The importance of Social Media as a component of an entire marketing campaign can no longer be denied. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube and other social media platforms serve as the smoothing oil that makes business marketing machinery run. It is now unthinkable to apply traditional marketing techniques without also applying targeted social media strategies. The bottom line here for your small business is that social networks should be an integral part of your marketing campaign.
Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst, emphasizes the significance of social networks.
“As more marketers incorporate social networks in their business, they will no longer look at them as siloed destinations. Instead, they will look to increase the impact of their social network presence by linking it to other marketing initiatives, both online and offline.”
In 2010, the growth in US online social network ad spending will grow up to 7.1%. Check out the visual chart below. Social Network Advertising spending will steadily increase through 2011. And ad dollars can be quite low and targeted for trial usage by small businesses. Facebook advertising makes this easy to do.
Furthermore, Debra projects how the social media marketing budgets will be allocated.
“When companies budget for social media marketing in 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of their expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales.”
This is just another reason why social networks should no longer just be a pastime or a way to socialize online, but an avenue where you can direct a large part of your marketing initiatives as a small business owner.
