Page 50 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

» Services: Another popular consumer activity online is the use of services to
allow a person to lead a more efficient and productive life. Whether they’re
paying bills, checking bank balances, looking up phone numbers, finding jobs,
or searching for apartments, consumers use the Internet as a tool to lead
more productive lives. Most of today’s businesses, such as banks and airlines,
provide services on the Internet. In fact, consumers now expect today’s
businesses to provide their core services online or at least have a presence
online. Consumers are typically very task-oriented when they’re interacting
with online services; as a result, they don’t expect to participate in advertising
campaigns, and especially not social media marketing campaigns, when
they’re in this mode.

» Business: And of course, the Internet is used to conduct business. This may
take the form of companies talking to each other and exchanging information,
establishing online marketplaces, and initiating brand launches. Businesses
engage with their customers online by marketing and selling products and
services and providing customer service via the Internet. Consumers expect
these online conveniences from brands that they interact with, and they
increasingly engage with businesses on the Internet. They also use the
Internet to start their own businesses. Depending on the business, social
media marketing campaigns can certainly help here.
Critically, if there is any one significant change over the last decade, it is that
consumers expect marketing to contribute to their sense of self and their
personal needs (whether that’s news, communication, e-commerce, entertain-
ment, services, or business-driven tasks and goals). Marketing that distracts
consumers from what they’re trying to accomplish or how they want to feel
has a much more difficult time succeeding.

Researching Your Customers’

Online Activities

When developing a social media marketing campaign or a broader, continuing
program, determining what your target customers are doing on the Internet is
important. You can use several tools to find out where your target customers are
going online. Without this information, you can’t formulate a smart social mar-
keting strategy. You’re simply shooting in the dark.

Tools that help you research online activity fall into two basic categories: free and
paid. You can simply register for and use the free tools. Tools and services for
which you must pay can get expensive very quickly. In Chapter 4, we discuss the

34 PART 1 Getting Started with Social Media Marketing