According to reports from Hitwise Australia, usage of social networks and forum in 2010 had increased 36.1 percent as compared to the previous year. In
March 2010, social media networks finally surpassed search engines as the most visited websites by Australian users. According to another 2010 global survey conducted by Nielsen, Australians spent the most number of hours on social networking sites. On an average each user in Australia spends about 7 hours, 19 minutes and 13 seconds per month on social networks and blogs. People today are practically living their lives on these social networking sites. Considering these figures, it makes perfect sense to invest in a full fledged social media marketing initiative as part of your emarketing campaign. In case you are still wondering what social media marketing is – social media marketing (SMM) is a form of emarketing where marketing communication and branding goals are achieved through participation in different social media networks. Social media is an umbrella term which includes all activities around content, videos, social interaction, images etc. If you still have any doubt about the potential of social media marketing and how it can help your business, read on.
Social Media Marketing: Why
Here is why you should be investing in social media marketing as part of your emarketing campaign and how it can help your business.
- Social Media Networking Sites are Popular: Facebook alone has over 500 million active users i.e. around 190 million more people than the people in United States. Apart from that Twitter has 145 million users; 70 million people use LinkedIn while 33 million use Yelp. The point here is, there are pretty good chances that quite a few of your members and customers or prospective clients will be using at least one of these social media networks.
- Extend your Brand and Build Relationships: The main aim of marketing is to find new clients while constantly staying in touch with existing ones to retain them. You can use social media networks to expand your presence into another area of the web where your customers, clients and members gather and interact along with their, family, friends, peers and coworkers. For instance, when a customer, client or member shares your content (such as newsletters and blog posts) or talks about your brand on social media, he is actually offering his endorsement of your services or products. And all this without you even lifting a finger or spending extra money. This way your brand is introduced to more people than you are presently connected to. This can bring in more prospective clients and thus more business.
- Quicker Results: Building a website itself takes considerable time and effort. Results of search engine optimisation may take weeks and sometimes even months to become apparent. With social media, on the other hand you can post unique content and be viewed by hundreds and thousand of visitors, the same day.
- Instant Feedback: Social media marketing provides immediate feedback. With so many active users on social media sites, you will get your members’ and customers’ opinion about anything, whether it’s your services, your products, your blogs, events and a lot more. This will provide you with real time feedback about whether you need to make any changes or modifications. You can even use social media to identify trends using online surveys.
- Social Media Encourages 2-Way Communication: No matter how hard we try, email by itself facilitates only one way communication. On the other hand, social media marketing sites such as Facebook and Twitter enable you to engage in a two way communication with your members and consumers. They can see what you are saying and respond accordingly and vice versa. This also helps to build and consolidate your relationship with your customers.
Looking for a social media marketing service? Visit www.GreenfieldsToolbox.com.au. The Toolbox can help you develop and implement effective social media marketing strategies and solutions to help drive more traffic to your website and thus increase your ROI.
