Because social media has become a vast network of online interaction between people. More pertinently, between your customers. It’s changed the way the marketing conversation works. It’s no longer about you talking to your customers in one direction. They can now talk back and, crucially, talk to each other – in real time.
Social media websites and technologies allow people to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives. And of course, what they’re having for breakfast.
Social media can take many different forms - including text, images, audio, and video. These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact.
A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace and Facebook (social networking), YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing), Twitter (microblogging).
Why should you care about Social Media Marketing?
The obvious (and, let’s face it) most mercenary reason, is that it is yet another way of taking your branded message and marketing to the world.
But it’s different – and much more than that. Customers no longer trust bulk corporate communication. They don’t believe you just because you say so. And they especially don’t believe you if your actions contradict your PR. Social media marketing allows you to communicate in a more personalised way with your customers and prospective customers – not in a PR way, but in the form of an honest two-way conversation. Yes, we’re back to the village shopkeeper example again.
If you can communicate with your customers in an open, honest and personal way, it strengthens your company's presence online and builds trust and loyalty.
But be careful – this is a double-edged sword if ever there was one. Mediocre engagement doesn't breed success - social media marketing is about engaging honestly with your customers when and on the terms THEY choose.
So how do you tame this beast and get results?
• It's consumer-centric - as you can interact honestly with your consumers, you are able to understand them better while improving your reputation.
• It's trackable - knowing who is viewing your company profile, who is talking about you and what they’re saying, allows you to make your strategies even more targeted and effective.
• It's ongoing - once you have set up a profile on a social media website, you can experiment with what works and what doesn't, and ultimately expand the campaign to increase web presence and transparency.
• It's adaptable - a social media campaign can be used in conjunction with other marketing efforts (even offline ones) to ensure a holistic approach that guarantees maximum ROI.
Social Media Marketing Services
We understand social media marketing. We’ve experimented on our own brand across a number of social media website and services – so we don’t have to experiment on you.
More than anything else, we understand how the rules have changed, and how to participate in a meaningful conversation with customers that allows for equal give and take. That relies on honestly and building relationships. We know how to run that small village shop on a much bigger stage (if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor) – and we can help you to do the same. So that social media marketing becomes one of the most powerful online tools you have to build brand awareness, customer loyalty and return on investment.
