Feature | Social Marketing "It's all about value"

The concept of marketing has been around since 1450's with the invention of Gutenberg's metal movable type. However, the1730s witnessed the emergence of magazines which would be a future vector of niche marketing. Which lead to the first paid advertisement in a newspaper in 1836, France.

Since then marketing has evolved into a much wider and important concept in business. Some of the traditional methods of marketing include strategic alliances, direct mail, telemarketing, print advertising, television advertising, leaflet marketing and radio advertising.

Apart from all these forms of marketing today one of the most popular forms of marketing is through the digital space. Social media marketing is the latest innovation in this space.

With the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn, etc. and their rapid popularity it was only a matter of time until people realized their full potential and how to cash in on it.

Let us now consider one such popular social networking site, Facebook. Speaking to the guru of social media Pradeep Chopra, Co-founder, Digital Vidya said, "Facebook is a great marketing tool and probably the best when it comes to "causing engagement' with users/customers/fans. Engagement for e.g. on a Facbeook page offers a much higher and long term value than pure display advertising on other digital media."

The major reason for the popularity of Facebook is that There is a huge number of people (India alone now has over 22 million members) spending a significant amount of time on this network. "Moreover, the rate at which Facebook has grown in the past and projected to grow, Facebook is going to continue to gain the deserved attention from marketers," adds Chopra.

Agreeing with Chopra's view on the reasons of Facebook's popularity, Sanjay Mehta, Joint CEO, Social Wavelength said, "Enabling one to connect with their friends and family, providing easy to use features to share content, news etc. has made Facebook a hit, from the user point of view. And as it kept growing on the user front, and people started spending more and more time on the platform, it became interesting for brands also, to reach out to their consumers, on this medium!"

When using Facebook as a marketing tool one needs to concentrate on constantly being relevant or else can end up in stagnation. According to Chopra Leveraging applications is another opportunity however, "knowing the nerve of the customer' to offer what they really want and enjoy is the key to be successful in using Facebook apps. Facebook Advertising is another great opportunity that should be taken advantage of as it also enables a brand to promote its presence outside Facebook as well including for objectives such as Lead Generation.

Mehta states, "It is all about value." He adds, "In simple terms, anything that can provide "value" to your prospect, works. One could have a great game, but it may do nothing for one's brand. Or one can have a useful and interesting, simple, text update. And that could get very popular and be effective for the brand."

Following its own principles Facebook has and is constantly evolving by staying relevant and being open to change. Some of the new trends in network are Facebook deals & credits, questions and places.

Yes, indeed marketing has evolved since it conception and whatever technique maybe used it still holds up to its initial definition. | By Vanessa Azavedo [vanessa(at)adgully.com]