Is social media really important?

So we’re in this class called emerging media, where much of our study revolves around social media.  Is this really a lifestyle change in society worth learning, understanding, and adding to our own daily routines?  Or is this a come-and-go technology that will be replaced with something bigger and better, only to leave all the marketing efforts and businesses wondering, “why did we put so much time and money into that?”

My opinion is YES, it is definitely worth getting involved in and understanding its power and value in both social aspects and marketing.  Yes it’s a norm for the younger generations (with over 90% of them belonging to a social network,) but it is fast becoming popular with people over the age of 50 too.

From a marketing standpoint, if you aren’t involved in social networks, you are soon to be left behind.  You not only need to learn about it and understand it, you need to be actively involved. 

Is this “emerging media” class necessary?  Definitely!  In fact it could almost be a degree in itself.  For someone like me who is basically new to most features of emerging media, it’s a lot to cram into a single class.  And, I’m sure companies employ or are constantly seeking individuals with expertise and experience in how to navigate and market via social networks and other forms of emerging media.  It’s a job description of its own, not even including other forms of marketing that go into an entire campaign.

I found this great YouTube video that really nails down the importance of social media.  I’ve watched it a few times, and am amazed at some of the facts. 

In fact I think I’m going to show it to a few of my family members who are very out-of-touch with technology and think social networks are just chat rooms for predators and hackers.  There are still so many people who just don’t understand what social media is all about.

Twitter & B2C Companies

Is Twitter really a valuable means of communication for B2C companies, or is it simply another attempt to hopefully reach target audiences?

According to a research by Hubspot, a company’s lead growth dramatically increases as their number of Twitter followers increase.  This research says that, “A B2C company with one to 20 Twitter followers will generate a median of 11 leads per month.  When the number of Twitter followers increases to 21-100, this median grows about 27% to 14.  However, the most significant boost in median lead generation from B2C corporate Twitter account occurs when a company’s number of Twitter followers enters the 100 to 500 range,” (http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/more-than-100-twitter-followers-boost-b2c-leads)

Apparently Twitter IS a valuable component to the marketing tactics of B2C companies.  Twitter is becoming such a social norm in our society that it would be crazy for companies to not take advantage of the abundance of consumers available at their fingertips. 

I was interested to take a quick look at how many followers a few different companies currently have.

Old Navy http://twitter.com/OldNavy  has 16, 302 followers

Best Buy http://twitter.com/BestBuy  has 22,552 followers

Food Network https://twitter.com/FoodNetwork has 101,316 followers

This same research by Hubspot also stated that B2C companies with a Twitter account generate approximately twice as many monthly leads than companies without a Twitter account.  That surprises me that Twitter has already had that much of an impact for companies. 

Twitter truly isn’t just a social site for family and friends.  It holds a great value for marketers and companies to reach out to their consumer base and interact with them personally.

I am very new to Twitter and currently don’t follow any companies and until taking this Emerging Media class at WVU, didn’t actually realize the value it held for marketing purposes. 

After scanning the Twitter site and learning more about it, I think that it’s not enough for companies to have a Twitter account.  In order to engage consumers they need to be tweeting on a consistent basis; and post interesting comments and information that keep consumers’ attention, and make them want to respond and even retweet the information to others.

I just wonder how many of these huge numbers of followers are actually active and influenced by company Tweets?