arketers don’t need to be told the global social media platforms have altered the business landscape forever. Business communications and marketing have been made easier and more penetrative since now companies, be it in the B2B or B2C sphere, have direct access to their core customers and prospects. The interaction is intimate and as a result companies now get an opportunity to personalize and customize their offers to suit the needs of individual or small, homogeneous groups of customers.
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Everybody can be an influencer and content creator. So, marketers not only target their customers but also target these influencers and thought leaders who could also be their customers or prospects. The reach and impact is far greater than what mass media channels like TV, radio or newspaper can provide today, especially in the developed parts of the world. The resource utilization has been optimized and the results are quantifiable.
Social media platforms also provide greater clarity, accountability and transparency. Views can be challenged and debated. Since everybody is a journalist in the social media landscape, news can be created and propagated. Marketers can create their stories and content and the influencers and internet users can make these go viral in no time. The downtime is zero for an advertisement or message as the social media platforms are never idle.
Also, market segmentation is far easier and a number of new parameters have been added to the armory of marketers after the rise of social media. Social media channels allow you to create multiple campaigns simultaneously, based on different budgets, needs, demographics, target market or just for testing purposes. Compared to the penetration and reach, the cost is negligible and the ROI is far greater than traditional channels of communication.
According to this Statista post, Facebook is the most popular website with over 1 billion registered accounts as of September, 2016. However, social media platforms like Whatsapp, blogging site Tumbr and photo sharing website Instagram are all growing at a phenomenal pace and all of them have over 500 million active users. China’s WeChat, QQ, Baidu Tieba and Sina Weibo are not to be left behind far and are doing extremely well themselves, even appealing to a global audience much like the American technology giants.
According to this SmartInsights post, Facebook is the most engaging social media platform according to the US consumer panel report from ComScore. When it comes to interaction per 1000 followers, Instagram rules the roost. Although each social media platform has something unique to offer and appeal to different target groups, there is a huge overlapping area between each, especially when you count the millenials and the Gen Z. As a marketer, you will have to keep a close watch on the updates and new developments made by the following social media websites.
As a result, it is easy to integrate your other accounts with your Facebook account and create an all pervasive and powerful communication model that allows you to share your posts and content created primarily for one platform with users across multiple domains. This reduces costs and chances of duplication. Facebook has a number of useful metrics that allow you to follow new consumer trends, behaviors and preferences.
That way the communication becomes two-way and truly conversational and interactive. Companies can create profiles as well as create pages which can be followed, content can be liked and shared and can go viral with the help of hashtags as well as Facebook trends which keep changing region-wise. As a marketer, you can just post content that you like. You will have to blend in information that would appeal to them who fit your ideal buyer persona and also create ad campaigns that fit in effortlessly with organic content. It is a lot less intrusive than traditional advertisements.
Facebook is also a leader when it comes to cross-promoting products, stories or services across multiple channels. Landing pages can connect customers to their social media accounts as well as encourage them to share and refer their experience. Facebook pages can also be used to drive visitors and traffic to a company’s website or community. It is also being debated whether social indicators like follow, share, like, etc provide direct SEO benefits although it is a known fact that interactivity is rewarded by most search engines.
Google, the most popular search engine in the world, which happens to be the primary search engine for over 70% of the global internet users, is also the creator of a successful social media platform. Google Plus, its popular social media platform, has over 500 million registered users according to this HubSpot page. According to the same page, 15% of the marketers who leveraged this channel were successful in converting a lead into a customer.
Google Plus is a social media site which allows users to add and segment their acquaintances according to circles like family, relatives, friends, casual acquaintances and many more. Their activities, stories, content is posted on the homepage i.e. the wall of the user, much like Facebook’s timeline. Google Plus also offers a unique opportunity to businesses. They can get their influencers, prospects, customers and other stakeholders to stay updated with knowledge about their business and the latest developments by adding a Google Plus Business page.
Useful tutorials, content and descriptive articles covering a wide range of subjects are shared on these pages. Marketers can also put up contextual or native adverts as well as display and PPC ads. But what makes this social media platform standout? All the posts and +1 content get indexed by Google crawlers which then create indexed pages with a link to the content.
This has SEO benefits because frequent crawling and indexing leads to higher page rank and a greater number of organic inward links. Shares, likes, ‘love’ or re-tweets are often evaluated internally by a company and since much of this information is inaccessible to Google crawlers, the indexing takes time and hence, chances of ranking high on Google quickly also diminishes. Google Plus is about passionate people and those who love to thrive in communities. It is ideal for products which work best when shared!
The biggest benefit is that it promotes two-way communication. Your tweet may be re-tweeted, liked and commented upon. This way, you can collect vital feedback and statistics that helps you to get in touch with and understand who your ideal prospects are. Also, news and feedbacks are exchanged on a real-time basis which means you can create and alter your business strategies instantaneously. If you see an opportunity, you can take advantage then and there.
Also, people can’t connect organically with corporate entities or monoliths. But, Twitter allows top business leaders to become the face of their brands and soon become thought leaders who command a lot of respect. This goodwill effect also rubs on to the business entity and is reflected in higher conversions. It is also one of the most effective channels for identifying influencers. You can then follow them, interact with them, get to know them before offering them a deal to promote and market on your behalf. You can also get in touch with your loyal brand advocates who can follow your stories, business developments and share interesting news using their own networks.
It also has some of the most powerful and popular influencers and the referral traffic has a high visitor-to-lead conversion rate. Marketers today are not only promoting their products, paying for advertisements or connecting with other businesses but it is also an awesome site when it comes to product launches. One can provide authentic product descriptions which can then be directed towards influencers and business customers, who want technical details and detailed discussions to endorse a product.
Afterwards, they can promote the product on their channels of preference and direct new customers and leads to any of your marketing channels. It is also useful for gaining insights on customer behaviors and preferences. It can also direct traffic and build links to your website and is like a social CRM where you can find and maintain useful information of your stakeholders.
The Balance urges its readers to consider Pinterest as a digital scrapbook that allows users to pin or like images of topics or items they find intriguing. By adding your promotional images and other media content like videos to their pin boards using the pin it button, prospects not only express their interest in your products or services but also provide free promotional service to you since, his own connections can now see the images pinned up on his homepage.
Pinterest has a very high rate of converting browsers into buyers. It has a very high rate of engagement too and you can promote your fare directly to your potential customers and since visual content is highly appreciated, many show interest. They can also find out about behind-the-scenes stories about your business and become a part of your journey. StrongCoffeeMarketing tells you that Pinterest is 80% more viral and 3 times more effective than Twitter!
It is a tremendous SEO booster since it can bring in quality links to your website. Every image that is pinned contains a link and when an image gets shared, it can lead them back to your website. It has a tremendous rate of engagement since the content is primarily visual and hence gets a higher number of views and shares. Pinterest is great for brand awareness and for nurturing and creating long lasting relationships.
Once, your prospects start getting interested in your business, they start pin your images to your own pinup boards. Each pin contains images, logos, hashtags and characteristics that make you distinct. Piquora had suggested in one of their reports that each pin gets 6 page views and 10 re-pins. Now each pin has the same potential and hence the consumer-reach increases exponentially. With greater brand awareness and higher engagement, it is easier to convert these leads into genuine customers.
You can also include keywords in the description and optimize it from the SEO perspective. It is also the third most popular website in the world and even a fraction of this traffic diverted to your website can boost footfall in your website by a huge margin. The higher the subscription, the higher the level of engagement and higher will be the chance of conversion. YouTube videos can be embedded in your websites and blogs and brings you inward links as well as traffic.
The interaction and relationship gets an emotional and personal connection as you can explain, demonstrate and show the benefits of your product and how it solves problems. You can also share videos of events and product launches and thus promote the personality of your brand! You can also create promotional videos or short films propagating your brand philosophy, mission, introducing your top leaders and giving your business a face! You can amalgamate, videos, audio cues, text cues, images and make it a truly multimedia production.
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