The success of social media lies in the right mixture of fruitful strategies. The wrong combination will simply reduce the traffic from targeted customers instead of attract them. In the event that you devise your social media marketing strategies such as social media marketing optimization based on current trends, you can increase profits and use social media sites effectively for marketing. Listed below are the recent trends highlighted within an article published by Forbes based on the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
Low Usage of SOCIAL BOOKMARK CREATING Sites
According to the research reports, the application of social bookmarking sites has decreased to 10 percent from 26 percent in 2011. This considerable drop of usage clearly indicates nov bookmarking sites. Even though the websites including Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Pinterest are still popular among marketers, most sites (e.g. DIGG, Friendfeed) are almost dying. Therefore, it is not a good practice to trust a bookmarking site blindly for marketing purposes in the current scenario. Instead, check for the websites that are most popular and perform the bookmarking very cautiously.
Decline of Daily Deal Sites
Daily deal features or just daily offerings of deals are seen as a powerful way to attract numerous targeted customers at the same time. The research report says that around 80 percent of marketers are not interested in using the hottest daily deal sites including Groupon or Living Social because of their campaigns soon.
Now people concentrate more on the significant amount of returns they receive from their purchases over time. Hence, you should use social media sites for long term marketing goals instead of daily goals.
Top Sites for Social Media Campaigns
Marketers who use social media marketing for marketing will obviously carry out social media campaigns (using social networking sites for promotion) because of their services or products to attract targeted customers. The campaigns will undoubtedly be successful only if the relevant site is popular among the customers.
The research report indicates that marketers who spend more than 40 hours a week for social media marketing carry out their campaigns more intensely through Google+, You Tube, Pinterest and Instagram compared to those who spend six hours or less a week on social media. Also, around 92 percent of marketers who’ve five or even more years of experience prefer LinkedIn than 70 percent of marketers having less than five years of experience. Motivational Content marketing in addition has decreased to 16 percent this year from 24 percent in 2011.
Around 67 percent of marketers are planning to increase campaigns through Twitter though it is really a slight decrease from 69 percent last year. Young marketers, a lot more than older ones prefer photo sharing sites including Instagram for launching campaigns. 62% chose blogging because so many suitable platform to master, which is the highest one followed by Google + (61%) and Facebook (59%).
Trends of B2C and B2B Marketers
Business to Consumer (B2C) Marketers use Facebook at a higher rate of 67% than other platforms. Regarding Business to Business (B2B) marketers, both Facebook and LinkedIn have equal most 29% each. Given below may be the pie chart showing usage statistics for each platform pertaining to B2C and B2B marketers.
B2B marketers work with a more diverse array of platforms in comparison to B2C marketers. Both of these do not completely utilize blogging and also have minimal You Tube usage.
If you are a B2B or B2C marketer, make an effort to encourage blogs as they are regarded as the most popular social media platform. YouTube being the second largest search engine, you can enjoy the benefits it offers by posting low-cost videos. Orabrush (B2C Company) and Blentec (B2B Company) have become strong brands by using low cost YouTube videos.
As B2B marketers increasingly use LinkedIn, they will have an opportunity to utilize SlideShare (owned by LinkedIn). This social media marketing entity can be utilized for generating leads for B2B organizations.
Fewer Check-ins Online
As per the study reports, there is a decrease in the usage of geo-location services including Foursquare from 17% in 2011 to 11% this year. These services allow check-in to your locations automatically online. The decline in most of these services indicates that people are now concerned more about privacy and safety. Marketers can tackle this example by introducing contests and rewards. This can encourage visitors to check-in more.
If you are still following old strategy for social media, then it is the time to develop new strategies predicated on all these current trends. It is better to entrust this tedious task to a reputable social media marketing company that offers reliable social media services rather than try implementing the strategies by yourself.
