Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has become an integral channel of effective social CRM. With the ever-expanding sphere of social media platforms, how can marketing companies gain the upper hand, stay ahead of the trends and prove to in-house companies that they provide a service that in-house channels could never offer?

The twitter boom has hit South Africa, and it has done for a while. So much so in fact, that SA twitter statistics are difficult to track. It is believed however, that South Africa boast the tenth greatest number of twitter users in the World, and the greatest in Africa. Data has become more affordable with time due to increased competition, and because of this, the likes of Twitter and other social media trends have become easier to access. This is synonymous with the stagnation of Mxit, and other forms of social media that aren’t found online.

With this in mind, it would thus be accurate to say that social media can be a substantially effective form of reaching one’s audiences. It is not the content that catches the eye though, rather the conversation that has formed from it. So in order to spark a conversation, it originally takes the individual to consume immediate, bite-size, catchy, ‘manageable’ piece of information. For instance, people will generally resist watching a five minute video unless it’s already gone viral or sparked a discussion on Facebook and Twitter. The ‘golden minute’ is an increasingly familiar term to explain the amount of time it takes a consumer to become interested in the content and share it with others. Marketing companies need to send the trend; be the first to get the information out there, and make it desirable.

As the social media industry becomes more demanding, sophisticated and established, the need to plan the distribution of social media content and have a comprehensive strategy has become a necessity. Storify for instance, is an effective tool in collecting the relevant data from various social media fields, and organizing it onto one page or under one heading, allowing the consumer to access exactly what they want far more efficiently. One trend or idea can be exploded into action using Storify. Facebook statuses, tweets, pictures and videos can be collected together to form one idea acroos the entire social sphere. Marketing companies need to get involved with this before it becomes commonly used. Ifttt.com is similar in that it organizes information across numerous social media platforms.

It is also crucial to adapt to continuously changing times in order to sustain engagement. Whilst Twitter is still relatively new, older users will naturally look to other social mediums to keep themselves entertained, which the company needs to watch closely and adapt to in order to reach staggered audiences.

Lastly, staying a step ahead of the clients themselves is essential. As I mentioned earlier, many companies are moving towards in house social media services, where effective brand management can happen within the company. Marketing companies need to stay a step ahead of everyone else in order to ensure that they are offering a service which in-house companies cannot. Mashable is commodious in ensuring that one stays up to date with the latest trends.