Face it. Traditional advertising is a dying breed. Most people do not trust ads. Advertising is simply deception wrapped up in a sexy red dress. It costs an arm and a leg and it cannot possibly be effectively targeted to precisely the correct audience.
The Internet has shed light on the dark world of the Lies of Marketing.
Experian Hitwise - www.hitwise.com/nz/
Social networking takes us one step further into the Light. Here, people can now share video, documents, images and even real time chat about anything; including what brands and companies they like and dislike. Since social networking is about being connected with friends and family, peer recommendations for (and warnings against) brands carry a great deal of credibility. If my mother tells me to go to Store X because the service is fab and the products are of highest quality, I will indeed go there. But if the same promotion was done via a banner ad or google sponsored ad, I am a great deal less likely to trust it.
So, here we are, consumers increasingly congregating on facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube (at an alarmingly fast rate of growth). The number one website in New Zealand has been google.co.nz for as long as I have been monitoring the industry. Now, Facebook is nipping at the heels to vie for the number one spot! Imagine that – the mighty google taking second place to facebook? And youtube is not that far behind either. 7 out of 10 business searches are done on youtube every day. Not google, but youtube.
What do these trends mean for your business?
The phenomenal growth of social networking has only happened in the last 2 years. Facebook courts over 400 million active users, 50% of whom log in every day. Twitter itself grew over 1,000% in the 2009 alone. Linkedin has nearly 50 million users and is worth 1 billion US dollars. Youtube serves up billions of pageviews every month, and is the most popular location for business to business (video) searches, second to google.
Defacto social media sharing options
It is all moving fast and it will be challenging to catch up if you do not seize these genuine marketing opportunities now. Get your firm a comprehensive social media presence as soon as possible. Ideally, create a written online marketing plan to provide your company direction and discipline to integrate social media into your marketing mix.
As a parting note, I recommend getting onto Hitwise NZ. I love these guys – they have their thumb on the pulse of the Internet consumer and they are well worth following. Grab their latest report now.
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