Tag: social media marketing effectiveness

While advertising on these networks is considered to be vital a new survey questions their effectiveness.

Gallup has recently released the results of a social media marketing study that has suggested that this advertising channel is not nearly as effective as some of the leading networks – such as Facebook and Twitter – would have companies believe.

The recent “State of the American Consumer” report from the polling firm showed that few feel these ads work.

The Gallup poll results showed that only 5 percent of Americans feel that social media marketing has a considerable influence over the various products that they purchase. That said, a massive 62 percent of the survey participants felt that these ads had no effect at all on the decisions that they make with regards to purchasing. The survey involved the participation of 18,000 consumers in the United States.

The social media marketing study showed that offline interaction with brands were far more influential.

Participants in the survey stated that they were more heavily influenced by interactions with brands that occurred offline, such as those that occur during in-store visits and that they see in retail display windows. They felt that these were far more influential than ads that they saw over social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

It is expected that those social networks – and others – will be quite surprised by the findings, as will the brands that are expected to spend a total $11.4 billion on advertising over those two leading platforms by the close of 2014.

The Gallup report suggested that Americans are using their favorite social media platforms in order to interact with the people they know, and not necessarily the brands that they like. In fact, the publication suggested that those site users have learned to tune out the ads that are displayed in front of them while they use those social networks.

The social media marketing report said that “These channels do not motivate prospective customers to consider trying a brand or recommending a brand to others,” adding that “Therefore, if companies want to acquire new customers, their best bet is to engage their existing customers and inspire them to advocate on their behalf.”

Many people have given up or limited their use of Facebook and Twitter for forty days.

Now that Lent has begun, many Facebook and Twitter users have revealed that they are reducing, limiting, or even eliminating their use of the services, which could cause the effectiveness of social media marketing to temporarily dip.

Until Easter, the ads on these networks may not be seen and used by those making their individual sacrifice.

Lent is a period of personal sacrifice that occurs over a period of forty days that starts on Ash Wednesday (this year, it was February 13). This year, social media marketing experts have discovered that many of those who observe this time are choosing to give up their participation in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other platforms, until the forty days is complete.

This social media marketing trend has illustrated the growing importance of this technology in our daily lives.

According to the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church webmaster, Lisa Hendey, “In the past, it might have been giving up the extras, like chocolate or TV, but Facebook has become such a big part of people’s daily lives they’re contemplating giving it up, praying about it and discussing it.” That church has the largest Roman Catholic congregation in Fresno, California.

The Redeemer Lutheran Church associate pastor, Dan Hues, said that “Facebook is huge”, and that “It’s blown up to be almost ubiquitous. It’s almost compulsive; that’s why it makes sense to give it up for Lent.” He stated that he feels that its popularity represents the ideal opportunity for the sacrifice of an activity of self indulgence.

Social media marketing analysts have been closely examining the patterns of use and traffic over the forty days of lent in order to be able to observe whether there is a perceptible dip in the use and effectiveness, or whether the impact is truly negligible. Due to the popularity of the use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other platforms, it is being predicted that this will become an increasingly common sacrifice over the period of Lent this year and in coming years.