5 Ways Social Media is transforming digital world like never before. Read More…
33.3% of total time spent on internet is done on various Social Media platforms(Source : eMarketer Nov’14 report). Social media has changed the way people are consuming information on internet and businesses have to adopt to the new world order to make most out of it. Many are still trying to figure out ways to take advantage of this medium but, the complex and evolving nature of social is not making things easy.
Social is currently seen as the closet medium to interact with customers in real time. Businesses no longer need to wait for days to get data to evaluate the impact of their marketing campaigns. Data rich digital world has shortened the evaluation cycles with social media giving an early reaction and performance readings from the consumers.
The prominence of Social has opened up new opportunities:
1. New marketing channel (yet to explored fully) – Today on an average user spends 2-3 hours per day (Source – dazeinfo) on social media platforms and this number is constantly rising. So, businesses have no other option but, make efforts to reach out to their potential customers via Social media. The good part of social is that people spend lot of time on it but, bad part is the nature of information consumed on most social platforms is non-serious. Currently social offers one of the lowest ROI among different marketing channels (refer pic below).
With average revenue contribution from social ranging between 5-8% and social penetration among people of over 75%, the numbers don’t add up. There is still long gap to cover and marketers need to understand the space better and plan effectively.
2. Social has taken targeting and personalization to newer heights - Social platform like Facebook and LinkedIn are rich with customer data and fortunately the users share these information willingly. This makes social media very powerful as marketers are now able to target niche segments.
Other options like re-targeting, user content based targeting is making social media a powerful marketing channel. (Will cover different forms of marketing on social media in subsequent posts)
Though the social media offers extensive targeting but, the return on marketing dollars is far from desired.
3. Social media is taking Brands closer to consumers - Brands can now have real time engagement with customers via social media platforms. Social is currently used for multiple type of interaction with users namely brand/product information, new launches, surveys, product/service feedback and the list will keep on rising.
Companies with effective social engagement have successfully increased their brand strength and made their loyalist on social to act as their co-advertisers. If used smartly the domino effect of social can make brands and promotions reach large potential customers in very short time.
4. Social is giving an extended support to alleviate Business operations - Social with its wide reach and customer engagement capabilities can easily fit into multiple operational strategies. Products and promotions are now first launched on social followed by other channels. Social has become an information center where customers directly post queries on brand pages and expect quick answers.
One of the major areas where social media has impacted is the customer care and after sales service departments. Customers are slowly putting their needs and grievances on Brand's social pages rather taking the normal route of calling or e-mailing. This has made life of Brands tough as it has reduced their cycle time to respond and they cannot afford to make any error in communication leading to Brand degradation.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-ways-social-media-transforming-digital-world-like-never-behera?loadAction=like&trk=mp-reader-card
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