Social media has become a very strong marketing tool. Companies from everywhere are attempting to be part of this phenomenon to ensure they too get a slice of the cake. SM has in fact changed the way a number of traditional marketing tools are used. In the past, we have seen commercials with a phone number at the end, this evolved to word phone numbers (such as 13 CABS), which then moved to calling on consumers to visit the company's website, and now, there is a call for consumers to join their SM presence. See for instance the end of this McDonald's ad:
Not only has the traditional call for action in traditional marketing changed, but combine this with other SM activities that organisations use to market such as updates on Twitter, discussions with customers on Facebook and blogging about new products or innovations and you have a very powerful tool.
So where is this all heading. A few discussions in class as well as on other blogs have suggested that SM is a fad and within a few years will be gone. I disagree. I think SM is just starting out. Fragmentation will continue to be a problem as more and more SM sites are launched, however, this fragmentation will soon become a marketer's dream. SM sites will continue to be launched, each one will have its unique attraction in terms of attributes. This will mean that a number of SM consumers will have a number of SM accounts on different platforms, but this will make it easier for marketers. As more SM sites are launched, it will become clearer as to what a particular site is used for and what that site specialises in. MySpace is an example. Although they are loosing market share, it will never get to a point where they will have lost everything. They will now start to serve a substantial market for music lovers and specialise in this market. Marketers in the music industry will soon realise that they now have a perfect channel to reach almost a perfect target. Therefore, as the SM market grows with the launch of new products and sites, what initially may seem a cluttered, fragmented market, could soon provide a perfectly segmented market based on functionality and who it is used by.
My view is still that Google plus will become the powerhouse, but the growth of other sites will continue and will serve great purposes with immense opportunities for marketers.
I would love to hear what you think the future of SM is.
Ross
@Ross: I totally agree with you
ReplyDeleteOne thing we cannot deny that the power of social media still continue to rise in the future. For example, recently powerful social networking sites including Google + and Facebook have introduced new features which greatly brings many different benefits to both online users and marketers. I am looking forward to seeing how effectively marketers can translate those features into their competitive tools...
Great Post!
Good one Ross. if i was wanting to build a social platform to compete with FB, you would want it to be pretty awesome. The next facebook will have to leapfrog the current technology. A me to strategy does not cut it. Who would have thought that anyone could take away market share form Nokia. Everyone had one. But it was not until the next G of handsets that nokia started loosing market share. The question is what does the future hold for social interaction. Do we get fed up with this information overload society and turn around to d clutter our life.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ross! I think that the growth and renovation of current social media sites will continue in the future. However, I think platforms creators are going to invent new features and applications to do them more actionable. For example, social platforms could use your social graph to give you some recommendations of flights or hotels, with the purpose that you can take further actions. Facebook did some changes, but I think that customers' needs are infinite and are always changing, So, the room for creation of new things never end.
ReplyDeleteCan it be likened to what traditional media channels are now i.e. there is 1000 different publications in the market right now that sit under various categories like Home Improvement for example. Will the social media platforms of today becomes the fragmented media of tomorrow? If you want to engage photography students you use Flikr to demonstrate the latest lens for the EOS - as you know your audience is creating albums on that platform and are Flikr users. Understanding the motivations of the SM user and the platforms they use will allow marketers to segment social media platforms as we currently do with 'traditional media' platforms.
ReplyDeleteinteresting topic ross. i am agree with you, which there would be the different platforms for different customers. i think especially for the different generation, people will like the different social media platforms. for instance, many microvideo platform are popular especially for young people. therefore, the marketers could use the suitable social media platform to attract their target customers. also, i believe there will be more different social media platforms in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments all. It would be a very interesting space to watch. I will stick to my point that this fragmentation will soon become a a marketers dream (soon...mmmm...lets call it over the next few years rather), because as people find platforms they like, they will stick it out. To some extent this is already happening. Look at the McDonalds example above, they don't make mention of their Twitter page on that ad, just their FB page, and this is most likely because their core audience is mostly on FB.
ReplyDeleteRoss
I totally agree Ross - I can see fragmentation on the horizon. MySpace is not a bad example, was once the centre of social network and is now the place for those in to indi music to gather. I think we will see a higher churn in SM over traditional media but I think this attributed to the fast pace of the channel more than anything else
ReplyDeleteI may be blinded by being a relative newcomer to facebook, twitter, linkedin and YouTube, but I really can't see these dominant forces losing ground in the next 5 years?! Fragmentation I think, only makes them more dominant - for some reason hearing fragmentation I thought of Fraggle Rock, which if you watch this clip is also how I see all the 'little' social media competitors (even G+). They're visually appealing and probably all have unique offerings, but I'd need to take time to get to know them properly and I don't feel I have that time
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