Social Marketing and Why You Need it.

The UK public are a conservative bunch. We mind our manners, queue whenever possible and chew with our mouthes closed. In everyday life we're far from the biggest and noisiest nation. Online however it's a different story.

A recent study in social media popularity shows that 64% of all Britons regularly use social networks - that's the highest in Europe and the 5th highest in the world, meaning weʼre 5% more socially active than the US. Simply put, online we're outgoing and anything but conservative.

Something like a Phenomenon

The global growth of social media has been a fast one, however many of today's popular social networks have been around for a long time. Early pioneer Myspace launched in 2003 and current social giant Facebook actually launched back in 2004. However it wasn't until around 2008 that the social traffic started to spike. The rise in popularity of smartphones played a major role, however another decisive factor was that social networks learned the virtue of simplicity. In order to be used by more than just tech enthusiasts, over time social networks learned that in order to break the mainstream they had to become more simple and easy to use, so they began stripping away complicated features and unnecessary complexities. This was something that the powerful but confusing and therefore now ultimately defunct Google Wave failed to do. The result for those that did was global domination.

Big, Big Business

Today Facebook has over 750 million active users and claims that people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on their network. Twitter has over 200 million users sending over 55 million Tweets per day. Add to the mix wildly popular sites such as YouTube, Digg and LinkedIn and you can see the size of the pie, and businesses want a piece.

In the last couple of years weʼve seen massively successful social marketing campaigns from companies such as Gap, Starbucks, Old Spice, Sony, Threadless, Burger King and Skittles to name a few. These campaigns have engaged users through websites, apps and viral videos on one or more social networks and generated not only remarkable traffic and ROI, but customer relationships and immeasurable brand awareness.

The recipe for success is rewarding. Statistics tell us the average Facebook user has 130 friends, the average Twitter user has 126 followers and the average YouTube blogger has 28 subscribers. So if a user likes what they see and posts your campaign to their friends, then a number of those friends post it to their friends, the reach of your campaign can quickly spiral into some quite astounding numbers.

Small Business too

The beauty of social media is that anyone can use it and at a basic level itʼs almost always free. This makes social marketing an effective and affordable way for small businesses to connect with their customers and promote their products and services.

For example many small shops and restaurants have a sign up in the window or a card at the counter, telling customers to look them up online for special promotions or discounts. If done right, a like on Facebook or a follow on Twitter can keep customers constantly aware of your brand and keep them coming back for more.

Getting it Right

With the wealth of social media users at your fingertips, surely itʼs only going to take a couple of clicks to open the floodgates of online marketing success, right?

Unfortunately it's not that easy. Users are wise to online advertising, theyʼve seen enough spammy pixels on their screens by now to get turned off very quickly. Social marketing is about engaging the users, giving them value for their click. It generates leads, not sales. Those come later. A good campaign builds trust and has value.

At Webwings weʼve got the tools and the tricks to help you grab a piece of the social pie. As social media users ourselves, weʼve seen the social media campaigns that worked and the ones that didnʼt quite make it. We build engaging social marketing campaigns that inspire users and boost your brand. All you have to worry about is letting the fame go to your head when youʼve got all those fans on Facebook.