Expand Social Media Offering As Markets Become Saturated

Time:2012-01-25 09:12:27 Source:Ezinearticles Author:Will_O_Davis

When it comes to a branded social media marketing campaign, the priority has previously been gaining as many new fans as possible, with the brand being able to proclaim itself as the number one within its market compared to competitors' social media profiles. However, with revelations that fan growth within leading social media markets such as the UK and USA is slowing, it seems there's a greater requirement than ever for brands to adapt marketing strategies to place focus on retaining fans and encouraging engagement, rather than putting acquisition at the forefront of strategies.

With fewer numbers of new applicants within these markets, rather than placing the focus on acquiring new fans, brands must instead look to entice those already present on the network with new strategies and engagement ideas.

One previously popular method of acquiring new fans is through advertising. Paid content still has an important role to play when looking to acquire new social media fans, but when there are fewer new users joining these platforms, there is a greater requirement for a brand to focus heavily on varied and engaging organic content. Advertising and sponsored stories can still attract existing social media fans, but those who have been on social networks for some time may be more disenchanted by advertising compared to those who are relatively new to such platforms, and as such the result of this may not be as effective on those who are new to such platforms.

With this in mind, there must be a greater emphasis placed on the production of engaging, organic content. Recent Facebook updates, including the introduction of the Facebook Ticker and the launch of the Facebook Open Graph have placed a much greater emphasis on sharing. Applications such as Spotify and The Guardian now make sharing possible without the user having to press a button - prior integration with the application shares the content for the user, making brand visibility and interactions thereafter much easier to achieve. What's more, the inclusion of the Facebook Ticker makes any interaction, whether with a friend or a brand page, visible to a user's connections, again making interactions visible to a user's friends even if those users don't follow the same brand. Whilst high levels of acquisition are still important, the emphasis is moving away from generating new fans but instead encouraging interactions through wall and status updates.

Leaving the current leading social networks, there's still potential to put acquisition at the forefront of a social media marketing strategy - such as on Google+ - but brands should now look to integrate this with engaging content, rather than focusing on one or the other. As the number of social media fans continues to grow and social networks develop, facilitating engagement will be just as important as acquiring new fans used to be in the quest to creating a successful social media campaign.

Punch Communications is an integrated PR, social media and SEO agency at the forefront of presenting its clients with online PR to help maximise brand awareness through digital means. Through its focus on tech PR, Punch ensures its clients are kept up to date with the latest advances in digital marketing to help maximise their online and offline reach and reputation. For more information, visit http://www.punchcomms.com or call 01858 411600.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_O_Davis

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