Social media trends have expanded far beyond the regular, daily use of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like. Social media has become so ubiquitous in our society that this summer the second annual edition was celebrated and recognized by people in more than ninety countries around the world.
Think about it, at some point there was a time when the idea of the internet seemed very alien to you. There was even a time when the idea of suggesting that every home could have a personal computer seemed impossible. But now the business community at large can’t imagine doing business without the Internet or a computer.
As businesses increasingly integrate social networking websites into their marketing strategy, trends indicate that online marketing is about to undergo a dramatic makeover. A recent study by the Association of National Advertisers (a representative body for American marketers) revealed that 26% of marketers found trends in social media that led to further growth.
Today’s social media trends offer new opportunities for advertisers to penetrate their target markets. This marketing platform can generate huge amounts of traffic and provide a more cost-effective way for an online business to gain publicity. By getting more visitors online, a website has a better chance of getting conversions or actual sales. And because of that, this online marketing medium is causing a lot of buzz among internet companies. In fact, for many online marketers, social media is fast becoming the platform of choice for launching and promoting a business over the Internet.
According to recent industry reports, every key feature in social media trends is primarily performed on websites that are not owned by the company doing the promoting. In another, the action in this form of online marketing happens entirely off-site. Unlike other types of internet marketing, where tweaking the company’s website will do most of the trick to drive traffic, social media engages the target audience. Therefore, there has to be some form of discussion or interaction that eventually builds a website’s reputation or publicity.
The Nielsen report, which compiled social media trends and analysis in the Asia Pacific region, reveals that social media is having an increasing impact on consumer purchasing decisions: in Asia Pacific, reviews of products online are the third most reliable source of information when making a purchase. decisions, behind family and friends. This is particularly true for purchases of consumer electronics, cosmetics, and automobiles, products where consumers are more likely to base their purchasing decisions on online product reviews.
A recent Harvard research study showed that information and influence travel up to three degrees through a social network. The information you communicate to friends, family, and colleagues is often transmitted beyond your network, possibly to thousands of people, most of whom you won’t even know. Similarly, the information you receive each day may have traveled two or three degrees before reaching you.
Marketing and public relations professionals continue, in droves, to realize the business value of social media within an organization. They know it can foster collaboration between internal teams, enable real-time customer service, and build communities of fans and advocates that can help shape a company’s products, services, and brands. However, getting the C-suite to open the company’s doors to social media can be tricky. Management often cites concerns about privacy, security, brand erosion, and employee training, and they remain unwilling to invest or allocate adequate resources (both human and financial) to enable social media to contribute. to the success and the final result of the company.
Mass marketing, as an essentially one-way form of communication, means getting your brand and message across to large portions of your market, and hoping to see the results manifest in the form of increased sales. Crucial in the business-to-business space, 1-on-1 marketing is the attempt to add a personal, conversational element to the relationship: you talk to your customer one-on-one, both presenting your (hopefully tailored) offer and listening to his or her specific needs and answering questions.
Marketing has the power to influence millions with a single message. But just as the wrong postage on a letter prevents a note from reaching its destination, the wrong channel can limit the dissemination of a campaign and the effectiveness of sales.
Users, marketers, and businesses are also dealing with an incredible amount of noise. For every new application that depends on a network, another one emerges that helps users manage it. While “eyeballs” used to be the coveted metric, ad publishers and investors alike now realize that having smaller, well-targeted niches can yield far better returns than marketing to a large, undifferentiated mass of users.
We will see an increase in small businesses using social media as their primary way of communicating with current and potential customers. Social media has leveled the playing field for local businesses. With the right strategy, they can now compete with the big boys. Social media tools are free to use, it’s all about knowing where your customers are on the web, creating a profile on those sites, and starting to engage in relevant conversations with them. What makes social media marketing work is its focus on open interaction or communication between the business and its target audience.
We are moving away from “users”, “customers” and “buyers”: social networks are putting the human element back in all digital interaction. People are now deliberately looking for meaningful connection, self-expression, and a relevant and responsive community. Businesses that want to succeed will need to go further and take advantage of people’s changing needs, using the context of social media as the new baseline.
