Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and other networks are vital to companies.
All things considered, social media marketing has not been around all that long, particularly in terms of mobile commerce, but this channel is like a child that had to grow up very fast, as it has become one of the most important ways to communicate with – and understand – consumers.
This has become a very useful way to implement promotions and spread the world through ads.
While the direct conversion of customers through social media marketing has not proven to be tremendous throughout this holiday shopping season, it has still found a way to prove itself very useful. Consumer engagement has been exceptionally high, which suggests that while shoppers may not be directly pursuing a link in order to make a purchase from a Facebook page, for example, they are still using the networks to interact with companies and brands.
Social media marketing can have a great deal of sway over a shopper’s final decision.
When using social media marketing, retailers and other merchants are entering into an arena that is highly competitive. Many companies still hesitate to use it, though, as they are confused as to how to go about tracking revenue from that location.
It is in precisely that struggle that the main problem can be found. The direct revenue generated from social media marketing isn’t what should be tracked. Instead, it is the engagement of the consumer that should be monitored. This is because while the consumer may not make a purchase immediately from a company’s profile page, the interaction that he or she has with that online location can play a critical role in the individual’s loyalty, understanding of the company and/or the product, and final decision when the time comes to make a purchase.
With all of the various ROI metrics available online, many companies have lost touch with the value of social media marketing, or have failed to understand it in the first place. In order to truly benefit from all that it has to offer, it should be viewed not as a direct revenue generator, but should be a simple and public form of communication for customer service that represents an asset with immeasurable value to a company.