Let’s face it, the word social is no longer complete without media. Before the era of Facebook and other social sites, most people found pleasure in forming one on one friendships or pen pals.
Indeed, it was difficult to connect with someone who was out of your hometown or country. Friendships were limited to geographical locations, schools you attend and your neighbourhood. That is history now as not only have people made friends but they have found life partners on social media.
Social media refers to computer technologies that allow people to share ideas and communicate efficiently. These interactions involve the electronic use of apps and websites over the internet. Content shared on social media include videos, photos words and memes.
People seem to misconstrue the real definition of social media. As a matter of fact, people define social media using apps on their phones or tablets. While it is true that its definition is pegged on the uses of Smartphones, its inception began with computers.
Social media was all about socialising and connecting with people. This trend began changing over time as people realised they could use social media for business as well.
The dynamics of social media
Social media has revolutionized our interactions and affected also the way we do business. The dynamics it brought into our social life is happening real time. Right now, it’s not only about playing computer games solo. Social gaming is now a cup of tea for many young gamers.
Blogging? Don’t even ask because newspapers and books are now being threatened by this fast speed growing industry. YouTube has got more attention and views now that it ever got thanks to vloggers. Just like blogs, photos and social media posts, vloggers are just not the ones to be left behind. It’s a field you could benefit from tremendously and make a fortune from advertisements.
When it comes down to individuals the story is too good to be true. Whether in Europe, Asia or Africa you can have timely communication with anyone in any part of the globe.
Of course, emails have been part of us for a while but don’t offer much in terms of social value. As much as we may want to castigate social media for perpetuating an environment of superficial friendships, true and deeper connections have resulted out of social media.
Social media marketing vs mainstream marketing
For millennials, social media is quickly turning out to be a trend-setter in the way of doing things. It’s no longer about the usual Ad on TV but what gets promoted on social media.
Take for example the case of the Ford Fiesta project run by the Ford Motor Company. This was a program that involved selecting 100 socially super-active individuals. The 100 participants selected were provided with a Ford model that was still in production and not released yet.
This model referred to as the Ford Fiesta –a European version was given to the participants 18 months prior to its release. Given their social media visibility and vibrancy, participants chosen shared their experience of the Ford Fiesta on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
This they did for a period of six months. The results of the Ford Fiesta program turned out to be a tremendous success on social media. Some of the key results highlighted from the marketing strategy included
- 11 million users who ended up with a social networking impression.
- 5 million people engaged on social networks
- Tweets alone hit the 15,000 marks
- 13000 photos and
- 11,000 videos
These figures are from a survey conducted prior to this post. It shows how social media marketing can influence the popularity of a product.
However, there is a downside to the use of Social media for marketing your business. The attention span of many social media guys is very short. People want to get what they are looking for in the shortest time possible and move on to something else.
Must you be active on social media?
The answer to this question is determined by what exactly is your activity on social media. If your primary purpose is to connect and build friendships, it doesn’t matter how active you are on social media. Whether you choose to appear daily or weekly, there is not much sense of urgency.
However, if you are a business owner, having social media accounts that are dormant is equivalent to having none. A social media account carries in it the urgent sense to engage with your visitors and followers.
Consider engaging with your audience to build trust and a good image. This could mean engaging with them from day to day. Alternatively, some sites such as Instagram make work easier for you. You could set an auto with monthly Instagram likes.
With this service, you are able to build your brand image with hundreds or thousands of likes. You can enlist for their services for a given number of likes depending on your budget.
If an established brand, avoid the temptation to focus on you
You don’t want to appear a bore by always talking about your product and how good they are. Also, find the time to engage with your audience and let them be the judges. For instance, if on Instagram, you could post images of two products and initiate a vote or dialogue.
Your customers’ feedbacks give you insight on what products to buy. This helps you to save money by avoiding the purchase of products customers won’t buy.
While business blogs are important for making your products known, do not only talk about what is important to you. Make them feel valued by also drawing attention away from your brand and focusing on them.
Final thoughts
Social media is the use of computer-based technologies to share information and interact with others over the internet. Apart from social activities, you could use social media to market your business brand and sell more products. If not using social media, I need not tell you what opportunities you are missing on.
