Social media as a reputable advertising tool
Posted bySep 1
There is no mistaking how popular the use of social networking sites for marketing and brand promotion purposes has increased, however it appears that this marketing method is becoming a lot more successful and a more viable form of advertising than we may initially have thought. Recent reports have indicated that companies are now beginning to put an actual value on social media marketing and not only that, work out ways of how to fit it in with more traditional marketing strategies.
The way in which social marketing is given a value is by taking buying and purchasing behaviour from members and comparing this with the number of members, or followers, which you have. The actual mathematics surrounding this are vague, however the general idea is that it gives each member of your social networking group a value, meaning you can in theory apply a cost per thousand (CPT) value against it as you would in other media.
When thought about laterally, social networking sites are just another place where people gather and communicate and socialise with each other. The same can be said about online dating sites, whilst there is a lot of stigma regarding these sites, the long and the short of it is that they are just another place for people to meet other people. Simple. When we look at how other forms of advertising have developed, it is easy to see why social media marketing has earned itself a well deserved place in the overall marketing strategy of a company, and instead of treating it as a sole form of marketing; perhaps it is about time that we developed it alongside our standard marketing plans and search engine optimisation.
More and more we are seeing advertising when we go about our daily lives. People socialise in bars, therefore advertising in the form of beer mats, washroom panels and digital screens was introduced. Nowadays you will find advertising in health clubs, shopping centres and supermarkets, all with the same aim, to catch people at as many opportunities within their daily lives. It is common knowledge that people are spending a large proportion of their time online and more accurately, on social networking sites. So for this, social media marketing has an obvious place within the advertising world and because it makes a huge difference to your link building efforts, it has a place in SEO too.
As with everything there is of course speculation and concern that applying a media value such as this within the world of social media is far too vague and inaccurate to allow it to have any substantial presence. That being said, when you consider the media value of most other forms of medium they all seem to be a random figure which is designed to give us more of a perception of the advertising format or environment, as opposed to a realistic figure.
At seoconsult.co.uk we believe in the power of social marketing and would like to think this will see a positive change in the way we advertise as a whole. With elements such as digital outdoor advertising becoming increasingly popular, we may finally bridge the gap between standard advertising and online users.
