An interesting article published in The Huffington Post invites us to reflect on the predictions for Social Media Marketing from the lessons that the evolution of the social phenomenon has left us, in 2011.
Swimming against the current is good if we associate it with innovating, diversifying, renewing, growing, but if we associate it with going against the established norms and not being able to learn from each mistake, the predictions for the coming “Social Media” can be transformed in a real Apocalypse for many brands that have not yet accepted the new rules of the game.
Social ROI if it can be measured and made increasingly relevant
Social marketing campaigns focus on three essential areas; growth (derived from visibility and recruitment), interaction (content as the central axis of the client-brand action) and evangelization of users (benefits that brands deliver from their social pages to their potential customers)
Prior to 2011, the main objectives of online marketing were focused on growth figures. At present, it is the increase in the influence – tangible through the dynamism and volume of the communities – that we approach a positive measurement of ROI. An ROI determined by the level of influence is getting closer!
Global, participatory, integrated and social marketing
Social participation has led to the elimination of the dividing line between the online and offline worlds. Increasing social participation is one of the most expensive trends in social media marketing for 2012.
The consolidation of integrated, online-offline marketing takes place, the first signs of which came to us in 2011 with the controversies linked to some television programs, a before and after for advertising and marketing where the consumer demands social brands, multi-presence, multi-channel and with one voice.
Social marketing is built through participation, the integration of channels and social action focused on satisfying the needs of others.
One of the great challenges facing marketing today, is to integrate social strategies that allow the reorientation of the objectives, which should be focused today, on the answer to the question: What can my brand do for its target?
Facebook more power for the prosumer, the effect, “I do not like it”
Social networks gave power to the consumer. Everyone has Facebook and without a doubt, Twitter feeds current content to traditional media programming. The consumer joins and interacts, recommends and decides, in short, “owner and lord” of the brands.
The beginnings of this change of axis in the exercise of power we saw in 2011 of the hand of the first analysis of the unlike button used to attract the attention of the brand: “users get bored” and the projections augur us unique experiences in 2012 in which the “like” will be much more selective and will have much more meaning in relation to the influence of the brand.
Content and mobile Web, explosive combination
The content acquires a superlative relevance in all formats and through all the applications, specifically thinking of tablets and smart phones, that manage to disrupt the “senses” of the users, who sustain the emotion finally.
As a result of the above, Facebook plans to deliver unique experiences for brands through the inclusion of the most tempting “key words”, which will once again modify the paradigms associated with social SEO.
Customer service, exclusive requirement!
Social networks, specifically Twitter because of its viral nature, are two-way channels. They are composed by a universe of prosumers that act as sender and receiver, producer and consumer, simultaneously. Because of their specific weight in the global set of online reputation, brands pay attention to their networks, social crises are certainly dangerous. More and more consumers are using social platforms as customer service channels.
And this variable has been consolidated as indispensable to build an influence and have a brand reputation. The consequences of a badly managed crisis in Social Media, may be the end of the social adventure for many brands in 2012, we still have a long way to go!