Moving Forward

Seems that you can not escape social media these days, from news stories about networking sites to the little graphic links that appear to be everywhere, instructing consumers to “Follow us on ……” . As marketers we are told that we must participate in all facets, or risk being left behind. But is social media really the answer to bringing customers to your brand and selling more product? Maybe. The success of the program hinges on integration into the larger marketing plan, adding value that generates a response, rather than just followers, and realistic expectations.

Earlier this year MarketingProfs released a comprehensive report, “The State of Social Media Marketing”. The study found that due to the frequency of posts, Facebook had far more usage than Twitter with both the consumer and corporate participants. Another finding was that only 10% of Twitter corporate accounts have 2,000+ followers, with the median at 150 followers. As far as Facebook, only 6% of corporate fan pages had 2,000+ fans, with the median being 65 fans. It will be interesting to see how Facebook’s new “Like” button, as opposed to the old “Become a Fan” button, impacts these numbers.

For marketers developing a social media campaign, the report found that some of these lesser-used tactics worked best.

1. Using Facebook data to profile customer demographics and interests.

2. Creating an in-person event using only Facebook or Twitter invites.

3. Engaging Twitter users with positive brand tweets to act with a special offer, invitation or reward.

4. Responding directly to Twitter users who are negatively tweeting about the brand.

The report also sited counterproductive social media tactics. These are the top 3.

1. Companies that only post their own messages and links to their promotions.

2. Treating social media as a short-term campaign.

3. Pushing out content using auto-following services.