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Social Networks and Brand Value

This blog post is a reply to a comment made on Measuring marketing effectiveness of Facebook.

The is always a big debate between internet marketers about the value of social media management verses advertising on Google. In my opinion a successful internet marketing campaign will incorporate a balance of both advertising and brand building.

1) Google is still your primary advertising vehicle

Google AdvertisingGoogle is still the information source of the internet for most people. This means that advertising on Google will open up avenues for great return in sales and leads for your business. I will alway recommend a client to advertise on Google if they are looking to generate strong business leads or product sales.

Google is a better place to have your advertising. However a good marketing campaign is not just about advertising, it also need to incorporate brand building.

2) Social Media Marketing is very different to Google advertising

Social Media Marketing is not simply about advertising to your target market. Although Facebook and twitter now offer advertising tools they are not the foundations of great social media marketing.

Social media marketing is an opportunity to build your brand value and position your brand in the mind of the consumer. Social media’s interactive nature allows brands to become more personal and real to the consumer. This type of brand relationship goes a long way to cultivating a loyal customer base.

Social Media MarketingThe big success of a social media campaign is the ability to create positive word of mouth rather than promoting your message (advertising). A successful social media will have customers who will create great content about the brand.

Word of mouth is the key to social media. If you get this right people will buy your products and use your service, not because you ask them to, but because their friends are raving about it. If you think about, word of mouth is the desired end result of permission based marketing where google advertising resembles a push approach to marketing in comparison. (Although Google is more permission based in comparison to traditional advertising methods)

Social Media Brand ValueThe latest socialnomics video provides insight into social media. I have added it to this post to reinforce the message here. Watch it and look out for two stats:

  1. 25% of search results for the Worlds Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
  2. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations with only 14% trusting advertising

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