What is Social Media?
Social Media is a term that you would come across a lot these days.Since Web 2.0 have emerged, people kept sharing ideas, thoughts, facts via every means possible on the web ; text, image, video ... .
Simply social Media is any website or platform that makes possible interactions between people in order to share, co create, discuss user provided contents.
You can see that this definition applies to social networking, social video and photo sharing or wikis platforms.
Examples: Of course facebook, youtube and wikipedia are the well known ones. Blogger is also a social media which i am using to share with you knowledge and ideas.
What does it have to do with marketing ?
Benefits
Having access to what interests people, what they like and share right on your finger tips has always been every marketer's dream. But today, thanks to social media this dream has come true.
This is a major benefit but it is not the only one. Social media serves the whole marketing chain.
Social media are so important for marketing with regards to many apsects :
- Social media are an excellent tool to watch trends but also to get feedback.
- It is also a modern way to build a relationship with an audience (become a page's fan)
- Social media is a tremendous vector for word of mouth (recommandations)
- Campaigns impacts are now easily measurable almost in real time mode (number of likes, shares, tweets, ....)
You might think this is it, but there is more :
- Social Media is engaging and interactive
- Social media serves inbound marketing
Cool but be carefull
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Going on social media requires precautions.
Word of mouth gets exponential on social media and this means bigger crisis with written statements.
Well, that is too scary and extreme. The fact is, going on social media requires adequate means to listen to customers and process their feedback, and investing in resources to work on this, in order to properly deal with crisis management and exposure to the public.
Going on social media just for the fun of it or just because everybody is there, is just a big mistake.
Social Media and Traditional Marketing
Social Media in the marketing mix
A product always fullfils a customer need. In the bascis of marketing, the four c's has to be set.
Social media is then a component that influences a lot the promotion part (old 4P's) or the communication part (customer centric 4C's).
Customer habits and attitudes evolved a lot with internet. As internet is your fastest track to get information about anything you want, it is sure that being on the social media gives a lot more visibility to the business and the offers. We are all "GOOGLE"'s children.
Looking for info, building knowledge, asking for advice or getting a best practice all these needs flicks in one's mind as a reflex just google it.
Then if you have a space where customers with precise needs, can find all the information they need and better, get access to peers' opinions and even better other customers recommending your product, then that place would be a store, and on the internet nothing else than a social media.
Now in the same way, your store has to be where your customers are, you have to choose the social media platform on which are your customers
Social media marketing approach
Sharing ideas has never been easier with social media.Sharing interest has never been easier with social media.
Sharing desires has never been easier with social media.
Sharing Actions has never been easier with social media.
Than you would say enough with this annoying repetitions, it is just what all marketing is about, cultivating in this precise order :
- Awareness
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
You would then recognize here the purchase funnel in a social media community. This why social media is so important in marketing , nowadays.
Social media does not really revolutionize marketing, it is just a way, a potential to consider in marketing.
Social media facts
Talking about potential, how come?
Recent studies have proven the following :
- Time spent on social media is by far longer than the time spent on any website:
Over 47% of the streaming time is spent on YouTube
- focus on social media is competing with mass media. It is very commun to watch TV and have a tablet on your thighs connected to a social media.
Over 40% of people visited a social networking site
during a TV program or a commercial.
- The number of social media subscribers compared to the population is showing an interesting ratio going up year after year with a steep growth curve.
(figures source: Nielsen Digital Consumer report 2012)
Clearly a potential not only according to these facts but also because it has to be used with relevance.
