Last year was a revelation in many ways for the entire IT industry. It saw the fall from grace of Dell, the transformation of BlackBerry phones into pariah devices, Apple lost Steve Jobs but its iPhone 5 emerged as the leading mobility device of 2012, and much more. But the most hyped news that turned out to be a flop was the launch of Facebook, the social networking site, on the NASDAQ. Within a matter of months, Facebook shares are trading below their initial public offering price, and its recently made public earnings statements haven’t helped matters. Facing criticism over the way Facebook places ads on its pages and the questionable ability of such PPC campaigns to target specific user groups, social marketing lost some of its shine in 2012. In fact, many development companies software companies chose to place Google PPC Ads instead to improve web traffic and attract a larger pool of potential customers. The key reasons why many businesses look to social marketing are as follows:
Strengthening customer relationships
Through social marketing, most companies in a variety of industries, from software development to automobiles, seek to build closer relationships with customers. In this case, social marketing provides businesses with an instant and low-cost method of connecting and building stronger ties with select customer groups by providing special discounts, limited-time offers, etc.
Improve brand preference and brand awareness
For existing customer groups, this form of marketing can play a key role in enhancing preference for the advertised brand. This helps increase repeat customers and improves brand image as well as company bottom line. Furthermore, this marketing system can also improve brand awareness among target user groups to improve the overall visibility of a product/service, by enhancing and establishing interaction between various customer groups.
Improved exchange of information between stakeholders
An additional benefit is the ability of this format to facilitate improvement among the company’s various stakeholders. These stakeholders include customers, suppliers, or partners, even if the company is a foreign software developer or is engaged in providing quality assurance services. This form of marketing allows such stakeholders to instantly convey their changing requirements to the company almost instantly. This improvement in communication would help companies to adapt more quickly to their business environment and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Increased revenue through new customers
This form of marketing can act as a key method of acquiring new customers as well as breaking into new niches. In addition, improvements in information sharing with key stakeholders in the organization can also play a key role in designing new products as well as driving innovation in organizations to improve overall market position, even if the company operates in the field of Java application development or mobile application development.
These are key reasons for companies to invest in social marketing; however, questions about the ability of existing social networking sites to actually deliver these benefits for the business to improve its bottom line have come under fire in 2012.
The future of social marketing
Any illusion that self-initiated social marketing can propel a business forward has been dispelled in recent years. In 2013, we can expect the integration of social marketing within the scope of additional marketing initiatives, such as PPC advertising, TV advertising, etc. Like any other trend, this emerging marketing is expected to evolve and join other marketing initiatives commonly undertaken by organizations to capture new customers, expand their reach, and enter new markets.
In the coming years, we can also expect increased use of various social media optimization techniques to help companies focus such marketing efforts and target desired market segments to maximize profits. The proliferation of smartphones, tablets and related mobility devices is also expected to result in the development of mobile applications, which aim to enhance the social marketing initiatives of various companies, especially those operating in the SME segment.
