This means going beyond Facebook and using a range of complementary social networking sites, providing substance, endurance and longevity to a brand’s online presence and digital assets.
Benefits:
- Traffic from the social network
- Viral word of mouth
- Inbound links from the social network to the website (SEO tactic)
- Reputation management – marketers have better reach and control over brand dialogue.
In addition to the above benefits, below is a short summary of a recently published Social Media Marketing Research Study.
Generated exposure
Even with a minimal time investment, the vast majority of marketers (78% or higher) indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their business. Nearly all marketers who've been employing social media marketing for years report it generates exposure for their business and a significant 62.4% strongly agree.
Generated qualified leads
Many businesses are hoping that social media will be the Holy Grail for lead generation. Indeed after only a few months and with as few as six hours per week, half of marketers have generated qualified leads with social media marketing.
Reduced overall marketing expenses
The main financial cost of social media marketing is the time it takes to gain success. However, a significant percentage of participants strongly agreed that overall marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented.
Helped us rise in the search rankings
Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who've been using social media for years, with nearly 73% reporting a rise (a slight drop from 2009). More than half of those investing at least six hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings.
Includes:
- Research and identification of relevant social networks and groups therein (e.g. travel-related).
- Creation of the profile on the social network.
- Creation of content that is on target for the audience (e.g. articles, video, images, podcasts, etc.)
- Monitor the reaction to the content and continually react/revise/edit content and future content accordingly.
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