How Social Media Has Changed Marketing Forever

May 25, 2011 - PRLog -- We literally have friends around the world that we can connect with at any given time, the way we communicate has changed, and this has made way for some revolutionary changes in marketing.

The growth in brands’ use of social media has meant that the ‘brand personality’ has become far more literal. This is due to the people behind the brand being far more accessible as a person or people actually drive the one-to-one communication between a brand and their stakeholders, so in that way the customer-brand relationship has become much more prominent too.

It used to be that you could only communicate to thousands of people at a time via a TV or print ad, and although they tried to tailor the ad to a specific audience, it was never really that ‘specific’. With the growth of social media, ‘specific’ virtually has an entirely new meaning – you can be specific down to one individual person. Marketing now reaches that one Facebook user who asked a question on the Facebook page by means of a reply to that question. And that reply, by pure means of being visible to all others on the Facebook page, sends out a powerful marketing message itself.

And thus it appeals to that oldest and most trusted marketing tool, word of mouth. Someone once told me “…if someone has a positive experience with a brand, they will tell one person, but if they have a negative experience with a brand, they’ll tell ten.” Well in my opinion social media has amplified the sounding board for positive word of mouth, with Facebook ‘like’ buttons, thumbs up icons and similar all over every aspect of social media and largely an absence of opposing ‘dislike’ buttons and similar, I’d say social media has given people the opportunity to positively pass on the message of brands and companies.

Which leads into another powerful way in which social media has changed the marketing world – viral. As mentioned, sharing something with your friends/family/acquaintances/whoever has become as easy as clicking a ‘like’, ‘share’ or ‘re-tweet’ button; so if done properly, the social media community will spread your marketing for you, without the need for costly TV, print, direct or any other traditional marketing campaign.

Of course there is also the argument that there’s more than your fair share of anti-brand social media communities, Facebook pages and other social media groups out there too. Spreading negative messages has also become easier. But lets face it, it’s a lot easier to just to click the ‘like’ button than it is to type a negative comment or set up a full hate-group. (And let’s not forget that we can always monitor our social media presences and remove any negative feedback if needs be.)

Let’s not forget though, negative feedback can be good; listening to our audiences has long been an important part of the marketing process. It’s yet another way in which social media has changed marketing. Every day, millions of social media users across the globe are ‘liking’, ‘following’, commenting and posting reviews. The social media presence is multi-faceted in its value to marketers and has become an instant data source for market research; a testing ground for new product ideas, a virtual focus group that can be called upon at a moments notice, always ready with customers eager to give their opinions. And that’s just the basis, social media allows you to build on this, for example, Facebook has capabilities for questionnaires, polls and more. Social media has made it easier for us to better understand our customers’ wants and needs.

The list of ways in which Social media has changed marketing could go on and on and on, and what’s more, it’s still growing, developing and changing marketing in new and exciting ways. Social media is no longer just for companies with young trendy markets, social media’s appeal is far more wide reaching than that – my Grandma has a Facebook profile, my great uncle’s besotted by Twitter. If your marketing strategy doesn’t include social media, isn’t it about time that it did?

Get in touch with us at Clicky Media (http://www.clickymedia.co.uk) today and we can tailor make a perfect social media marketing (http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/social-media/) strategy for your business. Whether you’ve got a huge global market or a specific niche clientele, social media is perfect for your needs and can become the most effective part of your marketing strategy. Give us a call today on 0845 257 1225 – or alternatively, put social media to the test and get in touch via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook:

Source: Mashable, Marketing Times, The Next Web, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.

# # #

Full Service Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay-per-click advertising, Online CRM Systems and Email Marketing Services. Google Adwords Qualified Professionals. Clicky Media Ltd.