Over the past fifteen years, the world has undergone a significant change. With the introduction of social media, everybody on the planet connected. As a result, businesses can get personal with their clients.
Today we’ll be talking about the impact of social media on business in the future; meaning, we’ll take a look at how social media will change the dynamics between the customer and the brand.
Before Social Media
The days before social media was costly, ineffective and a hit or miss strategy when it comes to marketing. Running a television ad was expensive, and you weren’t necessarily going to see the returns in real time.
Before social media, ‘brand awareness’ was the name of the game. The entire purpose of running an ad was to get your name out directly. However, the information about the customer was lacking.
Let’s say you ran an ad in a newspaper. The newspaper would boast that have “x” amount of readers, however, are these readers your ideal clients?
The answer is no. A Million zombies will never buy despite the fact that they all might see.
Social media changed the way we interact with customers, we understand the psychology of the buyer, and thus we have more effective marketing campaigns that actually will reach your ‘ideal buyer.’
Costs
One of the most significant revolutions of social media was driving down the price per ad. Where you would have to spend thousands of dollars on running a TV ad; Social media can get you similar results but costing you pennies compared to TV.
With options like “Pay-per-click” or “Pay-per-Engagement,” specific brands have managed to get interactions for $.0001 per engagement. It means that you can reach 1000 people for a dollar. Due to this, we have seen an influx of ads on social media.
Consumer Psychology
Seeing that everybody who uses social media is generating a digital footprint, companies can gain access to this information to optimize their offers. If they know that someone is obsessed with Hushpuppies, they will take a look at the information about the particular user and customize the ad to target their specific likes and desires.
Before social media, you would have to conduct interviews, surveys to start painting a picture of what a customer might want. These “focus groups” were all the rage back in the day, these days’ people just rely on big data generated by social media.
Brand Engagement
Social Media also bridged the distance between a brand and the customer. Now, a customer can just tweet their concerns to the name and get a response in real time. It is something that in the past was near impossible. It is why call centers became so big.
However, with Social Media…communication is instant and anyone can interact with a brand irrespective of their geographical location. It means that there are higher standards of quality for businesses since literally anyone can voice a complaint that will negatively affect your business.
The Rebirth of Mouth-to-Mouth Marketing
Seeing that Social Media is all about sharing. People become your marketing agents. If you make a purchase online, you usually end up telling people where you bought it. It is free marketing for businesses that understand how to utilize these tactics to their benefit.
Things like “Share Gates” have utilized the reach of social media to market to new audiences by offering an incentive for people to share the offer they are purchasing in exchange for a discount.
It is huge! It’s mostly free marketing to anyone savvy enough to implore this strategy.
Creating a unique hashtag can turn your business into a supergiant overnight. The purpose of hashtags within social media is to create ‘categories’ online which a specific brand can monitor. For instance, a business could create a hashtag using their name.
Every time someone uses the hashtag, the brand will see the message and can choose to engage or not. In most cases, merely responding to a customer’s comment will increase the likeliness of the customer purchasing with the brand.
You can also utilize hashtags for specific marketing campaigns, allowing you to track the performance in real time and if you get it “trending” on platforms like Twitter, you can get thousands of new views from one day to another.
Social Media has revolutionized not only the world of business but the world in general. We are more connected than ever before, and brands that understand these concepts will be able to continue to grow their revenue streams, diversify their product lines and customize their offers to suit the exact needs of their target audience. The Internet changed the world and social media connected it all.
Charles Ross is a know-it-all global student. An easy-going extrovert, Charles adores communication advantages offered by Internet – blogging in the first place. This – combined with his bitter experience of college essay writing – makes him a perfect author at AffordablePapers.com – writing tutoring service with moderate pricing for college students in need.