Share this post:
*Nearly half of business leaders are planning on increasing their social media marketing budget in 2014. Are you planning on running social media campaigns this year? Whether you have jumped on the social media bandwagon or not, it’s never too late to look at your marketing mix and see where you are putting your marketing dollars and what you are planning on getting out of it. Are you still paying thousands of dollars on trade shows each year? Or perhaps you are still a big fan of print advertising? Take a look what the rest of the world is doing (below) to give you a “measuring stick” to start your thinking with. Yes, all industries are different, but what’s incredibly important is to constantly analyze your marketing initiatives, seeing what’s going on in the marketing field – what’s working, what’s not.
Looking at the chart below, to be honest, I am surprised to see “email marketing” as one of the “increased budgets” columns, but you can definitely see the trend, moving to internet marketing; social media, paid advertising and SEO.
Now, I am totally not surprised to see social media being in the top 3 on the priority list for marketers in 2014. Social media is really still in its infancy, and we are super excited and curious to see what new platforms and tools (to measure the success of social media) 2014 will bring us.
It’s not a secret, Facebook has probably reached it’s peak, and might be slowing down in some areas, as the social media arena gets saturated with new tools. However, based on “visual” in a way (photography, products), or you educate and share your expertise (service businesses – coaches, trainers, spas, beauty salons, etc) – Facebook is still an awesome platform to explore, to gain visibility for your business.
People spend a ton of time on Facebook, so when targeting smart, to your exact demographic, you should be able to capture the right eyeballs.
On that note, WHO is hanging out on Facebook? Yes, the fastest growing demographic is still women of 55 – 65 years of age. So if you are targeting this age group, keep this in mind.
So try something new this year, and make sure to have a plan for it. Keep your social media engaging and fresh. A life-span of a Facebook post is about 5 hours – have fresh, exciting content coming (without overloading your audience of course)
Tell us: what are you getting rid of this year from your marketing mix? What new marketing initiatives are you thinking of trying?
And now you are probably seriously wondering how this post is related to the dirty socks mentioned in the tagline? Well, the truth is no matter what you add to your marketing mix this year, make sure you think fresh, do something new. As simple as that. And why did I use the dirty socks analogy? Well, I just really want you to remember this one thing:
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
– Walt Disney
*Source: www.businessinsider.com