9 replies to this topic

[ramki]

Hi,

Now a days Social media is booming like anything. I have few doubts about social media. Please Question are as follows


1. Is Social media is really a good online marketing channel to drive traffic and quality leads?

2. How a business can take advantage from social media?


3. What are the ways and means to followed to drive traffic from social media?


4. How long it will take to drive a good traffic & return from social media?


5. How to determine ROI for social media?

Please Help!

Thanks in advance

[Randy]

1. It can be. It depends upon if the type of customer you're trying to reach hang out on social media sites or not.

2. Your question is too open ended. A business can take advantage the same way it can take advantage by getting its message in front of real people at any other site where its target audience hangs out. There's no big difference because of the Social Media tag. But you have to answer question 1 first.

3. Again, too open ended. And as above your protential customers have to be there first or you're wasting your time.

4. I'm sensing a theme.

5. You don't determine ROI by the back end that runs on other sites. You determine ROI either by the site (preferrably) or potentially by the type of site and type of visitors that make up a channel.

My suggestion is to forget the Social Media moniker for now and first figure out who your Perfect Customer is. Then figure out where they'd likely be hanging out already. Then get your message out in front of them where they already hang out.

Trying to concentrate on sites that somehow fit a type of Channel (Social Media, News, Directories, etc) instead of concentrating on your visitor profile is going to ultimately be a waste of your time.

[1dmf]

As always Randy tells it like it is....

Forget thinking oh 600,000 people sign up everyday to XYZ site so i'll go and try to capture them, if it is a site like BEBO, is your target audience the under 12's?

No point in trying to sell the latest my little pony on an adult porn site or sell viagra to a bunch of school kids!

Understand who your perfect customer is, where they hang out and how you can get access to these potential customers .... sorry to re-itterate what Randy says, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense!

[TakeTheCann0lis]

What I've experienced with clients, and colleagues is that all to often people feel that by creating profiles on social media sites they will be staking their claim of traffic and links, and that it's just as simple as that. It couldn't be further from the truth. Launching a blog, or cultivating a social media presence takes lots of time and effort, as well as upkeep and maintenance. Gone are the days of "If you build it they will come", and even if they do arrive at your profile, blog or website, capturing your audience, through social networking and creating a conversion takes more than just having a profile.

I agree with whats already been said. Study your demographics, and determine if or which social media site is pertinent for your product, and determine if you have the man hours to devote to managing a social presence. IMHO If you don't make a good strong first impression, and keep up with it, your social networking campaign will fall flat.

Also, make sure to measure your expectations realistically.

[projectphp]

Launching a blog, or cultivating a social media presence takes lots of time and effort, as well as upkeep and maintenance.

Amen brother!

Thing is this: SMM is a waste of time, a complete waste of time, if you don't put the effort in. Like exercise: one 20 minute walk a month won't help you lose weight!

My blogging recommendation for businesses is a constant, but so is my warning of the complete lack of rewards if the blog isn't, well, loved. So very few blogs, outside tech, ever are.

Edited by projectphp, 05 June 2008 - 06:11 PM.

[WebPhoenix]

I think if you are poupular across a certain community it will help you in getting good traffic.

[TakeTheCann0lis]

Okay here's a great example. I just started a new position managing a website for a school in NY. The previous person who managed the social networking aspect of marketing our website was of the mindset of "If you build it they will come", and they did. All of our social networking profiles were instantly filling up with our friends and people who ALREADY knew of us. It's great to solidify your position in the market with your current audience, and they make a great pedestal for reaching new audiences, as popular trends attract more people, however....

If you do not at some point create a legitimately engaging social networking protocol for updating your profiles, adding news, media and video that dictates consistent updates your profile will become stagnant, and your viewers will lose awareness of your presence on those sites. Nobody bookmarks a stale blog. Nobody like a lame profile.

Repeat visibility is what solidifies your brand.

There is no magic in social networking, think of it as a new marketing media.

You MUST cultivate your social networking presence. PERIOD.

[cat6freak]

I think that one of the main troubles people have when they first get into social media sites, is that they think that if they just go "friend spamming" on as many social sites as possible, this will help to bring you traffic. This method is much like trying to use pay per click site traffic to sell cars! You might get an instant hike in traffic, but it will be low quality and without conversion, and that is the upside. the downside is that you are now in a position of ill repute with the other 99% of the people that simply are now mad at you because you spammed their profile page. It is much better to go slow, focus you efforts on the sites that best serve your niche, and get involved, not only with content generation, but with network management. It takes a lot of work, but one good front page Digg or Featured youtube video for a person with a large list of "real" friends will know that it is all worth it in the end..

[nethy]

I think there is a fundamental problem here (i'm not sure this will be a popular opinion).

Internet marketers, SEM/SEO people are probably not equipped for SMM. In the same way that programmers were the early internet marketer in the 90s. Programmers had the ability to build websites, had the clients that needed the marketing etc. But the ones with the knowledge to be Internet marketers were probably from the direct marketing school. The concepts translate well.

In the same way these internet marketers (myself included, but I'm learning, or trying to) who are really direct marketers to a large extent, may not be the best people to be on the SMM trail. 'How do i measure ROI', might be the wrong question. Sure, its' nice to know. You probably wouldn't consider starting a serious ppc endevour without decent ROI tracking in place and decision rules for discontinuing adapting etc.. But I'm not sure that's applicable here.

How does Paris Hilton's publicist measure ROI of a $50k dress or a photo op with Grandpa Wen? For a start, ROI data is most useful when you can repeat a process perhaps tweaking it. Just like with direct marketing (SEM included). Send Y letters & get X conversions or buy W clicks & make Z sales. You tweak & repeat.
contrast, even if you knew how much that interview on Jay Leno was worth when you negotiated your cut on a movie contact a week later, How much that shitty review in the WSJ cost you in corporate sales or what 40 years of drilling a jingle into everyone's head does to your price premium on home loans.
My point is that many marketing activities do not result in direct measurable ROI. At best, many result in direct measurable something (seen by X people, recalled by Y people, Q people feel A about product at T1 & P at T2...).

PR (Public Relation) activities, which are probably most similar to SMM, do not necessarily fall into the internet marketing framework. Maybe we need people from other areas of marketing to step in here. PR people or something. I guess lot of it falls under 'brand management' but I don't think that there's too much to gain by transferring from that field (too many rules have changed).

I dunno, just thoughts. Not thoroughly structured yet.

[Randy]

Welcome cat6freak ! I completely agree with your assessment that the first thing most seem to do is get involved in friend spamming. Tis one of the reasons I don't bother all that much with SMM. You see, I was involved in those very early social marketing applications. In my world they were known as BBS and later AOL chatrooms. Where some idiot would see you in the room and think it gave them the right to IM and Email you their spam. I had enough of this early in my Internet life to know I never need it again!

Nethy: I think you're probably pretty much right on your thoughts. Thinking an SEO would automatically be the right person for Social Media Marketing is right up there with thinking someone who is deeply involved in the statistical analysis side of Conversion Testing is automatically an excellent Copywriter simply because the words on the page can positively or negatively affect conversions. They are different talents that require different knowledge, experience and skillsets.

Can being proficient at one help you understand and eventually become better at the other? Sure. Especially for the latter example where you can see and measure effects. But being one doesn't automatically make you the other. There are of course exceptions to the rule. Those exceptions usually being people who have already put in the time required to teach themselves new skills.