Social Media Marketing: Challenges Ahead

Social media is here and it's time to face the challenges and take advantage of this huge opportunity.  Life as we know it is changing and we better embrace this movement or face the consequences.  Both personal and business practices are changing our lives - they way we spend our time and the manner in which news travels. 

Facebook still commands about half of the social media logins market having gained significant market share from Google and Yahoo over the past 2 years.  Who's left -Twitter, U-Tube and LinkedIn also dominate both business professionals as well as consumers. 

These very same consumers look at website content - they follow their favorite brands with hope to see advertisements, promotions and give-a-ways that they can take advantage of. 

QR codes - the new smart phone scanning technology that takes you to a company or person's website, is catching on fast from billboards to point of sale material to  QR code stickers placed beside UPC stickers.

New products are being tested through comments from Facebook pages and even new recipes or flavors are being chosen by the public - what a fabulous venue to get your customer involved. 

Buddy Media, the social media engagement company, recently completed a study of 320 top brands on Twitter — Fortune 1000 companies like Coke, American Eagle, Microsoft, and Nike — looking at what works and what doesn’t to get maximum engagement, and the greatest degree of virality.  One of the surprising findings is that the best times to engage on Twitter is almost opposite the best times to engage on Facebook.

Studies consistently portray consumers buying patterns being significantly affected by promotions on company websites that they follow.

Good news and fast customer responses can turn a potential disaster into something good.   You must be transparent - that is tell honestly what is going on.  Your brand's personality is your biggest asset when running a social media campaign -- but only if you're authentic and believable.