Who ever says social media is not important for local companies is crazy!
by admin
“Social media is a waste of time for local businesses, it’s results don’t compare to other advertising mediums!”
There have been a number of marketing videos making the rounds lately in Saskatchewan. They are being shared and shown to local businesses by radio, paper and print reps, as a ‘warning’ against ‘wasting too much time and money on social media.’
A few YouTube videos that I have watched with interest recently are :
If you have a spare hour or so to watch them, you may be surprised to hear that I agree with quite a few points of their arguments, and I enjoyed both of their presentations! They are well prepared, informative and they were clearly part of the larger marketing strategy these international speakers have employed to be successful. However, they simply do not tell the full story of social media….not when it’s done well.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS MORE THAN 1 TWEET OR A FACEBOOK PAGE
Tweets like the famous ‘ agile marketing’ example below, Tweeted by Oreo at the 2013 Superbowl when the lights went out, is one example that Ritson focuses on.
This Tweet was hailed as brilliant across the Globe, and Ritson and I agree, it’s good! Oreo is an International brand, with a huge marketing team & advertising budget. Ritson did some math, which he said ‘ proved’ this one Tweet’s reach and impact on the Oreo brand as a whole was insignificant. He then compared the tweets impact with that of the 60sec Budweiser SuperBowl commercial that ran the same year. Remember the Clydesdale that ran away from the parade after his ‘ first owner’ on the streets of New York? Who doesn’t know and love that one? Ritson’s argument was that the reach of a Super Bowl ad on TV that year ( audience of over 108 million in US) far exceeded the 15,000 Re-Tweets and exposure online that the Oreo tweet had, therefore Budweiser TV ad was more effective and besides it was, he said, ‘ better marketing’ .
What Ritson and Hoffman fail to mention is that most marketing that is done well these days, is not the 1 dimensional activities that the Budweiser commercial would have been 10 years ago. The TV commercial would have played exclusively in one of the SuperBowl ad breaks, and for most ads those days, that was it! So your message better have been salient and impactful, or it would be forgotten forever.
Not so these days, just look at the Budweiser You Tube Channel with 153 million views of it’s videos alone. Not to mention the hundreds, maybe 1000’s of other YouTube channels, websites, blogs and social sharing sites that this commercial is featured on.
On the other hand, the Oreo tweet was named the ‘ Cheap Tweet that won the 2013 Super Bowl Ad battle’ . It was praised and discussed at length on TV, in magazines, on blogs and in newspapers ( the irony of it) around the World, for at least a week after the Superbowl was over. The Tweet actually won several awards including the best marketing award of 2013 at the prestigious CLIO Awards ….much to the disgust of many in the marketing industry!
The second thing I notice when listening to both of the ‘ anti social ‘ presentations, was that neither were related to the businesses that they were being shown to. Most of them, like nearly all are clients, are small locally owned companies, who simply don’t have marketing departments and budgets for Superbowl ads.
Most SME’s, don’t turn over annually what it would cost to buy and produce just one Superbowl ad, nor would we be able to handle the response!
The rise of social media has allowed the smaller companies to have a larger voice (and reach) in the local market place, at a very reasonable investment level when compared to other traditional mediums. I believe the aim of these reps should not be to bash social, but instead they should speak to their clients about a good marketing mix, and more importantly how to make the most of their traditional media by combining it with their social media and online presence! If done right it will make both more effective!
At Trusted we speak from not just our clients experience, but from our own experience, we are a small local business that started from scratch just 4 years ago, and we have been recognized locally and Internationally for our own marketing excellence.
What we know for sure, is that social IS Important but ENGAGEMENT is the key in social …..simply put if you are an excellent marketer you can reach MORE people for less money with social than any other medium .
Here is a recent example of what social can do IF done well.
Recently the Trusted Social Media team put together a social campaign on Facebook to support a customers spring sale. The client also did radio and a flyer drop, but the Facebook campaign we created went viral ( it’s still going strong today) and currently it’s been seen by over 520,000 people…all that for way less than 0.0007c per person– NOTHING can beat this locally!
As you can see in 1 day alone we have had 168,500 ORGANIC reach – by the way that means FREE!!
Organic traffic is free traffic – over 168,500 in just 1 day
What did our client say ? Well after ‘ WOW’ , we can tell you that NOW he has no doubt social media works, is important.
Sara Wheelwright, Marketing maverick & Trusted Founder.
Saskatchewans Trusted marketing agency
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