Marketing is ever-evolving. It all started with print, then went onto broadcast and finally, to its current iteration, digital. And so it goes, marketers have had no choice but to adapt their methods to encompass and integrate the impact of each new medium.
If you’re not keeping with with the advancements in marketing, you’re leaving money on the table. Your competitors are keeping up…what aren’t you? In not adapting to and embracing these marketing advancements, you’re failing to reach important customer groups and demographics.
The stand out advancement in marketing, arguably the one that has had the most impact in changing the way that businesses do marketing, is social media.
Social media provides access. Most people and companies have at least one social media channel. As a result, it’s much easier for the general public to reach them directly. This can be a blessing and a curse. Handled properly, engaging with customers on a direct level can endear them to you, turning an occasional buyer into a brand ambassador.
However, if handled poorly, it can turn a positive perception into a negative one and serve to undermine all the hard work of building a positive brand. We’ve all seen the stories about Yelp with negative reviews and comments severely damaging the reputation of the person or business.
Social media allows for transparency. Yes, social media gives companies another channel through which to target customers. But, it also gives people a forum to air their thoughts too – and very publicly.
Social media outlets, such as Twitter or Facebook, allow people and customers to publicly air their grievances. Unfortunately, when it gets to this point, very little can be done to turn the relationship back around. You may be able to appease them, but the brand damage runs much deeper and is far-reaching. Companies cannot afford to ignore complaints! Now, the requirement is to be much more transparent with their actions and quickly engage with customers, in all situations, to ensure those fails are turned into social media wins.
Social media allows for greater networking. The biggest takeaway from the advancements in social media marketing, is that platforms make it easy for people to share content. You can’t do that with traditional marketing. Back in the day, “word-of-mouth” was enough to generate business and bring in new customers. However, word-of-mouth has limited visibility in terms of return. With social media, companies can see where their content has been shared and seen and by whom, making customer acquisition much more targeted and effective.
Social media provides real time data
The “like” button is a powerful thing and is a significant action for marketers, giving them invaluable data on how a product or brand is being perceived or performing. This allows for maximum return on marketing dollars spent.
Social media marketing is forcing companies to rethink the way they approach their marketing and for 99% of businesses, social media can’t be ignored.