Social Media Marketing… why does it work…?

 Well there are a number underlying factors… but let’s look at just a few of them… and don’t worry none of them are rocket science…

1.  Fundamentally the human being is a nosey creature… we want to know what other people are doing and the twitchy net curtain brigade have migrated to the internet.    So when facebook updates show activities, pages, friending activity we want to see who, where, when or what someone we know is looking at and so do their friends… and so it ripples outwards causing a chain reaction.

2.  When we see someone do something we want to find out more and certain people feel the need to be better than their peers… the old “keeping up with Jones’” mentality… so when we see competitors or peers have or are doing something it creates a need to to the same…

3.  Sometimes just a silly thing will trigger a reminder to do something… prompting us to promote tasks on our things to do list… you know the “oh yes I must get around to that one day” especially when you see or have recommended to you the right person for the job.  So social media gives an opportunity of being in the right place, at the right time, more of the time.. just a simple update of something meaningless may trigger a reminder of what you do to someone who needs it or to someone who volunteers your services or goods to a friend.

4.  We like to help people.. really… actually we are quite polite and courteous as a rule and often naturally recommend things or people we like without even thinking about it.  Some savvy entrepreneusr have even made some serious businesses out of this generous spirit and they have labelled it networking… think BNI, 4networking, Ecademy, Athena and myriad others.

4.  We like to know others agree with our choices… so seeing someone has endorsed a brand, person or product on-line make us more likely to do the same… part of the herd mentality and wanting to fit in or perhaps just to have an endorsement by someone we trust…?  In fact we are likely to be influenced by others we don’t even know… so perhaps this power is even greater than trust…?  Now that could be an interesting argument…

5.  Statistics (yes I know there are lies, lies and damned statistics) for one company showed the buying likelihood of someone recommended via a social media source to be 71% as opposed to 7% from someone hitting the site cold… that is a pretty serious number…  I am putting it down to the person only clicking through on a link via social media recommendations because they have a high level of interest already and therefore I believe the pool of potential is more concentrated than general traffic… still pretty serious stuff though.

6.  It only costs you time (well ok there are a few things that make life easier.. that cost a little) but can connect you to people and businesses on your doorstep… and their contacts and friends… relatively easily, painlessly and quickly… and anything that reaches a relatively high level of people in a pretty short space of time is definitely worth a punt… because you really don’t have lots to lose…

7.  We love to please people… and guess what…? Some of them appreciate it and want to reciprocate…  Just how hard is it to pass on knowledge or contacts? Easy right?  And helping someone makes you feel good… so you do it again… probably on auto pilot!

8.  It’s fun… really your own on-line wine bar… with no bar bill or hangover… chill, enjoy, chat and be genial and see what happens…

To understand what you want to achieve with your social media marketing you should have a plan… who are you targetting?  what do you want to achieve? how are you going to do this? why are you doing it? where are your target market?  These are just a few of the questions you should be asking… plus how are you going to measure what is actually working… get in touch if you want a one page plan to track your own… happy to help.

• Is your social media strategy a 2012 winner? 12 things to get you thinking… (amanda-hill.org.uk)

  If you are in business you should be at The Great British Business Show and The Business Start up Show – we’d love to see you on Stand 971 – book in here.. http://ht.ly/aqwgV