For years now many people have been foretelling the downfall of traditional media channels (such as television, newspapers, magazines and radio) at the hands of digital formats, in particular search (mostly Google) and social media marketing (mostly Facebook).
However, it appears it’s now actually happening.
In Feb 2017, Facebook announced their revenue for 2016 was a staggering US$27.6 Billion. No, that’s not a typo. $27.6 Billion.
To put this into perspective, Facebook’s revenue is now substantially bigger than the advertising revenue for the US’ two largest traditional media companies, Comcast ($12.9B) and Disney ($8.6B), combined.
So what exactly makes marketing on Facebook and other social media networks so attractive?
Firstly, social media has huge, global reach, with nearly one-third of the world’s population now an active social media user. That means advertisers are almost guaranteed to find their audience actively using social media.
Social media networks also collect a huge amount of demographic data on their user base, such as age, gender, location, interest and behaviours, which advertisers can use to pinpoint their exact target market. Using Facebook pixels and ‘custom audiences’, you can also serve Facebook ads to anyone who visits your website, likes your company Facebook Page, uses your app, or subscribes to your email list. Crazy!
Thirdly, social media allows users to respond to the advertisement by liking, commenting, and sharing the ad with their own networks. This means you can have personal, one-on-one conversation with potential and existing customers, build trust and demonstrate human-like qualities.
Finally, the level of data analytics and reporting that social media offers make is truly amazing. Not only can you see exactly how frequently people viewed the ad, you can also measure engagement, link clicks, and email addressed captured (for example, when a piece of content such as an eBook is downloaded). For businesses that transact online, you can also measure the how many people purchased your product or service, meaning an exact return on investment (ROI) can be calculated.
And if that wasn’t enough, you can also assess the demographics of those people – where they’re from, what they like and dislike, how old they are, etc – allowing you to target similar people to grow your business even further.
Compare the benefits of social media advertising described above to TV where you simply ‘broadcast’ a message. You generally only reach people in your country (not globally), and only target people based on the show they’re watching. There’s also no one-on-one engagement with the audience and TV networks only provide an estimate of how many people watched the ad.
It’s easy to see why social media continues to grow at a blistering pace, and shows no signs of slowing down. With such huge investment in social media, there’s no better time to obtain a social media marketing qualification and learn the skills required become an industry expert yourself!
If you’d like to know more, do not miss the following free workshops about why studying Social Media and which course is available.
– If you are in Melbourne, 16 June
– If you are in Sydney, 23 June
By Jonathon Tanner
These data were collected from Jonathon Tanner is the CEO of Social Media College, the accredited course owner of 10118NAT Diploma of Social Media Marketing, the first and only government recognised qualification in social media marketing delivered byAustralian Pacific College
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