If there’s one marketing channel that’s become saturated with hype, it’s social media. For all the promises of forever-changed marketing and PR methods, we haven’t really seen that much at all. Yes, companies are communicating directly with customers, and yes, market research has been simplified. However, for your average online company, just a social media presence isn’t enough to market a business.
Of course, that’s not to say that social media is valueless. Far from it, in fact. Social media is a valuable marketing platform when it’s paired with other methods. We’ve all been exposed to endless promotional tweets, and we’ve grown accustomed to blocking them out. On its own, social media just doesn’t work as a direct marketing platform, which is why your business needs to invest in alternative avenues of online marketing, and sometimes a return to more traditional methods.
It’s hard to measure social media ROI.
For years, pay-per-click has been the standard amongst metrics-driven web businesses. There are clear costs — inbound click costs, and total spending plans — and even clearer returns. While social media is undoubtedly the most effective free method for advertising and marketing your business, it’s not an easy method to scale and measure. Tweets can’t be consistently measured for conversion rates, effectiveness, and value.
However, there is one way to measure your social media marketing’s effects. Design your website to be completely metrics-driven. Whenever there’s an inbound social media visitor, push them through the same process as any other visitor. Using link tracking, with different link codes for each social media platform, status update, or tweet, you can monitor which tweets or messages were effective and which weren’t, much like your standard PPC marketing campaign.
Social Media fails as a short-term marketing method, but succeeds as a long-term platform.
What separates the advertising section of a Facebook page and a Google page is the context and decision-making behind each one. Facebook is a relatively passive advertising network — advertisers appeal to people’s interests, rather than their immediate wants. By contrast, Google advertising appeals to people’s immediate wants, with no real knowledge of their personal interests.
Marketing your business through social media requires the same difference in thought. While it’s easy to target people who want to buy your services, particularly those that are actively looking for you, it’s much harder to target those that aren’t actively looking. The vast majority of people use social media services not to find new products and view advertisements, but to connect with their friends and socialize.
This means that your social media efforts shouldn’t be based around advertising directly to people. When someone logs onto Facebook to browse through photos, they’re simply not interested in a special offer for your business’ services. The only way to connect through social media isn’t to act directly, but to create indirect marketing through word of mouth, customer support, and active participation.
Use social media discussion to develop and refine your non-social media advertising.
The major value of social media for businesses is as a feedback zone. Rather than advertising directly through Twitter and Facebook, use them as forums for intelligent discussion about what your business could change, improve, and develop. A simple search through Twitter results can yield much more valuable information than a specialized market research campaign. Planning a new website design? Ask for feedback through social media channels, not a bloated and inefficient feedback form.
In the end, the businesses that succeed through social media will be those that look at the long-term possibilities of the medium. Despite the hundreds of marketers promising instant Twitter success and powerful Facebook traffic, a real social media presence depends on a real web presence.
When your business’ social media efforts are backed up by a sales-driven website, a helpful support team, and a great business model, you’ll quickly see social media become a success. When you use dedicated social media marketing to plug the holes in your business, it’s unlikely that you’ll generate anything valuable. Focus on the long-term effects of your social media strategy, pair it with valuable web assets, and don’t fall for short-term incentives.
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Social media marketing has always been merely complementary to an already established web presence.
Yes, i think too that social marketing is very important.
The Problem for 1-man companies is that all of these Social Networking takes a lot of time!