Social Media Marketing – Why Should Big Brands Care

Social media has become pervasive in Canadian society. You can’t turn on the radio or television these days without hearing a reporter ask you to “Follow me on Twitter” or “Become a fan on Facebook.”

So when an seo company tells you that social media is still in its early stages, it may seem hard to believe but all the signs are there:

• New social media companies are popping up everywhere, most of them clueless on how to put together a co-cohesive online marketing campaign.
• Spammers are flooding social media sites with garbage content on blogs, social media and social book marking sites.
• Still no return on investment (ROI) to be found for the majority of social media marketing efforts.

So Y Should Big Brands Get Involved in Social Media Now?

As Baby boomers decline as a percentage of total Canadian population over the next 20 years from 30% to 20%, Generation Y will emerge as the significant demographic (27%) for marketers.

According to Paul Steep of Scotia Capital;

One development over the past year that is worth monitoring relates to advertising campaigns targeting Gen Y utilizing social media sites/networks, as evidenced by the number of firms that are now seeking to leverage mainstream social media sites for advertising and customer relations. A key trend over the past year has been the use of social media strategies and software by traditional media segments, most notably directories, radio, newspaper, and television

Social Media Sites are Now Mainstream

According to Emily Riley at Jupiter Research, 43 – 51% of Generation Y have created or updated a personal page on a social network while 23% are reading comments posted on a mainstream media website or portal.

Today, Generation Y uses social media for entertainment and communication with friends and family. Understanding how Generation Y will use Web 2.0 tools when they graduate or move higher up the corporate food chain will become invaluable to advertisers.

Companies that understand how to use social media  as part of a online marketing strategy will have a significant competitive advantage. This will not only bring  the immediate benefit of brand awareness, it will bring improved search engine rankings though the next major search engine ranking factor, Influence.