It is safe to say that social media has completely changed almost every aspect of professional life. One field that has been completely revolutionized by social media use is marketing. In recent years, marketers have had to quickly adapt to a completely new sphere of communication.
Here are 4 ways in which social media has drastically changed the ever-shifting world of marketing.
A Data Revolution.
The near ubiquity of social media has led to an exponential increase in the amount of data that is available to marketing professionals. We live in the age of the ‘data deluge’, and marketers need to know how to handle and code the vast quantities of information available to them. It involves the clever use of analytical tools to sift useful data from useless information.
The Rise of The Ambassador.
Social media has led to the rise of a new kind of marketing mouthpiece – the influencer or ambassador. These figures are usually influential members of your target demographic who can organically grow a brand by speaking directly with potential customers. Although this kind of marketing can be extremely effective if the right influencers are contracted, it can require constant communication with multiple stakeholders and mouthpieces.
This can become labor intensive and fractured, which slows down the marketing process. Greenfly’s media sharing app helps you efficiently interact with your brand ambassadors in real-time so you can stay connected with your audience.
The Agility Imperative.
The social media environment can change at a dizzying pace. Marketing professionals need to be more adaptable and agile than ever before. A good marketing manager will respond quickly to trends as they occur to inform their practice.
One example of how agility can pay off in the marketing world is the emergence of meme marketing. Meme marketing is a kind of guerilla marketing focused on reflecting memetic cultural touchstones. The problem is that meme culture moves and warps so fast on social media platforms that meme marketing materials quickly become passe. Marketing teams need to be agile to capitalize on cultural moments as they happen. Successful meme marketing campaigns highlight the natural virality of popular social media trends.
But, this requires your company to be able to pivot quickly. For example, if there’s a trend catching fire on IG, you’ll want to script your video, cut it to meet the appropriate Instagram video specs for ads, and allocate budget to promote it before the trend becomes stale.
Increased Reciprocation.
Marketing on social media is not one-way traffic. Social media platforms are inherently discursive. Marketing managers need to understand that, by releasing materials online, they expose their brands to a range of communication and reciprocation opportunities.
The reciprocal nature of online communication has changed marketing drastically. Full-time social media professionals are often contracted to monitor customer reactions to marketing messages released on social media. The qualitative data gathered through these interactions can be extremely useful for analyzing the success of a campaign and planning more fruitful strategies.
