By now nearly all business owners know that including social networking in online marketing plans is a necessary part of a healthy advertising campaign. Every online marketing campaign must be woven into standard social media accounts on websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. It seems like new and vital social media websites arrive on the marketing landscape each year.
What is impressive about social media is the swiftness in how important social networking has become. Over just the past few years, social networking and media have greatly changed the marketing landscape online, and offline. Some of the most significant and visible marketing changes have included the following:
1. Targeted Marketing Opportunities
5 Social Media Tips for Finding and Engaging Your Target Audience: New Research
A hundred years ago a company might have put an advertisement in a newspaper and hoped that relevant consumers might come upon the information. This method was not an extraordinarily targeted way to reach the right buyers. The arrival of television offered a modest jump in a company’s ability to target the right consumer through expected viewer demographics. Social media has gone much further with targeted marketing options. Such focus has offered much greater efficiency for company advertising efforts.
2. Perception of Personal Relationships
Grow Your Social Media Relationships with Storytelling
The idea of a “social” network is something that inspires friendships and personal connections. Savvy businesses have been able to take advantage of this approach to online friendships and create a very personal relationship with consumers. Businesses have been able to market their goods and services as a friend instead of as a business. This is a significant change in how businesses have historically approached interaction with their customers. This perception of a personal link between customer and business grows overall confidence and itself can lead to greater communication and expansion through channels such as word of mouth, or as per Facebook’s example, an increase in likes or shares.
3. Two-way Street Communication
Use Social Media to Partner with Customers and Improve Service
A few decades ago a company would create an advertising campaign designed from the wants and needs of the company. The advertisers would decide what the public needed and how customers would experience the company’s marketing pitches. Today, that method has changed, and consumers carry great weight when it comes to designing marketing plans. Social media has given the consumer power, and companies must listen to what customers say when designing products and services.
4. Word of Mouth Advertising
The Power of e-Word of Mouth. Adding Social Media to the Marketing Mix
Smart marketers know that the recommendation of a friend or family member carries incredible weight with the average consumer, and social networking is a breeding ground of recommendations and suggestions from friends. Businesses must consider, however, that this valuable system of recommendations can also backfire, so campaigns must be crafted carefully so as to please consumers and not annoy them.
Social networking has required significant change from the average business regarding standard approaches to marketing and advertising. Companies aware of such changes in advertising methodology have a greater chance to experience success with campaigns that leverage the power of social networking and marketing. If you need more info on running your business be sure to checkout this eCommerce business encyclopedia for some great info!