Here’s why 2015 is the year of Social Media marketing

“Follow the money.” said the celluloid avatar of Deep Throat to the news reporter Bob Woodward in the 1976 political thriller ‘All the President’s Men’. When it comes to spending on marketing in 2015, the money trail leads you to one place — social media. Here are the facts, 66% of marketers believe that social media marketing is core to their business and 66% have a dedicated social media team. To boot, the budget for social media advertising and marketing has increased by a whopping 70% and this effectively brings social media out of the fringe space that it occupied and into the spotlight as a headliner.

The most effective channels to target your consumers

Facebook continues to top the charts of popular social channels for marketers to engage their customers around the world with 73% of marketers conceding that Facebook a very effective channel for digital marketing. Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ trail behind the social media behemoth with 69% of marketers attesting to their effectiveness. Well, it might appear as though the established bastions of social media rule the roost when it comes to engaging and retaining customers but the world of social media is far more capricious and unpredictable than that. Newer channels like Tagged, a social discovery website that reports 300 million members and Viadeo, a social network targeted at professionals have reported to be 86% and 81% effective according to marketers. Meanwhile, in spite of the buzz around Pinterest, the channel scored relatively low in usage (24% use it for marketing) with only 57% of marketers deeming it effective. The underlying lesson of all this is that it is important to test new channels in 2015.

Why you need to spend on social media marketing

Social media is the hottest, most viable and relevant channel to invest your resources in. The percentage of marketers who view social media marketing as a critical enabler for products and services has increased from a meagre 25% in 2014 to a leap of 64% in 2015 and 55% of marketers believe that social media spending does see a return on investment with 30% of marketers holding the view that it indirectly produces return on investment. Even if you cannot manage to dedicate an entire to your social media or cannot discern significant results from social media spending, just start small. Focus on the one channel where your audience is most responsive. Direct all your resources and energies into that space, rather than casting a wide net and catching nothing. Additionally, be alert and responsive to your audience, incite customer questions and engagement and begin a dialogue with them. After all it’s 2015, and the world is waiting for you.

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