01 Oct THIS OR THAT: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING VERSUS TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Social media marketing isn’t a fad It’s a revolution! It is a must have weapon in a powerful and headstrong industry. There is no longer a need to keep aside big bucks to achieve marketing objectives, all you need to do is work with a company who understands your brand’s personality and will achieve said goals through creativity, community and relationships.
Compared to traditional marketing social media takes advertising to a whole new level. This form of marketing is all about interacting with the consumer by participating in two-way conversations with your target audience, instead of simply placing an ad in a newspaper or magazine with no real way of measuring who has seen the advert and how it has been interpreted. Often, traditional advertising consists of thinking up a unique sales pitch that can then be distributed through big billboards or flyers that end up being overlooked or unwanted to the point where it could end up in a trash can. This is because you are ‘mass marketing’, creating content not just for one person but a whole host of people who have different interests and react differently to certain things. Social media marketing lets you get on the consumer’s level, use an informal tone and language which makes it feel easier for customers to engage and relate to the brand. By giving consumers an insight into our day to day lives, with behind the scenes photos etc, it makes them feel closer to their favourite brand and makes them feel acknowledged when they write and engage with us. The thing with social media marketing is that it is a 24/7, 100% real-time form of advertising and that’s the reason it works. People don’t want to see a polished, glossy picture of someone on a flyer or email or advert, they want ‘this is happening now, we are creating this and we don’t need to photoshop it to make it eye-catching and engaging’. If you’re setting up for an event, working on an upcoming project or simply want to let consumers know about a brand new deal it can be done straight away with a simple tweet or Facebook status. You can’t do that with traditional marketing, you need to come up with a graphic, a whole host of formal text and a sales pitch and wait however long to put it out there, which is ultimately less effective.
Social media marketing is pure, it’s authentic, it’s not read and reworded by a copywriter, it’s how your consumers would speak, how their friends speak and that puts you on their level. A major factor of social media marketing that trumps traditional is active involvement, once a consumer see’s or reads your content they can immediately tweet, or message, or post to you about what they are thinking, what their enquiry is or feedback. It lets you act on a situation immediately, search your company name/hashtag and engage with consumers who are talking about you in real time. If you are a restaurant and they want to know what sort of food you serve, tweet them your menu. If they want to know if you have a sale on at your boutique or how close you’re to them, message them and let them know. Although this new age marketing plan may seem time consuming and intimidating, there are professionals here to help build your brand awareness at a much cheaper rate than a magazine advert or a 15-second commercial. Take it from a professional, with the right social media marketing plan, you will immediately learn that the money you invest in it will not be many wasted, but a return of investment you will see two-fold. Happy tweeting and posting people!
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