The success of social media lies in the right mix of fruitful strategies. The wrong combination will simply reduce the traffic from targeted customers instead of attract them. If you devise your social media marketing strategies such as social media marketing optimization on the basis of current trends, you can increase profits and use social media sites effectively for marketing. Here are the recent trends highlighted within an article published by Forbes based on the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
Low Usage of Social Bookmarking Sites
According to the research reports, the usage of social bookmarking sites has decreased to ten percent from 26 percent in 2011. This considerable drop of usage clearly indicates the fall of bookmarking sites. Even though the websites including Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Pinterest are still popular among marketers, majority of sites (e.g. DIGG, Friendfeed) are almost dying. Therefore, it isn’t a good practice to trust a bookmarking site blindly for marketing purposes in the current scenario. Instead, check for the sites that are hottest and perform the bookmarking very cautiously.
Decline of Daily Deal Sites
Daily deal features or just daily offerings of deals are regarded as a powerful way to attract numerous targeted customers at the same time. The research report says that around 80 percent of marketers are not interested in using the hottest daily deal sites including Groupon or Living Social for his or her campaigns soon.
Now people concentrate more on the significant amount of returns they receive from their purchases as time passes. Hence, it is advisable to use social media sites for longterm marketing goals instead of daily goals.
Top Sites for Social Media Campaigns
Marketers who use social media marketing for marketing will obviously carry out social media campaigns (using social media sites for promotion) for his or her services or products to attract targeted customers. The campaigns will undoubtedly be successful only when the relevant site is popular amonst the customers.
The research report indicates that marketers who spend more than 40 hours weekly for social media marketing perform their campaigns more intensely through Google+, You Tube, Pinterest and Instagram compared to those who spend six hours or less weekly on social media marketing. Also, around 92 percent of marketers who have five or even more years of experience prefer LinkedIn than 70 percent of marketers having less than five years of experience. Forum marketing in addition has decreased to 16 percent this season from 24 percent in 2011.
Around 67 percent of marketers are planning to increase campaigns through Twitter though it is really a slight decrease from 69 percent last year. Young marketers, a lot more than older ones prefer photo sharing sites including Instagram for launching campaigns. 62% chose blogging as most suitable platform to master, that is the highest one accompanied by Google + (61%) and Facebook (59%).
Trends of B2C and B2B Marketers
Business to Consumer (B2C) Marketers use Facebook at a higher rate of 67% than other platforms. Regarding Business to Business (B2B) marketers, both Facebook and LinkedIn have equal most 29% each. Given below may be the pie chart showing usage statistics for every platform pertaining to B2C and B2B marketers.
B2B marketers work with a more diverse selection of platforms compared to B2C marketers. Both of them do not completely utilize blogging and have minimal You Tube usage.
If you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, make an effort to encourage blogs as they are regarded as the most famous social media marketing platform. YouTube being the next largest search engine, you can enjoy the benefits it offers by posting low-cost videos. Orabrush (B2C Company) and Blentec (B2B Company) have become strong brands by making use of low cost YouTube videos.
As B2B marketers increasingly use LinkedIn, they will have a chance to utilize SlideShare (owned by LinkedIn). This social media marketing entity may be used for generating leads for B2B organizations.
Fewer Check-ins Online
As per the study reports, there is a reduction in the usage of geo-location services including Foursquare from 17% in 2011 to 11% this year. These services allow check-in to your locations automatically online. The decline in most of these services indicates that people are now concerned more about privacy and safety. Marketers can tackle this situation by introducing contests and rewards. Luxury Travel Guides will encourage visitors to check-in more.
If you are still following old strategy for social media, then it is the time to develop new strategies predicated on all these current trends. It is best to entrust this tedious task to a reputable social media marketing company that provides reliable social media services rather than try implementing the strategies on your own.