Social Media Marketing: An Increasing Trend for Online Marketing

“The beauty of social networks is that they are a place where nearly any marketing goal can be achieved, with nearly any marketing tactic,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Marketing on Social Networks: Branding, Buying and Beyond.”

With social networking sites prevailing over the Internet, social networks are becoming a popular tool for businesses, especially for those small companies, to engage their customers nowadays. Trough social media marketing, companies build up social networks, blogs, and other forms of online platforms for marketing and customer service purposes. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and other blogs are the common social media marketing tools. According to the research conducted by eMarketer, even in the economic downturn, projections for 2009 show that 25% of small businesses in the US are planning on spending more on social networking marketing, 33% are planning on continuing their current spending, and only 5% are planning spending less. The research has indicated that marketing through social networks is performing better than other areas of economy and taking up an important part of business activities. (link 1)

Recently, I came across an article on eMarketer website named “ Social Network Marketing Expands Sphere” (link 2) in which I share the same points with the author. In this article, the author argues that, “savvy marketers are demonstrating that social networks have a positive effect on direct marketing and lead generation”. It is demonstrated in the survey conducted by Anderson Analytics in May 2009. According to the survey, “52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking Website—double the percentage who had said something negative (23%)”. Brand pages and applications can be vehicles to hand out coupons and offers to consumers to boost sales and promote new products. As for e-commerce, not that many retailers are currently involved in sales over the internet. However, the author argues that services such as Facebook Connect or blogs will provide consumers a virtual online platform to share their browsing and purchasing experience with their social network friends. Furthermore, the article also points out the remaining difficulties for marketers to value the success of the social media. “Soft ROI” is the main indicator for marketers to track on social networks, but it does not show up in the bottom line. But good news is that a study from the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint, along with a separate study from Razorfish, demonstrates that the stronger a business’s social media presence, the better the business performed. For the whole commercial market, even though social media marketing is still in the early stages, its future influence on consumer buying decisions and potential to grow will be unpredictable.

The reason I am standing with the points in the article is that many people including myself are strongly influenced by this new online marketing campaign. Currently, companies including Starbucks (5,113,325 fans), Fords (53,942 fans) and Harley-Davidson (344,887 fans) have already set up official groups on Facebook to provide their fans or customers a way to share information and experience. Meanwhile, they also utilize the Facebook group to organize events, advertise new products and spread out their culture. Especially during the economic downturn, marketers have to find new ways to reduce budget and constraint costs. Instead of spending a huge amount of money on regular advertising and marketing activities, social media marketing is one of the new options given to marketers. Its internet-based and cost-saving features allow businesses to expand their customer bases, and develop customer loyalty via active interaction and engagement.

However, since social media marketing is becoming a new trend in online marketing, more and more companies are jumping on this bandwagon. Larger issues, such as privacy invasion and information overflow, start to catch public attention. Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group argues that, “many brands are going to do it wrong, by wasting resources, or embarrassing their brands with a campaign that doesn’t fit the needs of a community.” ( link 3) From my point of view, businesses, on the other hand, should match their social network strategies with their overall marketing goals to apply the concept in a proper way.

There is no doubt that social media marketing is becoming a new online marketing trend considering the increasing population on the social networking sites. It gives businesses tremendous opportunities as well as challenges. Intelligent strategies will maximize the economic effect and make it accessible for businesses to wide customer bases.

Sources:
Link 1 : Social Network Marketing Spending to Increase in 2009, http://www.hiringtheinternet.com/2009/01/21/social-network-marketing-spending-to-increase-in-2009/
Link 2: Social Network Marketing Expands Sphere , http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007252
Link3: What makes a Successful Marketing Campaign on Social Networks?, http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/02/19/what-makes-a-marketing-campaign-on-social-networks-successful/

Xin Chang