Bangkok--19 Mar--
Research shows seven out of ten (70%) consumers have visited social media websites to get information and nearly half (49%) made a purchase decision based on what they gathered. Companies not engaging in social media as part of their online marketing strategy are missing an opportunity to reach consumers.
Social media has become global phenomenon. 2008 proved that social media isn’t just for teenagers. More and more professionals and businesses are finding new ways of using social media tools and understanding the conversation. The Wave 3 Report from Universal McCann (www.universalmccann.com) states that social media can have a dramatic impact on brands reputation as online users post opinions about products and brands on their blog and think more positively about companies that have blogs”
Online video is hot according to Universal McCann study which showed that 394m internet users watch video clips online, 346m read blogs/weblogs, 321m read personal blogs/weblogs, 307m visit a friend’s social network page and 303m share a video clip. Social networking is evolving fast. Increasingly feature such as blogging, photo sharing and video sharing are the norm. Nowadays, politicians, celebrities, brands and family members all seem to have one. Traditional media outlets use them to supplement their normal output.
From a quick look at ComScore’s (www.comscore.com) top 20 social media sites, Blogger still rules with estimated 222 million worldwide visitors in November 2008. Facebook is coming and coming very strong with 200 million unique visitors following by MySpace at 126 million uniques, Wordpress at 114 million and Windows Live Spaces at 87 million uniques. Number sixth to tenth are Yahoo Geocities (69 million), Flickr (64 million), hi5 (58 million), Orkut (46 million) and Six Apart (46 million).
It should be noted that Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region. China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined.
Barry Hurd (www.123socialmedia.com) believes that the driving factors for social media growth are usability and accessibility of internet and the advancement of social media and mobile technology (cell phones, PDAs, handheld games, etc.)
It is more likely that some users may exist on multiple online networks. Some studies indicate an average of 3 to 5 networks for most online users. For any business or professional thinking ‘I’m not even online’ but you are on multiple networks whether or not you think you are: you clients, contacts, and peers are creating that presence for you in the form of conversation about your business. Companies not engaging in social media as part of their online marketing strategy are missing an opportunity to reach consumers.
As a result of its popularity, social media websites have become an information resource for consumers according to joint research by OTX (www.otxresearch.com) and DEI Worldwide (www.deiworldwide.com). Their key findings showed that people rely on various types of social media websites as much as company websites for product and brand information. Seven out of ten (70%) consumers have visited social media websites such as message boards, social networking sites, and blogs to get information. Further, nearly half (49%) of these consumers made a purchase decision based on what they gathered.
The rise of social media is not only changing the relationship between brand and audience, it is affecting the traditional marketing and PR metrics. Such growing influence has forced marketers to take more serious approach on social media marketing. A recent report by eMarketer (www.emarketer.com) suggested that companies should have a presence in social media and interact with consumer regularly. As you can guess, more companies will turn to social media during a global recession seeing it as a cost effective way to sell their products and engage with consumers. However working with social media is not easy. Some companies succeed while others fail.
One of a few good examples is Blendtec’s ‘Will It Blend” series on YouTube showing Tom Dickson the CEO of Blendtec who attempts to blend everything in their blender including a popular iPhone. The campaign was low cost and instantly became a hit. This simple idea led to a ‘five-fold increase in sales”
IBMers’ blogs is another innovative idea to take advantage over social media fever. In stead of creating one blog, the company creates a lot of blogs by allowing their employees to write about their experiences, what they are working on or any other topic of choices. By doing so IBMer’s blogs create number of connections with and convey the corporate dedication to the industry.
“Social Media is relatively new and there are a lot more to learn,” said Mr. Sirapat Kettarn, Managing Director, SPOTMARK - - the organizer of Internet Marketing Conference 2009 Bangkok which will take place on 20-21 May 2009 at the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok.
“Social media are gradually gaining more and more momentum and are rapidly gaining weight as communities become more and more active. But how we can take advantage of an online community to increase brand awareness and user engagement? The conference will discuss on two major questions asking by most marketer firstly how to measure the effect of social media and secondly on how to plan effective social media strategies. Its benefits and drawbacks will be discussed during the conference,” said Mr. Sirapat.
In addition to social media the conference will also is touching on other hot areas such as Search Engine Marketing, E-mail Marketing, eCRM, eBranding and Online Market Research. For more information about Internet Marketing Conference 2009 Bangkok please visit www.sptmrk.com or contact SPOTMARK at +66 2 978 2519 or [email protected]
For more information please contact:
Ms. Bussara Kullapat
Conference Manager
[email protected]