Social Media Network

Majority of social media ad campaigns fail

Social media may be the advertising tool of the future, but it’s unlikely to produce positive results for most business owners who haphazardly launch Internet campaigns hoping they’ll resonate with consumers.
Even high-traffic social media sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace, aren’t a surefire way to attract potential customers, according to Canadian marketing guru and author Andrew Ballenthin.
More than 90% of business owners aren’t using social media to its full potential for personal branding, Ballenthin’s studies have found.
But the high proportion of failed Internet campaigns (in the neighbourhood of 75% to 90% by Ballenthin’s calculations) hasn’t deterred small business owners from using social media platforms.
A recent national BizLaunch survey found that more than 49% of small business owners have invested up to 101 hours in social media marketing during the past 12 months.
Forrester Research Inc. expects the interactive marketing budget in the U.S. to balloon from $25.6 million US in 2009 to nearly $55 million US in 2014. The proportion of company ad spending on the web is on track to rise from 12% in 2009 to 21% by 2014.
That’s a lot of wasted money, time and effort if your customers aren’t on Internet forums such as Twitter in the first place.
Ballenthin is trying to redirect misguided advertisers. He’s writing a book on how to help small business owners succeed online and his marketing firm, Sol Solutions, recently wrapped up a blog-off competition with a $40,000 prize purse designed to improve social media strategies among entrepreneurs.
The first failing has been a lack of planning, Ballenthin said.
For companies to harness social media’s true potential, they must first pinpoint the sites their target audience visits most and determine a desired level of interaction. Then measurable expectations of success and a detailed resource plan need to be established.
“Stakeholders need to see an effective return on investment. If social media can’t deliver that compared to other proven communication marketing channels, then it’s fair to say social media didn’t work in that case.”
Most measurements for efficacy used in traditional marketing campaigns can be applied to the web, Ballenthin said.
Fitness studio owner and Staples “How’s Business” blogger Jane Clapp knows how to reach her online audience and social networking helps her keep in touch with her clients.
“Sometimes when a client hasn’t been in for a while, they start to feel guilty and maybe a little afraid to come in. But when they read a new post, it’s a great way for me to motivate them to come back to the gym,” she said in a recent post.
If, like Clapp, social networking sites like Twitter are the right fit for your business, then consider using practical how-to guides such as the forthcoming “Twitter as a Business Tool” book by Rodney Rumford. The book and accompanying video webinars promise to expand your business 140 characters at a time.
Rumford is a proponent of simple tricks to extend your online reach, such as participating in the Twitter phenomenon known as “Follow Friday.” Using a hash tag to trend your business post and including #followfriday in your tweet for instance could help you earn more followers than simple message posting alone.
“Twitter as a Business Tool” is slated for release on Jan. 12.

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