Social network Marketing appears to be the latest buzz word for any individual wanting to enhance their on the internet presence and also sales, but is Social Network Advertising (SMM) all it is gone crazy to be?S.M.M firms are currently springing up everywhere nowadays as well as they are telling any individual that will listen about exactly how unbelievably vital social networks like Facebook twitter and YouTube are to your company however, for the average tiny to tool sized organization, does advertising and marketing to social media networks actually meet all the hype? Is spending a tiny ton of money on employing a SMM firm really worth it? As well as has anyone truly done their study on this prior to they hired someone to establish there Facebook service web page? Some SMM firms are setting up things like Facebook service pages (which are free) for $600 to $1,000 or more and informing their clients that they do not require an internet site due to the fact that Facebook is the greatest social network on the planet and also everyone has a Facebook account. Currently while it might hold true that Facebook is the largest social media in the world and also yes, Facebook’s participants are potential consumers, the actual inquiry is are they actually getting? Social network marketing firms are all too happy to explain the positives of social media like the amount of people utilize Facebook or how many tweets were sent out in 2015 and also the number of people view YouTube video clips and so on however are you obtaining the complete image? I when sat beside a SMM “professional” at a service workshop who was spruiking to any individual who came within earshot about the amazing advantages of establishing a Facebook service web page for local business (with him obviously) and also selling on Facebook. So, interested by the aforementioned “professionals” suggestions I looked him up on Facebook just to discover he had just 11 Facebook close friends (not an excellent beginning). So being the research nut that I am, I made a decision to take a good explore SMM in regard to offering to see if it actually functioned, that did it benefit and if it did why did Social media site Advertising help them? And should organization depend so greatly on socials media available?

As an internet developer I was constantly (as well as now increasingly) confronted with a number of social networking challenges when prospective clients would certainly say that having a website sounds great yet they had a Facebook business page as well as had been told by numerous sources (the ever before present yet confidential “they”) that social media networks were the thing to do, but after reviewing their requirements it came to be quite clear that those prospective customers didn’t really recognize why they required socials media or SMM to produce online sales, They just desired it. For tiny and also moderate sized organization I always recommended developing a high quality site over any type of type of social media, why? Well it’s basic truly since social networks is Social network, and also social Networks are Social Networks they are not business media and company networks (that would certainly be more like LinkedIn). I understand that sounds basic but it’s true and the stats back it up. The truth is that social media sites advertising and marketing falls short to inform you that Facebook is a social media network not a search engine and also despite the variety of Facebook individuals as well as Google customers being around the exact same, individuals do not utilize Facebook in the same way that they use a search engine like Google (which has around half the search engine market), Yahoo and Bing to search for business or products. They use it to keep in touch with family and friends or for news and entertainment. In a recent study done by the IBM Institute for Business Value around 55% of all social media users stated that they do not engage with brands over social media at all and only around 23% actually purposefully use social media to interact with brands. Now out of all the people who do use social media and who do interact with brands whether purposefully or not, the majority (66%) say they need to feel a company is communicating honestly before they will interact.

Well first of all I would say that having a well optimized website is still going to bring you far more business that social media in most cases especially if you are a small to medium sized local business because far more people are going to type in “hairdresser Port Macquarie” into a search engine like Google, Yahoo and Bing than they ever will on any Social Media Site and if you don’t have a website you’re missing out on all of that potential business. However despite all the (not so good) statistics I still think it is still a good idea for business to use social media just not in the same way that a lot of SMM professionals are today, Why? Because it’s clearly not working in the way they claim it does. Basically SMM Companies and Business as a whole looked at social networks like Facebook as a fresh market ripe for the picking and when Facebook started getting users measured by the millions PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested US$ 500,000 for 7% of the company (in June 2004) and since them a few venture capital firms have made investments into Facebook and in October 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million. However since Facebook’s humble beginnings up until now (2012) both SMM Companies and Business have failed to truly capitalise on the huge number of Facebook users online. The truth is numbers does not equal buyers. Is it in a Social Media Marketing company’s best interest to talk social networks up? Absolutely. Is it in a Social Network like Facebook’s best interests for people to believe that companies can sell en masse by advertising and marketing with them? Of course it is. In early 2012, Facebook disclosed that its profits had jumped 65% to $1 billion in the previous year as its revenue which is mainly from advertising had jumped almost 90% to $3.71 billion so clearly the concept of SMM is working out for them but it is working out for you? Well … statistically no, but that does not necessarily mean that it never will.

I believe the major difference between buy instagram live video views social networks and search engines is intent. People who use Google are deliberately searching for something so if they do a search for hairdressers that’s what they are looking for at that particular time. With something like Facebook the primary intent is usually to connect with friends and family. In October 2008, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search (Search Engines) did … In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today”. One of the biggest problems business face with social networks and SMM is perception. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value study there were “significant gaps between what businesses think consumers care about and what consumers say they want from their social media interactions with companies.” For example in today’s society people are not just going to hand you over there recommendations, Facebook likes, comments or details without getting something back for it, so the old adage “what’s in it for me?” comes into play. So the primary reason most people give for interacting with brands or business on social media is to receive discounts, yet the brands and business themselves think the main reason people interact with them on social media is to learn about new products. For brands and business receiving discounts only ranks 12th on their list of reasons why people interact with them. Most businesses believe social media will increase advocacy, but only 38 % of consumers agree.

Companies need to find more innovative ways to connect with social media if they want to see some sort of result from it. There were some good initiatives shown in the IBM study of companies that had gotten some sort of a handle on how to use social media to their advantage, keeping in mind that when asked what they do when they interact with businesses or brands via social media, consumers list “getting discounts or coupons” and “purchasing products and services” as the top two activities, respectively a U.S ice cream company called Cold Stone Creamery offered discounts on their products on their Facebook page. Alternatively there is a great program launched by Best Buys in the U.S called Twelpforce where employees can respond to customer’s questions via Twitter. With both Cold Stone Creamery and Twelpforce the benefit is clearly in the favour of the potential customer & the great trick to social media marketing is to sell without trying to sell (or looking like your selling) unfortunately most social media marketing is focused the wrong way.

Building a tangible buyer to consumer relationship via social media is not easy and probably the most benefit to business’ using social media to boost their websites Google rankings. But business’ need to understand that you can’t just setup a Facebook business page and hope for the best. SMM requires effort and potential customers need to see value in what you have to offer via your social media efforts give them something worth their social interaction and time and then you may get better results.