Another part of your marketing package …
Written by Juli Robertson
Tuesday, 09 March 2010 04:14
Do you use social media as part of your marketing package? If not, why not?
The top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 certainly do. A recent study found that 79% of them use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or blogs to communicate with customers or other stakeholders.
Two-thirds of the companies operate at least one Twitter account, 54% have at least one Facebook fan page and 50% have at least one YouTube channel.
These platforms are most popular in the US and Europe. In Asia, corporate blogs are more popular.
The most amazing thing is that, unlike traditional advertising channels, consumers actually like to engage with companies via social media.
US social media analyst Ravit Lichtenberg, a keen blogger, has identified 10 ways that social media will change in 2010:
- Social media will become a single, cohesive experience embedded in our activities, more integrated into all our online and offline experiences via various devices and platforms.
- Analyzing content is producing a “predictive web”, in which the Internet already knows what you want before you know you want it. Scary isn’t it?
- Mobile phones will be king. Analysts predict that the number of users linking to the Web via their mobiles will hit one billion this year.
- Quality and relevance of content (the old web maxim “content is king”) will continue to grow in importance. Companies such as News Limited are already talking about protecting their original content, controlling its location and cost.
- Enterprises will shape the next generation of social media. Large institutions are increasing their investment in social media by up to 25 per cent.
- Return on investment on social media marketing will become better measured. Companies able to analyse and predict hard returns on their social media investments will find the most success.
- Online-offline integration. Customer review websites with geo-tagging such as Yelp already allow mobile phone users in some countries to find relevant information and people depending on their location. Twitter 360 (augmented reality for the iPhone) enables users to visualise their Twitter friends in the nearby environment. Imagine scanning products on shelves, getting product reviews and then processing the sale online.
- The “old” skills of traditional marketing will be needed again. To make the most of this online-offline integration buisinesses will turn back to marketers who specialise in understanding customer psychology and demographics.
- Women rule! Surveys in 2009 revealed the growing role women play online. Women make or influence 85 per cent of all consumer purchases and women aged 35-55 make up the fastest-growing population on Facebook.
- Social media will move into new domains including job training, education and health care.
Speak Your Mind