Social Network Sites and Marketing?

How Important are Social Network sites like Facebook and Twitter to us?

Recession, Credit Crunch and Huge Cuts

Having had the word “recession” plastered all over recently in newspapers, magazines as well as on the TV is it any wonder that companies struggling to make ends meet are indeed turning their attention to marketing through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

With the price of typical and standard advertising proving to be costly to such companies who are feeling the strain, it sometimes is like a never ending cycle for them. If they don’t advertise then nobody knows about their company or products they offer, but some just cannot afford such advertising costs.

The use of such social media sites for marketing is appearing to be the more affordable way for companies to successfully promote themselves and their products and is becoming increasingly more popular day by day. The sites are used as a lead to lure people into the process of buying.

Numbers, People, Population and Members

Over the past six months figures have shown that there has been a phenomenal increase in the amount of effort that retailers put into creating their online social media profiles. This is probably because it has been proven to be having a positive effect.

The amount of people who join these sites on a daily basis is unbelievable. Facebook has well passed the three hundred million mark for members and therefore provides an opportunity for retailers to capture a specific target market to aim specific products at and even to get members of such sites to become followers of their company or brand.

The misconception bout social network sites

It is often said or at least thought that social networking sites are just places for teenagers to share their stories from the school yard or photos and videos from various events, tagging their friends in highly embarrassing photos. It seems that there is a new appeal of these social networking sites not to teenagers but rather to communities, societies, businesses and companies.

Taking the easy approach

The amount of information that companies can place online daily, and change within a click as well as having the ability to update, add and remove and generally adapt virtually anything these social networks are proving to be rather useful not to mention time effective. If something isn’t working then it can be tweaked – the same cannot be said when 1000 promotional advertising leaflets have been printed! With the constant evolution of technology, social media sites are the new “in” thing, and companies want to be part of a cutting edge future.

A final word, tweet or a comment. . .

In conclusion after all this information, it would appear that social media sites are proving an invaluable tool for marketing. They provide companies with the chance to attract the attention of a large audience in a quick, easy and concise manner. 

Who knows what this could lead to – all we know is the future for them can surely only be a bright one!