Social Media vs Traditional Marketing
Social Media vs Traditional Marketing
In today’s business world social media is a huge buzz word, but many still do not understand how social networks such as Facebook and Twitter contribute to the bottom line of a company’s sales goals. This article seeks to demystify social media marketing and how it can impact any business competing in a crowded marketplace.
Traditional marketing including TV, radio and print (newspapers and magazines) are for the most part a forced type of advertising. Users of these mediums are looking to watch their favourite tv show, listen to their style of music or read the latest news of their interest. The objective of the ad is to get people to phone, visit the store or visit the website to order a product or service. These ads are forced upon these users and interrupt their focus. Although this is the most traditional sense of marketing the percentage upon which people act is estimated to be in the 1-2% range.
Compare this to a social media marketing strategy, particularly one developed by Brave Media entitled the Internet Marketing Strategy (IMS) Trifecta. The idea in this case is to develop a stream of compelling content on the company’s blog which showcases the benefits of the product or service it is offering.
This blog content is then syndicated through to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with links back to the blog for students who would like to comment and get more information on the school.
With this kind of marketing strategy students on social networks are compelled to interact with the school’s blog and provide feedback of what they are interested in the most. This creates an exciting form of two-way interaction and discussion between the school and potential students that is not possible with traditional marketing.
The end result is that the students see the comments left on the blog which translates into trust and desire to be part of the program offered by the school. The benefits for the school are seriously enhanced as search engines such as Google also give great credit to content-rich blogs and therefore also drive future web traffic to the website.
Combine this with online press releases to the most prestigious news media outlets and you have multiplied your efforts for reaching students who today compile a considerable amount of research online before selecting their post-secondary education.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, analyzing these social media efforts and tracking their success is key to staying on top of the latest trends for what students are looking for most in their decision process.
This case in point exemplifies how marketing which showcases samples of work and incorporates interaction (an integral part of social media) is a much more effective means of communicating the solution that business provides.
Conclusion
As social media becomes more and more ubiquitous in today’s online generation the impact on business will only increase. It is not only beneficial, but absolutely essential for the bottom line of any company’s sales goals. Engage and interact with your leads and lastly analyze results of your social media marketing campaign to fine-tune and stay steps ahead of your competition.
One last note you should be aware of is the statistics of social networks, take a look at this video by Socialnomics:
2 Responses to “Social Media vs Traditional Marketing”
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Shailendra Singh
06. Feb, 2010
Great post. I want more information regarding Social Network Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing . Please provide more info if u know any link. pls post it here.
Anushka
27. May, 2010
Very nice presentation video. Helped me cure my ignorance to a great extent