The success of social media marketing lies in the right mix of fruitful strategies. The incorrect combination will simply decrease the traffic from targeted customers instead of attract them. In the event that you devise your social media strategies such as social media marketing optimization based on current trends, you can increase profits and use social networking sites effectively for marketing. Listed below are the recent trends highlighted in an article published by Forbes in line with the 2013 SOCIAL MEDIA Industry Report.
Low Usage of SOCIAL BOOKMARK CREATING Sites
Based on the research reports, the usage of social bookmarking sites has decreased to ten percent from 26 percent in 2011. This considerable drop of usage clearly indicates the fall of bookmarking sites. Even though the websites including Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Pinterest are still popular among marketers, majority of sites (e.g. DIGG, Friendfeed) are almost dying. Therefore, it is not a good practice to trust a bookmarking site blindly for marketing purposes in today’s scenario. Instead, check for the sites that are most popular and perform the bookmarking very cautiously.
Decline of Daily Deal Sites
Daily deal features or simply daily offerings of deals are regarded as a powerful way to attract a large number of targeted customers at the same time. The research report says that around 80 percent of marketers are not interested in using the most popular daily deal sites including Groupon or Living Social for his or her campaigns in the near future.
Now people concentrate more on the considerable amount of returns they receive from their purchases over time. Hence, you should use social networking sites for long term marketing goals rather than daily goals.
Top Sites for Social Media Campaigns
Marketers who use social media marketing for marketing will obviously carry out social media campaigns (using social networking sites for promotion) for his or her services or products to attract targeted customers. Luxury Travel Tip will be successful only if the relevant site is popular amonst the customers.
The research report indicates that marketers who spend more than 40 hours a week for social media marketing perform their campaigns more intensely through Google+, You Tube, Pinterest and Instagram in comparison to those who spend six hours or less weekly on social media marketing. Also, around 92 percent of marketers who have five or even more years of experience prefer LinkedIn than 70 percent of marketers having significantly less than five years of experience. Forum marketing has also decreased to 16 percent this year from 24 percent in 2011.
Around 67 percent of marketers are preparing to increase campaigns through Twitter though it is really a slight decrease from 69 percent this past year. Young marketers, more than older ones prefer photo sharing sites including Instagram for launching campaigns. 62% chose blogging as most suitable platform to master, which is the highest one accompanied by Google + (61%) and Facebook (59%).
Trends of B2C and B2B Marketers
Business to Consumer (B2C) Marketers use Facebook at a higher rate of 67% than other platforms. Regarding Business to Business (B2B) marketers, both Facebook and LinkedIn have equal majority of 29% each. Given below is the pie chart showing usage statistics for every platform pertaining to B2C and B2B marketers.
B2B marketers work with a more diverse array of platforms in comparison to B2C marketers. Both of them do not completely utilize blogging and also have minimal You Tube usage.
If you are a B2B or B2C marketer, make an effort to encourage blogs as they are regarded as the most popular social media marketing platform. YouTube being the next largest search engine, it is possible to enjoy the benefits it provides by posting low-cost videos. Orabrush (B2C Company) and Blentec (B2B Company) have grown to be strong brands by making use of low cost YouTube videos.
As B2B marketers increasingly use LinkedIn, they have a chance to utilize SlideShare (owned by LinkedIn). This social media marketing entity can be used for generating leads for B2B organizations.
Fewer Check-ins Online
As per the research reports, there is a decrease in the usage of geo-location services including Foursquare from 17% in 2011 to 11% this season. These services allow check-in to your locations automatically online. The decline in these kinds of services indicates that people are actually concerned more about privacy and safety. Marketers can tackle this situation by introducing contests and rewards. This can encourage visitors to check-in more.
If you are still following a old strategy for social media marketing, then it is the time to develop new strategies predicated on all these current trends. It is better to entrust this tedious task to a reputable social media marketing company that offers reliable social media services instead of try implementing the strategies on your own.