why is social media important?
Whether you like or hate it, participate or abstain from it, social media is here to stay.
Here is another premise that is coldly received and is very important to understand. Organic marketing in social media is dead. What follows will explain that statement and offer a solution.
Involvement in social media goes beyond just placing those ubiquitous icons on your site and link to some obscure posting. Just like any other overly exploited marketing tool, it has become so widely used that it has lost most of its potency.
Please note that when we are discussing social media, we are defining it in terms of non-paid-for marketing. That is, using social media without pay-for-play advertising.
Though many have found that there is a sense of community or fellowship on social media, it may not be suitable for you as a marketing tool. In other words, if it cannot generate traffic, is it worth the effort? And can it even be counterproductive?
Just because a social media "venue" has a vast audience, it does not mean that you can gain anything from it. And, the setting you are trying to enter may not enjoy the same narrow or particular interests as your site caters.
Or, if you are trying to start a community, can it be done in a viable timespan without wrecking your marketing budget?
Remember, social media marketing requires the creation of content that is specifically related to the thematic interests and individualism of the platform—all of this is meant to drive traffic to your site.
You may be better off focusing elsewhere if you need to create interest that is not there already, or if the cost is too disproportionate for you. This argument is particularly significant if you did not plan to invest a great deal of your time and effort in social media and without spending a substantial amount of money.
why determine your social media audience?
It is of the utmost importance to determine who and where your audience is on social media. Even more importantly, just because you have followers does not mean you have an audience.
For example, early last year, it was reported that 50% of Facebook's accounts were bogus. Even Facebook admitted some time ago that 270 million of its accounts were either fraudulent or duplicates.
Also, consider the fact that Google+ closed down its social media platform in 2019, a medium that had 200 million users. The official reasoning was that design flaws allowed hackers to gain personal information about users. But in reality, the channel failed to endure in its sector.
What became an unrealized bonus to Google was the rise of its YouTube product to grow as its social medium that could serve specific areas of interest. Today YouTube is the second most used social media outlet, which we will discuss later in this section.
The ill-conceived opinion that everything on the Internet is accurate is erroneous, just as the cynical view that everything is fictitious.
On the Internet, one has to be careful to investigate before putting an inordinate deal of energy or money into a resource.
Here are some preliminary considerations that are needed:
- Put a bit of time and effort into finding where your audience exists on social media can be time well spent.
- This type of analysis should encompass to see if those belonging to the proposed social outlets participate, i.e., are active regularly.
- Realize that the number of likes or followers you have on social media does not help your search engine ranking.
Unless your social media activity can bring you a viewer audience and positive responses, you are wasting your time.
Spend your social media energy wisely. If you are a participant that is looking to swap photos, connect with friends and family, or share vacation experiences, then Facebook and Instagram are great venues.
Twitter also may not be the best place from a business or commercial angle. There is a limit to the amount of information that you can put out at one time. But that is not the only drawback.
A recent study shows only 5% of the USA on Twitter even follow any single brand (Source: unmetric.com). Again, if this statistic applies to the big boys on social media, what do you think is the likelihood of you getting your word out there and get a following?
We are not saying that you should forget about using social media.
Instead, we suggest that you find niche networks to expend more of your energy in cultivating your social media brand other than the "Big Three." That is why identifying your audience is so vital to social media. You will need to find a place that is the best fit for you and where you can make an impact.
Remember that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all person-to-person mediums. And for that reason, it is challenging to do commercial marketing effectively in an individualistic environment.
The fact that you are trying to promote something commercial is simple to recognize in a venue such as social media.
The average person understands when the content is a sales pitch. We are not saying that it is impossible to achieve, just challenging.
The alternative is to spend your time promoting where commercial promotion is not only accepted but welcomed.
By commercial, we mean more than the term implies typically, such as trying to promote a product or service.
A blog looking for a following is more commercial than personal in nature, even if it is to grow something like a charity or membership in a social group.
In the real world, these supposedly "non-commercial" entities must take on the behavior and characteristics of profit-orientated ones if growth is the goal. That means marketing itself and taking on the attributes of commercialism.
