To keep myself abreast with the latest buzz in social media marketing and to gain further insights to the next leap in this industry, I attended the 2-day National Sales & Marketing congress at Carlton hotel organised by Marketing Institute of Singapore.Insights - Where do I start?
Ok, I shall share my thoughts/ insights gained on the topics on social media marketing.
Importance of SOCIAL Media Marketing
Research shows that only 18% of TV ads generate positive ROI and that consumers are increasingly spending more of their time on the internet in comparison to television. However, organisations are still spending a big bulk of their advertising budget on traditional media.
The impact of internet and social media marketing cannot be ignored by any organisations - whether your business is B2B or B2C as consumers’ time spent on the internet will continue to increase exponentially with the explosion of social media platforms.
Your Organisation’s Needs
Organisations try to keep up with their audience and the evolving communication platforms, and some eagerly engage in social media platforms for the sake of having a presence in the social marketing channels.
Marketers have to set clear objectives and perhaps to consider some of the following factors before embarking on social media marketing:
• The social media channels to select - for B2B vs B2C business?
• Sustainability and engagement – for Sales/ PR/ Branding?
• Continuous consumer engagement – beyond the product launch?
As quoted by Mr Ryan Lim, Founder and Business Director, Blugrapes during the seminar, a successful social media campaign requires quality, quantity, and sustainability.
It is no good starting a social media tool if you're going to abandon it after a few weeks.
Paradigm SHIFT of Power
Social media platforms have “flatten” the way organisation communicates with its consumer. There is a paradigm shift of power from organisations to consumers. Hence, there is a need to shift from communications to conversations with your consumers - from insights, engagements, acquisition, campaigns to advocacy.
Research shows that 78% of consumers trust their peers’ recommendations and only 14% of consumers trust advertisements. It is evident that it is people that drive users’ perceptions of the brand/ products. Hence, the new challenge in marketing is the contents created by people and not the competitors.
As commented by Mr Kalyan Ram Challapalli, Director Strategy, Leo Burnett Singapore, during the seminar, marketers have to understand the shift from “My” Hero to “Me” Hero.
Marketing through consumers’ aspirations to be that “somebody” will no longer work as social media allows consumers themselves to become that “somebody” - with social platforms to post their comments, thoughts, photos, videos, etc and have followers, fanpages, newsfeeds, etc through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
The manifest of consumers’ self-satisfaction and attention paranoia has heightened the power of viral marketing. Hence, user engagement and marketing efforts of the brand and products should stretch beyond the campaigns as it is the consumers that drive the experience and the purchase of your products.
What about the ROI of Social Media Marketing?
It is relatively easier to measure ROI in tradition media. As for social media, your fans and followers; re-tweets; site and video views; ratings; and communities are not financial assets reflected on the balance sheet. However, that does not mean investing in social media is valueless, as social media should be treated as a “total value approach”.
Marketers have to recognise that its benefit go beyond simple dollars and cents. We have seen many examples of organisations that reaped the benefits from social media marketing, that includes, having fans loyalty to their brand that led to viral marketing and possible repeat purchases; the ability to cut cost through money saved on media buying; the reduction of operation costs of the call centre operation; etc.
Back to basics - FUNDAMENTALS of Marketing
Yes, social media platforms have shifted the power of marketing to the hands of the consumers. So, do marketers have to change the way we do marketing?
Social media platforms are just tools for marketing. Consider the evolution of marketing tools from print, TVCs, Internet, to social media, the fundamentals of marketing (satisfying the consumers needs, building relationships, enhancing user experiences, etc) since 1950s remain the same.
What’s NEXT? - The Next Leap…Technology has always presented us with new marketing tools and the impact of the evolving technology on marketing is evident.
Mr Haresh Khoobchandani, Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer & Online, Microsoft Asia Pacific, has shared in the seminar on Microsoft’s vision (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdGvfV4WnU) on creating technologies that allows a seamless connection of various electronics devices.
The technology evolution of electronics devices will open a gate in taking marketing to a whole new level that allows marketers to have a seamless marketing approach for their campaigns.
So what is the next big thing in social media marketing? Mr Manoj Sharma, CEO, ManojSharma.com shared an interest concept, “small minds talk about people; bigger minds talk about events; and the greatest minds talk about ideas”.
It is just like the theory of the blue ocean strategy, but to take an even further step ahead - marketers have to stop trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing and to look beyond the current situation in rethinking and strategising to leap ahead.
Regardless of technology evolution or the next big leap in marketing, to bring our brands and products out of the clutter, noise, and confusion in the market is still the “exciting” challenge that marketers like myself face…
Data sources from http://www.socialnomics.com
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