It was not too long ago when experts disregarded the social media as a mere entertainment outlet for individuals. As such, its importance for businesses was thought to be low, if at all, present. However, soon, people started to realize that the social media was much more than what was believed initially. Outlets such as Facebook and Twitter started to dominate the internet, and the sheer amount of traffic that these websites attracted was more than anything that businesses had ever seen.
The primary reason why the social media started to become such a dominant force in internet marketing for businesses in the first place was due to the fact that creating accounts on Facebook and Twitter, or even YouTube, were completely free of cost. This coupled with the immense amount of traffic on these websites, provided businesses of all sizes with an opportunity that was unlike anything before. The benefits of the social media marketing are vast. First of all, as stated earlier, maintaining company pages or accounts on Facebook and Twitter are completely free of cost. Secondly, there has been a recent trend which has made consumers discuss businesses on the social media, so getting good press on these websites is a must. The social media is akin to word of mouth marketing in that one good customer review or comment attracts the attention of many other people, and the cycle goes on. Thirdly, the online video sharing service YouTube allows businesses to post videos and advertisements for free. The importance of this point can be gauged from the fact that YouTube reaches more US adults (18 to 34) than cable television.
While social media marketing has its pros, there are some downsides too. Negative or bad press, for instance, can be quite damaging for businesses. In addition, some companies have posted comments on their Facebook or Twitter pages that have not been well received by people, and these companies were then avoided. However, these mistakes can be easily avoided by having quality measures in check such as allowing only qualified marketing people to manage social media accounts.
Here are some additional statistics about the social media:
- Facebook alone has 1.4 billion users from around the world.
- Average amount of tweets per day is 190 million.
- Amount of YouTube views per month is 92 billion.
Works Cited
"Digital Marketing Techniques That Will Be in Vogue in 2014." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. <http://socialmediatoday.com/alan-smith/1918461/digital-marketing-techniques-for-2014>.
"Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn – Social Media Stats 2014 [INFOGRAPHIC]." - AllTwitter. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-stats-2014_b54243>.
