ted paulson

Facebook, Twitter and Social Media Marketing

Facebook and Twitter see the highest adoption rate in social media marketing while customer reviews rank No. 1 for increasing sales and customer engagement, according to a study released Wednesday.

Retailers are revving up their social media marketing efforts as the past six months show aggressive adoption of the emerging trend with Facebook and Twitter leading the way, according to the report, “Community and Social Media Study,” conducted by the e-commerce consulting firm the e-tailing group and online customer review firm PowerReviews.

The findings come at a time when recession-strapped companies are increasingly looking to social media marketing as a more affordable way to promote their products and services as compared to standard online advertising, and as interactive marketing overall gains purchase on traditional offline advertising. (via www.internetnews.com’ Sept 17th, 2009 | by Michelle Megna)

Understanding the challenges

Nowadays, more than ever “out-of-the-box” thinking is required in our business life.  Various communication platforms are challenging us. Staying constantly in touch with our community is one thing, but to get feedback is another. The interface between marketer and consumer generated content is the sensitive part of successful social network marketing. This is where ‘try-buy-talk’ works as an important circle.

Besides the emotional need for efficient social marketing you also need very smart applications for a good support between those two parts, such as applications which measure your project and guarantee a very close connection between your online presentation and your social network.

It is a positive development that many of the social network platforms are opening their systems through ‚API’-support. For many companies a great opportunity to show what possibilities are in place to keep both part marketer and consumer generated content closer.

We are witnessing a global communication shift. Social network platforms have existed for almost five years, but this year we have a massive uprise in the usage of those platforms. Partially over 500 percent in some countries.

The question to be asked is why this year and not since beginning?

Well, it has to do with support of the applications. Since some platforms provide open source, social networking is very interesting for brands. Even immensely important, because you can measure, track and count detailed numbers about consumers in the community. To understand the entire system means let the user participate in your project. Let them try your product. They talk about it wether convinced or not.

You get the testimonials from them in comments, numbers and measurements, in utmost detail. In the end if done correctly all your products, brands & services are spread over the entire globe. Even you having the right application can help you monetize through those platforms. The smart & clever avenue to do this has to be found and the chance to find this is now indeed even bigger than ever before.