Yesterday we reported that a vast majority of Fortune 100 companies aren’t utilizing social media marketing properly, thus missing out on the positive perks it can bring to a business. Their pitfall was due to half-hearted social media marketing efforts. Yes, social media marketing is great for branding but companies need to keep in mind that branding takes time. The internet is a fast-paced environment, but companies shouldn’t assume branding will be any easier than it is in the real world.
We’ve gone over branding on social media sites and we continue to emphasize that your customers will determine how successful and how quickly your brand will grow. Branding takes effort and time. Online branding has been proven to build brands in less time with the help of social media marketing and search engine optimization. But keep in mind, brand success still doesn’t happen overnight or without a firm proactively building it.
360i has released a study that a majority of brand talk on social media sites are user-generated. The study saw that “77% of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook listings that appeared for brand searches were controlled by a party other than the marketer.” With this statistic, how can brands afford to not be proactive with their social media marketing efforts? Brand searches include negative comments as well. Companies who are proactive in their social media marketing efforts can offer damage control and be able to control and protect their online brand image.
Thus 360i’s study supplements that of WeberShandwick’s, proving that companies need to have users connect to a brand on a personal level through a combination of personality and user engagement.
With this recent slew of studies regarding branding and social media marketing, what is your perspective on the topic?
Written by: Daisy K.