SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
It’s hard to find a brand website, or even a traditional media ad, that
doesn’t feature links to the brand’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+,
YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or other social media sites. Social
media provide exciting opportunities to extend customer engagement and
get people talking about a brand.
Some social media are huge—Facebook has more than 1.59 billion
active monthly members. Instagram has more than 400 million active
monthly users, Twitter has more than 315 million monthly users, Google+
racks up 300 million active monthly visitors, and Pinterest draws in more
than 100 million users. Reddit, the online social news community, has 234
million unique visitors each month from 185 countries. But smaller, more
focused social media sites are also thriving, such as CafeMom, an online
community of 20 million moms who exchange advice, entertainment, and
commiseration at the community’s online, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
YouTube, Google+, and mobile sites. Even tiny sites can attract active
audiences, such as Birdpost.com for avid birdwatchers or Ravelry.com for
knitters and crocheters
Online social media provide a digital home where people can connect
and share important information and moments in their lives. As a result, they
offer an ideal platform for real-time marketing, by which marketers can
engage consumers in the moment by linking brands to important trending
topics, real-world events, causes, personal occasions, or other important
happenings in consumers’ lives.
We can now see the importance of not only acquiring customers but
also keeping and growing them. The value of a company comes from the
value of its current and future customers. Customer relationship
management takes a long-term view. Companies want to not only create
profitable customers but also “own” them for life, earn a greater share of
their purchases, and capture their customer lifetime value.
