The majority of marketers and business owners have come to understand the significance and necessity of social media in the modern world. However, the reasons for such importance are yet to be determined extensively. It is true that the value of social media in the industry seemingly stems from its contribution and impact on the amount of website traffic, brand awareness levels, and fan engagement but these factors do not properly cover all the bases.
Social media, especially the content that finds some buzz through the platform, retains the power to make individuals act in certain ways that affect business owners in a positive manner. A recent Deloitte consulting report explains that though social media influences different demographics in meaningful ways, the reach is significantly greater among millennial. Here are some of the newest research findings that can help you gauge whether you are making the apt social media marketing choices for your business:
Successful Social Media Means Increased Sales
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Efforts to track sales via social media have not yielded viable results in the past. A streaming video or Facebook post is capable of affecting sales at some point but filling out forms, phone calls and similar other steps are credited with hooking potential business clients through a process resembling conversion. Such issues led the marketers to opt for more amorphous metrics of buzz generation and brand awareness than direct sales. Here are some solid takeaways to help you form the right long term social media strategies.
- 2015 Social Media 500 report by Internet Retailer suggests that social media might be in a position to directly deliver paying consumers to the vendors. The efforts taken by retailers to form social media audiences finally seem to be paying off.
- Various social media platforms are in the process of developing promotions and buy-type buttons to assist marketers with the tracking of sales.
- Social platforms are no longer merely interested in ad-based revenue and they have the potential to take on the roles of affiliates, where they will be receiving a part of each sale they facilitate for a vendor.
Is Social Media on Desktop Still Relevant?
The Internet is going mobile and the predominant activity is social networking. It comes as no surprise that, according to the U.S. Digital Future in Focus study by ComScore, mobile Internet access has increased fourfold in the last four years in the United States while desktop usage has risen only 37%. However, a detailed study of the report unveils some vital lessons-
- The new mobile domination has NOT supplanted impacted desktop digital time.
- Digital time seeped into the off-hours of users as they started using their tablets and smartphones while viewing television, waiting in lines, and in bed.
- For the top 10 digital properties, almost one-third traffic comes from mobile devices, which is huge. Noteworthy - mobile browsing is rising, but it's still not the primary source of traffic!
- Key takeaway for you - the 'shift' towards mobile is more of an inflection now, though marketers still need to be prepared to target desktop usage as well.
Rise of Podcasting
Podcasts seem to be gaining traction fairly rapidly, blurring the divide between social and content marketing. Here are some techniques to consider, when you plan to make podcasting a vital cog in your social media campaigning machinery-
- A fine mix of social and content, podcasts enable listeners to turn in and answer questions sent through social media or email.
- The landing pages for podcasts are generally equipped with social buttons to promote easy liking, sharing and commenting.
- Audiences are often prompted by podcasters to friend them and follow them on social media platforms.
- The mainstream success of podcasts and their reach across a wide section of the population indicates that advertisers and marketers need to realize and plan ahead for the inevitable shifts.
- This is more so due to the fact that such shifts cover audiences who, though medium-sized, earn moderate salaries and remain engaged with and loyal to the shows.
According to Fraser Birt, Director of Maple Forest PPC, using podcasts to promote the company's performance based PPC services was a stroke of genius and a sign of changing times since the methods worked well with customers who earlier were not sure about the nature of the services they would expect. The podcaster was able to deliver all the necessary details to the target audience at a fraction of the cost what it would have taken to bring out a professional advert.
Domination of Facebook Extends to Mobile Platforms
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Facebook has long built up a solid foundation among social media platforms and after dominating desktops, the conglomerate has now set its sights towards mobile. In fact, Facebook made preparations for the eventual consumer switch to social networking on mobiles before other social sites. They have both the resources and the capital to stay on the trend of frequently offering new features for mobile, leaving other social media platforms in the dust. Facebook makes mobile browsing easy, and this makes users compliant to share their demographics, buying intent, purchase history and other information. This indicates that Facebook offers the most targeted as well as valuable audience to the delight of advertisers. Use free Facebook tools like Agora Pulse and EdgeRank Checker to leverage analytics for understanding your users better.
Here are some key research outcomes to help you plan your Facebook marketing strategies:
- The addition of graph search and trending tools to its mobile version means that Facebook will retain the power to lure news seekers to the app.
- They have started supporting video ads from advertisers, leading to a substantial rise in ecommerce social logins apart from the usual social logins, as per Gigya's The Landscape of Customer Identity: Facebook Dominates Mobile" report.
- Moreover, Pew Research mentions how the engagement rate for Facebook is so powerful that it completely outstrips that of any other channel in the social media industry.
- The platform has a loyal and active user base who login daily and the number has continued to increase day-by-day rather than decline.
- Check out the best practices of creating share-worthy content, to leverage social media's influencer effect to the maximum.
Closing Thoughts
Business owners can no longer overlook the rising impact of social media since consumers using social media for shopping have a higher chance of spending on purchases compared to the ones who do not. It is imperative to establish a clear presence on social media since they might not be able to prompt customers to use social platforms but business owners certainly can affect the overall experience of a shopper on social media. Point-of-sale marketing techniques are clever methods to influence regular shoppers to turn to social media by highlighting the specials and advantages. Social media has enough clout to affect shopping behavior in different age groups and business owners constantly update their social media marketing strategies in order to increase sales.