Kait is a recent college graduate, newfound entrepreneur and working on her IMBA on her spare time. She is avidly unique and confronts life with precocity attributable to her coffee addiction. Her passions include running, writing, the mountains and social media marketing. Visit: KaitVinson.com or @TheRealKait
Top 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Exploding:
There has been a lot of buzz recently about the future of marketing and social media. The emergence of social media networks and social media managers has been in astounding numbers. I did a little research as to why this was happening at such as rapid rate and this is what I found.
- Low-cost/high returns: Most social media networks are virtually free, allowing you to spread your message far and wide without incurring massive costs.
- The audience is limitless: Users of the internet visit billions of websites everyday which exponentially increases the likelihood that you will be seen. If Facebook were a country, it would be bigger than the United States.
- Target markets: It’s easy to target markets and achieve maximum results rather than the traditional shot in the dark marketing.
- Natural traffic: If people like something, they’ll not only visit it but share it, which increases traffic. Additionally, people often visit specific sites or topics in which they are interested thus improving the quality of traffic.
- More time is being spent on the internet, on both computers and phones: Online shopping for example has taken huge gouges out of traditional shopping means such as malls. Who would rather wait in lines during the holiday season than order from home?
- Better search engine results: The more references search engines pick up to sites the higher they are on result pages. Thus the more social media networks that are linked together provide better search results than without.
- It complements other efforts: Social media doesn’t eliminate needs for other marketing efforts but rather augments them. For instance, if a company lists their fan page or Twitter account on their billboards or website interested customers can stay updated easier and more frequently.
- Information & sharing is immediate: As soon as someone sends out a tweet, status update or blog post their entire network can see it instantaneously. This eliminates the traditional wait period of mailings, commercials, and even emails.
- It has viral potential: People tend to have their guard down more often when they are on their social media networks and thus it is easier for marketers to get their message through and share it to the masses.
- The next generation is the technology generation: There have been more technology advances in the past 10 years than in the previous 50 years. Technology is increasing at a doubling rate – double a dollar 20 times it becomes a million dollars – and people are becoming increasingly more accepting and reliant upon it.
Thank you for the piece, Kait. Always nice to hear from a guest writer to compliments Kyle's thoughts.
Good points; with so much to choose from and so little to lose, integrating social media into your business doesn't take a lot of effort and can yield fantastic results!
Agreed! Anyone who disagrees should watch the Socialnomics video. Google It!
You offer very solid points about social media. I personally am a little old school and don't enjoy being marketed to on my facebook unless I actually invite the company or business that markets to me, and that is the best part of social media, you still have those choices. I certainly hope it doesn't change too much. As it is, there is plenty of sidebar advertising, but it also does prove how easy and inexpensive it is to advertise to a larger audience than ever before.
There is an interview series on social media that you should check out, that I think you might really enjoy. http://www.ourblook.com/topic/social_media.html