In recent months, the question of social media marketing keeps coming up. So much so that I’m tempted to say that social media is the new viral. I say this not to suggest that it’s a waste of time or a flash in the pan; just that we all need to be careful about what we really want to do with this medium. Rather than jumping in because everyone else is.
The social media space is absolutely huge online. There are statistics upon statistics that prove this (Facebook’s population famously overtook that of the USA at 350million active users) but the fact is that it’s easy to underestimate the reach of these sites. After all they don’t look that big.
So in a generous move, to help us avoid mis-using the opportunity these environments offer, I’ve put together what I think are the top 10 Social Media Marketing opportunities. Here goes…
1. Better brand engagement – By simply making sure you have a basic presence in appropriate social environments, you are inviting people to actively engage with your brand. Last month the Harvard Business Review did a quick experiment to discover whether simply having a presence on Facebook increases emotional connection with a brand by setting up a page for a local coffee shop. It turned out that Facebook did indeed change customer behaviour for the better. Facebook fans generated more positive word of mouth, they visited the outlet 20% more often, they gave the store the highest share of their dining out dollars and were most likely to recommend the shop to friends.
The lesson here is to make sure you have a presence, tell your loyal customers about it and make sure you have the resource to keep your content up to date and relevant.
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Posted on April 29th, 2010 in We're talking about with 1 comment
