Tag: mobile social media

Social media marketing is riddled with bad mistakes

| September 16, 2013

There are errors being made in these strategies that are causing entire campaigns to fail.

Despite the fact that social media marketing can no longer be considered to be new, and that many analytics firms are declaring it to be a channel that is reaching maturity, there are still some devastating errors that are being made that are causing campaigns to be unable to reach their potential, or to fail entirely.

These networks remain a location where communication with customers requires some trial and error.

The latest findings from a study conducted by Econsultancy, along with Adobe, have shown that conclusions from other studies – such as one from Vizu – that were held earlier this year are either wrong, or the trends have completely reversed themselves. What they found is that social media marketing is more focused on lead generation than on branding for marketers worldwide.

Previous studies indicated that the main goal of social media marketing had been focused on the brand.

Social Media Marketing - Bad MistakesThis could suggest that marketers are making a tremendous mistake when it comes to the use of social media marketing. It means that the emphasis of their efforts is on trying to make a sale instead of trying to build a relationship with the consumer by way of branding techniques. It is steering away from the belief that it is more effective to engage the consumer than to simply move a product off the shelf.

This social media trend indicates that marketers are suddenly more focused on the bottom line than they are on making sure that customers build a liking and a loyalty to the brand so that they will come back for more when they need those products, once again.

One of the oldest and best known rules of business is that it is far easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. This makes a consumer who is loyal to the brand the most important focus for the majority of companies. However, the results of this recent research suggest that marketers are forgetting this goal when they design their social media strategies, and are no longer as focused on engaging consumers and building loyalty as they are on making sure that a measurable purchase can be made as a result.

Social media marketing expectations are changing

| August 14, 2013

According to the latest research, there is a maturing occurring in what people expect from this technique.

There is nothing rare about research being conducted on the results that are being generated by social media marketing, but what is starting to become quite interesting in this domain is the change in the expectations surrounding the results that the technique will generate.

Now that the channel has been used for a few years, it is becoming possible to view its trends.

Some patterns have started to emerge as the very latest in studies have been released by the researchers at the Pivot Conference, and their publication, the “State of Social Media Marketing 2012-2013”. Though the research did provide a large amount of detail as to the breakdown of the use of the strategy over the last few years, it is the trends that are being viewed as the most worthwhile.

For example, many of the respondents in this study changed their feeling that social media marketing success must be gauged by sales.

Social media marketing changesIn 2011, the respondents stated in 100 percent of the cases that an increase in sales was the top goal for any campaign using social media marketing, either for their own company, or those of their clients. However, that opinion has changed dramatically since that time, as in 2012, it was recorded that less than 50 percent of the participants felt the same way. This year, it appears to be climbing again, and is currently settled at the 56 percent mark.

The data from the study also showed that there were tremendously high expectations of the performance of social media marketing in 2011 and a withdrawal of that belief in 2012. This year, there seems to be a rebound in the faith that marketers have in the technique. This occurred in nearly every response area of the study.

Many are interpreting this as a sign that social media marketing as a technique is now maturing, and that the understanding and expectations surrounding it are starting to become more realistic and steady. It has moved beyond the tremendous hype and has survived disappointment and is now starting to level off to a degree that is often seen in areas that are more established.