Social Media Quickly Rises to Become a High Priority

07/01/2009

According to a new study conducted by Forrester Research Inc., 64 percent of retailers currently make investments in social media and networking with another 22 percent planning to follow suit within the next year. An additional study by Internet Retailer shows that 30.5 percent of retailers believe that social networking will perform better than traditional paid search or search engine optimization in 2009.

Social media has become mainstream, with many retailers ready to commit and no longer in the experimenting phase. Both retailers and Social Media experts seem to be in agreement that any company who is seeking to connect with customers outside of the social scene is really missing out. The fact that most consumers are spending more time on these social networking sites instead of email sites is enough to have most convinced.

The goal for marketers today is to be where their customer base spends the most time, as that’s the most effective place to be. Once there, you then have to finds ways to engage them so you can make sure they will be back. When you can connect with your consumers on this personal level, you have a better chance of delivering an effective message than trying to reach them through mass email marketing campaigns.

If you are a retailer who is considering putting social media to work for your company, industry experts believe that doing so is just as important now as getting a web site was in the early days of the Internet. Many companies witnessed others making use of the Internet, but figured it was not for them, and ultimately those who chose to leverage a web site and its opportunities were the more successful.

Simply using social media isn’t enough however; companies must learn how to use it to their greatest advantage. This is one of the fastest evolving mediums so doing so can be quite a challenge however. The things you can achieve today with social media were simply unheard of even as little as 10 years ago, especially when it comes to being able to connect and reconnect with people.

While retailers have the option of setting up their own blogs and forums, the fastest road to success in social media involves the sites known as the big four. These include MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Most experts agree that the current leader of this bunch is Facebook. This is probably due to the fact that it is the most organized, and has the best tools to work with. It also features the best demographics; of course it is still up to retailers to determine how best to reach them, as it is with any eCommerce site.

In order for retailers to get started, they must first learn as much as they can about social media and the related technologies. The more you know about data and the motivating factors behind it, the more successful your online campaigns will become.

For more insight visit Social Media Marketing Services