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32 The Maturation of Social Media as a Marketing Tool COVER STORY
While the most common
reason Americans use social networks is to connect with friends, more companies are seeing the benefi ts of using the two-way communica- tion that social media off ers to connect with customers, rather than simply relying on waiting for the end user to fi nd their advertisements. According to DIYMarketers. com, 50 percent of Victoria’s Secret’s sales have come from their Facebook Fan Page at certain times of the year, and countless other compa- nies have begun seeing the potential for sales available through social media. Sixty-five percent of
50 percent of Victoria’s Secret’s sales have come from their Facebook Fan Page at certain times of the year.
companies polled for a report entitled, “Embracing Social Media in a B2B Context,” in the Accenture Global Marketing Executive Study, felt that they consider mar- keting through social media to be “very important” to their business over the next few years. So how exactly can social media be used to a company’s advantage? Currently, there is a two-part system in place for most companies; build the number of followers and hope this will cause your customer list to grow. While there is a real market for Twit er followers and Facebook “Likes,” the problem with social media is that it is very hard to quantify. Check eBay and you will see social media followers for sale, for an incredibly wide range of prices. Social Code recently examined the results of Facebook ads for 50 of their clients, and put a fi nal fi gure of $9.56 for the value of each Facebook fan, but that is far from perfectly scientifi c. Unlike other forms of marketing, it is incredibly
diffi cult to see how eff ective social media is in leading to actual sales. As Todd Wasserman notes on Mash- able, “No industry standard fi gure seems to exist for customer acquisition via social media. T at means you
may have a Facebook page with 10,000 fans that nets only four leads, but won’t have any idea whether that’s good or not.” We also do not really know what “Likes” really signify. Are these loyal customers who have been buying from you for years, or new leads? Did they want to spread the word to their friends on social media, or did they just click “Like” to get a ten percent discount on one order placed a year ago, and have lit le interest in purchasing again? Facebook currently has
more than 800 million users, more than the entire popula- tion of Europe, and as many users as the entire Internet did in 2004. Although it
does off er a way for companies to communicate with their audience which will hopefully lead to sales, there appears to be a disconnect between companies and consumers. A study by the Chief Marketing Offi cer Council surveyed 1,300 customers, revealing that 67 percent followed or “Liked” brands to receive discounts and special off ers, and 60 percent did so to connect with other customers. However, when the same questions were asked to 120 Chief Marketing Offi cers, only 33 percent believed their social media fans wanted some kind of incentive or reward.
A few things to keep in mind about Facebook:
1. It’s free and easy, to a point. While you can create a Facebook page without spending any money, advertising through social media has become lucrative, and as long as you have done your research
Continued On 36 34 February 2012
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