Why Now Is the Best Time for Social Media Marketing

I used to think I was cool because I knew what Twitter and Facebook were. I talked about it with my mom, dad and their friends. They laughed in amazement at my deep wealth of technological knowledge of the Internet. I felt like a god among men; or at least a huge nerd! Later, I started consulting companies on how to implement social media strategies and, once again, I got the same amazed reaction. Whenever you’re the first to offer a new strategy that has been measured and tested to a client, they’ll typically roll out the red carpet. Any chance to stay ahead of a competitor’s online marketing efforts is a way for to stay ahead of the curve.

Over the past three years, social media has been the subject of enormous interest across the board. Many companies have created social media strategies but the truth is many service providers have wasted money chasing conversions via social media and never finding them.  So why is social media becoming so popular with brands?

I believe social media has become attractive for brands large and small for the following reasons:

1. Social sites have gained notarity on a much larger scale. The “even my grandma is on Myspace” effect. Example: Oprah using Skype as the centerpoint for many of her 2008 broadcasts and news channels using Twitter and Facebook.
2. Social site audiences have matured. They have defined why they participate on these sites, how they want their information delivered and created history for us to evaluate what tactics and strategies work best.
3. The Baby Boomer movement. Baby boomers have begun joining social networks at increasing rates. This movement has placed the internet’s highest spenders into popular social sites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, in addition to Eons and Boomj.com. This has extended the reach of these technologies to new target markets.
4. The opportunity for conversion. Most companies don’t want just traffic; they want some type of conversion. As strategies and campaigns have been tested and refined, clients are getting a better return than before.

The eMarketer graphs below show the research results of social media spending. There has been a significant increase in ad spend in social media and this trend shows no signs of changing.

What do you think? How much is your business planning to spend in social media in your next fiscal year? Is the amount increasing?

Tagged as: facebook, Myspace, social media, social networking, twitter