Last Updated on: March 12, 2015
Like everyone else I get promotional mails, sales and marketing stuff in my inbox. The majority of these mails auto-magically ends up in the trash, labelled as spam. Thank heavens for improved spam filtering!
Some mails I might hastily and/or accidentally scan through, even happens I read some.
The reason, or inspiration, for this blog post, came in the form of a promotional mail from Twitter Corp. How to effectively use Twitter posts & ads for marketing purposes.
There’s a lot to be said about advertising, sales & marketing, what works and doesn’t work, about methodologies and approaches. I’ve got years of experience from sales and marketing, from floor level and upwards. And contributed to hundreds of radio spots, plus some TV commercials. 20-30 years down the line, the experience still seem relevant.
No escape – resistance is futile
We spend more and more time in and with social media. The illustration (right) highlights stats from 2014. Anyone who runs a business today, large or small, major or minor, have to consider all aspects of marketing strategies.
Social media, social network marketing are increasingly becoming the most important conveyors of information and potential source of sales. These media are also key suppliers of infotainment.
Those in the drivers seats, the innovators and paradigm shifters who survived past first stages of social media idealism, later turned focus towards how to make money on their concepts.
They had to, a question and matter of survival. It is also much easier to remain idealistic with a fat bank account. Advertising was/is an obvious choice of income. Some of the innovators became hugely successful, they were at the right place at the right time. And willing to invest a ridiculous amount of hours on their vision.
Today ads pop up everywhere, but the social media services have improved formats and scales or blend much better than before. Ads aren’t being quite as dominant as they used to be, fortunately. This might actually be a good thing, it can get “too loud”.
Personal social media marketing
is something that also have picked up tremendously. Especially over the past 2-3 years, among artists and small businesses not able to spend huge amounts of money on marketing campaigns and ads. For these groups facebook and twitter offer a lot of opportunities.
But this also might or can lead to over-utilization.
It is a fine balance, between too much, just about it, and too little. Equally it is a fine balance between give and take. I find that some over-extend their use of social media for personal, material gains and, as a result, I disconnect.
Others seem to realize the danger of over-utilization and maintains a good balance between actuality, news, relevancy, what is being shared, and self promotion or marketing.
There are no absolute truths, no written laws that will not be re-written, tomorrow. Maintaining dynamics and actuality is important to establish lasting social media marketing. You give something, and you gain something.
If offering any advice I would say; be patient, be wary of potential limits, don’t over-extend it, be clever about your approaches, remain curious and creative. Renew yourself. People want Infotainment, combined in suitable dosages marketing and sales also works better this way.