Taking the Road Less Traveled in Social Media, And Why It Makes All the Difference
A big question for those interested in social media marketing today is effectiveness. What drives customers and businesses to my site? How do I engage my customer base to create a two-way dialogue that promotes positive interaction?
A recent survey conducted by MarketingProfs in September 2009 of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers found that the marketing tactics most often used on social media sites aren’t necessarily the best.
Simply friending customers and attempting to drive traffic to corporate websites with status updates on Facebook, ranked among the most common tactics. But brands cannot expect to gain traction with these simplistic one-way communications.
Looking at MarketingProf’s survey of B2B and B2C marketers, the most effective tactic for consumer-oriented companies was creating a Facebook application. However, less than 25 percent of the total number of those surveyed used this approach. A close second for both B2C and B2B marketers were fan surveys, although ranked as the third most-common tactic attempted.
Coming in dead-last as effective were Facebook ads. Even targeted ads, using Facebook’s improved ad targeting package came up short.
Not a surprise really when you recognize that social media users, especially those savvy to traditional communication techniques, expect companies to provide value, interactivity and ultimately open up a human dialogue.
Twitter is another application where the goals don’t match the approach most marketers’ take.
Because of Twitter’s features, brevity and fairly recent entrance into the web its user base is different from Facebook’s and so is its utility to marketers. Those who used Twitter as a tool for monitoring and person-to-person communication, instead of as a sales channel, reported 40 percent or higher success rates.
Buzzphoria knows that success in social media means going that extra mile down the road less traveled to interact with customers and clients in a dynamic way. One-way traditional communications aren’t how real people talk to one another and it shouldn’t be how companies going forward address their consumers.
Has your company embraced social media’s human communication?
Tags: adrienne lenhoff, adrienne lenhoff wise, b2b social media, buzzphoria, buzzphoria blog, buzzphoria.com, customer engagement, driving customers to my site, facebook, friending customers, MarketingProf Survey, promo marketing team, ROI, shazaaam, shazaaam pr, social marketing, social media agency, social media firm, social media measurement, twitter