Social Media: The Invasion of Traditional Advertisers in Search Of The Modern Consumer

Its true to say that the advance in popularity of Social Media marketing continues unabated and now inevitably, its popularity has finally attracted keen interest from more traditional brick based companies and organisations.

CEO’s In many boardrooms, are taking note of the march of  the Social Media Phenomenon. This rapid expansion in recent years has created a complete overhaul of many mainstream companies marketing strategies. More and more companies are resorting to Social Media marketing as part of their overall advertising strategies, alongside more  traditional advertising methods.

The enormous success of such obscure Social media sights such as Twitter and Bebo is hard to ignore. Couple this with the larger Social sites like Face Book or the ambitions of virtually based companies such as Apple and the future of Mobile computer based technology from Microsoft and I am sure you can see the future direction that high profile companies will have to explore to remain competitive in the modern virtual market Place.

Its unlikely that the more traditional advertising methods will be overtaken by Social Media in the short term, but long-term who Knows. Whilst Television and printed media accounts for almost 90% of advertising budgets right now, that will definately change once Web based televised programming becomes more common.  The greatest advantage that Social Media has over these traditional advertising methods is simply one of cost. With millions of new Internet users every year the margins are closing fast and companies are scrambling to avoid being left behind the advertising curve.  With the cost efficient and highly effective Advertising channels online social media offers,  the more  ‘conventional’  advertising methods are quickly coming under pressure.

So here is what I believe we will witness in the not too distant future regarding the offline business community’s adaptation to online marketing strategies.

Offline Marketing Budgets.

Right now there is little evidence of any significant shift in advertising spending by the mainstream brick business community towards any type of internet advertising. It is inevitable however that the recognition of the effectiveness and cost efficiencies of marketing online will very soon change this.

Recent high profile company failures of many long time business giants, has re-focussed the survivors to become more lean and to search for more efficient ways of advertising which can only favour more web based  advertising using the new Social media platform.  The aftermath of the current economic disaster will only result in accelerating the shift of marketing strategies to the more effective and efficient avenues available online.

So, how will this affect website owners. The potential for selling ad space on high traffic websites will expand rapidly and for some this could provide a very serious online income.

Increase in Online Spending

As offline businesses begin to shift their advertising spending towards the internet social marketing will get much attention due to the viral nature of this particular model.

For obvious reasons Marketing online differs from the more traditional methods. Online consumers go in Search of information based on keyword strategies whereas traditional advertising is deliver bite size in very fixed styles using static methods.  Online marketing requires an extensive shift in methodoligy encorportating product branding with search engine quality content to generate sufficient virtual realestate  that attracts organic search driven consumers.

Again the established websites with relevent content and solid traffic statistics will win as the advertisers search for new space to display their products.

Specialist help will be required.

Be it video, audio, or written text there will be a huge demand for web content good enough to attract Search engine traffic. The content will have to inform, entertain, and provoke thought in an effort to capture the more fickle attention of the typical online consumer. Soon the demands for specialised skills to help companies make this transition will be high, however there is a small danger here in that the expense of attracting the very best will erode the potential gains in advertising returns on Investment by most large companies.

On line Ad copy and other messages created will be designed to catch viewers attention, initiate and maintain interest, develop trust and loyalty, and make product offers. This type of internet advertising is based upon ‘relationship marketing’ as opposed to the ‘hard selling techniques’ that is normally used in the traditional marketing arena.

The Need for traditional Public Relations will waine

Now that more emphasis is placed on searching the internet for products and services there will be less need for conventional public relations tactics to ‘generate awareness’ in the public domain.  The content developed and drive by companies online will more than fill any gaps resulting in significant cost savings and increased communication efficiencies. The end result will be more targetted advertising and cost savings in the development of such programs.

Online Marketing Research will be Emphasized

By utilizing the web 2.0 marketing techniques the ability to get valued customer feedback is relatively easy.  This cost effective and highly efficient means of collecting valuable customer feedback will have a significant benefit for companies to conduct effective product research and development.

As a result offline efforts to collect similar data will be all but defunct due to the more demanding and costly efforts required to obtain a quantitive response from consumers in that way.

Social media marketing, as it stands today, continues to demonstrate new efficiencies that increase the effectiveness of communicating with the more fickle online consumer. The popularity and general acceptance of the new Social media platform can no longer be dismissed as a short term fad,   but must be recognized for what it is, the evolution of and the future direction of modern consumer marketing. This will result in a greater acceptance towards using online social media as a permanent fixture in a company’s overall marketing strategy.

Where established website owners will benefit can only be speculated at right now. But mark my words if you have valuable virtual realestate with some traffic, stand by for some interesting times ahead.

Do you use social media for your affiliate advertising? How effective has this been to date and have you noticed any trends. Share your thoughts and experiences below in the comments box.

Until next time……

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