Online social media has totally altered not just the way people interact, but essentially the way that a customer will interact with businesses.
With more than 700 million people using the internet worldwide, Facebook on its own is a gigantic marketing body, not to mention other social media powerhouses like Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus. While we are subject to a lot of media hype and hysteria, social media sites have -in the most basic sense- changed the way that any type of company with a public presence will operate, and are now as necessary to a business as an email address and a homepage.
But along with all the clear differences that social media has made to marketing, it is crucial to hold a realistic assessment of its capabilities and results.
Unfortunately, with any kind of new marketing bandwagon comes numerous shonky or clueless firms and “social media experts” that prey on new businesses by over-hyping the possibilities and under-delivering.
Millions of dollars and an immeasurable amount of time is completely wasted on useless social media ideas every year. But social media is not magic. Without good marketing and business basics behind it, an online social media presence will fail and -depressingly- be a waste of time and money.
Despite creating the illusion of “free” advertising with ‘zero’ start-up and/or hosting fees, social media requires a continual presence, fresh content and site maintenance to show good results, and that means valuable time that many businesses simply can’t spare. That’s why Social Media Brisbane offers to do the work for you, while allowing for oversight and approval by clients.
Examples of how businesses often do the wrong thing with social media include:
• Bad Content
Boring or even stolen items, out-dated suggestions, and awful attempts to be current are all too common when it comes to content published online. Be real: people on the internet are quite shrewd, and will recognise insincerity and arrogance without too much trouble.
• Impatience
Developing a healthy online social network takes time and persistence. A successful network won’t shoot up overnight, you need time and content to see results. Often a business will create a social media profile, watch their results for a month and then give up with annoyance when they don’t receive the unrealistic results they wanted.
This also ties into:
• Consistency
Spacing out your content regularly across multiple platforms is a lot more effective than using all of your content up at once or especially not updating at all. Nobody likes a spammer, but with the overload of information that we receive every day, if there isn’t a steady reminder of your brand’s presence you will be quickly left behind. Just a small fortnightly update will be fantastic for sustaining and developing relationships with customers.
The team here at Social Media Brisbane know exactly how social media operates, and deal with it as a interrelated part of your marketing strategy rather than the one and only tactic.
Most importantly, we also integrate revolutionary Search Engine Optimization methods into our work, which is something that no other social media group does.
Choosing consultants who concentrate on gimmicks over content and that throw around buzzwords like “viral” or “Web 2.0” instead of offering strategy and goals can simply end up as an exercise in frustration.
If you are looking for a social media consultancy based in Brisbane, contact the Brisbane SEO Company today on 3166 9622.