The use of social media has become ubiquitous in business strategy,
incorporated in marketing plans from multinational corporations to mom &
pop doughnut shops. It has gotten to the point that if your business doesn’t
have a social media presence it seems suspect, a sign that you don’t have the
resources or are simply behind the times.
For a marketing vehicle to get this kind of universal
implementation, it must change the very face of marketing itself. So how can we
define social media’s impact on marketing?
Here are the Top 4 Ways Social Media
has Impacted Marketing
Immediate Data
Data has always been at the centre of marketing decisions,
but with the birth of social media marketers have more information than ever at
the tips of their fingers. Targeting has never been easier or more efficient
with the abilities many platforms provide to choose their audience based on a
multitude of demographics. Hyper-targeting is allowing businesses to reach
their clients in a way that was never available before without expensive, time
consuming market research. Marketers are spending less money in traditional
media like print, not because print is losing relevancy, but because it is less
efficient than social media.
Tracking the results of a campaign has become a lot easier
as well. With social media the numbers roll in while you watch, monitoring and
measuring reactions in real time.
The 2-Sided
Conversation
Social media’s interactive nature has allowed businesses to
reach their audience in a completely interactive way, creating a valuable
(though not without its pitfalls) back-and-forth. For the first time companies have been able
to create a real dialogue, eliminating the middlemen and speaking directly to
their audience. This gives businesses new options to speak not only through a
well-strategized corporate representative, but directly from the employees, the
experts and other customers. Marketers can now take the time to nurture new
leads before directly selling to them - what a wonderful opportunity to build
relevancy in a new way. Hearing a brand’s story from “real people” like
front-line employees creates trust. Add to that some great, well-placed content
to build a reputation that the skeptical consumer of today can relate to.
Shifting from
Interruption to Inbound
The way that consumers are hearing marketing messages has
largely shifted from interruption (tv commercials, pop-ups, spam) to inbound (videos,
blogging, webinars, content marketing). This means the audience has increased
control over what they see, when & where. Truly effective marketing has
begun to evolve from specific campaign talking points to a brand-aligned
conversation that is not always about products. For marketers to make a
valuable impact it is vital to adjust their messaging to fit mobile formats,
providing quick hits of info in smaller, more bite-sized pieces.
The New Marketing
Category
The popularity of social media has in essence created the
new category of DIGITAL MARKETING, a genre buzz word that covers marketing and
advertising using mobile devices and digital media. In reality what has been
created is a new set of platforms to reach the audience. What marketers should really look at is how
social media has changed the way we should categorize marketing strategies.
Social media has a hand in several categories including advertising, customer
communications and public relations. Digital marketing is not something to be
tacked on to a campaign; it should be integrated. The ability to reach people
instantly, optimally, and interactively has the potential to magnify the impact
of the message if properly integrated.
The Song Remains the
Same
At the end of the day, the heart of marketing hasn’t changed.
Messaging content needs to stay creative, clever, entertaining and ultimately
engaging to the audience. Businesses need to reach the right people at the
right time in the right places and have something to say. All the old tactics
are there – simply updated using increasingly efficient tools and technology. At
the end of the day no matter how flashy and fun a new mobile platform may be,
if the return on investment isn’t there, it’s back to the drawing board.
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