The world is a place fraught with, built on and powered by change and consumers are equally yoked. A good example of how the world is changing and how consumerism is evolving as well is by looking at the positive parallels that exist within social media, search media marketing and online marketing. If you’re unable to grasp these concepts at a glance, let’s have a look at some stats that show you just how integral all of them are to each other: Google and their associated websites consistently process over eighty billion queries per month while Twitter is precariously close to processing twenty billion. The veritable god of social media, facebook, was reported to add over two hundred million users in less than a year and online statistics guru Hitwise reports that facebook eclipses Google every single week in terms of internet traffic. What exactly does this mean to those in the industry? First of all, any naysayers who tout that social media was just a flash in the pan can literally shut up – clearly, social media is hot and only going to get hotter. These stats also show that social media and search media, while powerful on their own, function best and most successfully when married. Marketers now have to embrace the fact that search media doesn’t exclusively constitute the use of Google and in fact platforms like mobile searches and the internal facebook search options are just as and in some cases, even more popular. Customers are not sticking to one thing anymore and they won’t just take our word for anything. They are exploring, discovering and sharing options with each other so the onus is on us as marketers and advertisers to be the channels they want and need, now and into the future.
As those who are at the helm of the marketing industry we have to be amenable to doing more and giving more to clients. It is not just good enough to set up automated procedures and processes and expect customer loyalty to follow. We have to do much better. Content needs to be more creative, more original, more accurate and more relevant. For our clients and for their customers, we have to ensure that their products and services are visible without being overbearing which is often something of a tightrope to walk. Placement is crucial to visibility and the securing of sales so creative and relevant placement in the channels that customers are already using or in those that they may be more easily influenced by is just a sold strategy. As far as search engine marketing is concerned, users are demanding more out of their search engines and the results they provide. They want something that mirrors the online social experience that they enjoy in every other aspect of their online time. They want the ability to search, find and shop but they also want to be able to share, review and join – the key concept here is and will be community. No company understands this more than yodle. Have look at yodle reviews to get a feel of just how many of their clients and their clients’ clients are enjoying localized search options with the ability to share and review.