The consumer has the power!

Have a look at your friens and think about them who are doing something with media. For example; Tim from Tilburg has a better online shop with less costs and a better service than many advertiser because he sells via eBay. Sven form Eindhoven gives faster and extensive response than the customer service of many organization because he uses Tweakers.
Let's now have a broader look and think about things you bumb into when you are using the Internet.You probably mention that Nu.nl loses scoops on Twitter and more people use Hyves (approximately 9.9 million) than live in Switzerland (approximately 7.3 million). Today the day it is all about community management.

Communication is not any more about sending and receiving. Online communication starts with listening. People and their opinions are everywhere and the advertiser is topic of the conversation; products are priced on Vergelijk.nl, assessed on Kieskeurig.nl, judged on Radar.nl and sold on Marktplaats.nl. Communication becomes more and more complicated, interaction with target groups is difficult and the attention and time advertisers receive turns down. At the moment there is an information overload. Consumers become more and more aware of time constraints and media use is often more fragmented. It is all about what the customer fascinates; with other words their interests are leading!

Internet is a big source of information and the advertiser stands right in the middle. How do we know where, who, what, how and why anybody talks about anybody?
To excel at this online web it is important that someone creates order in the online community mess. The need for someone who really maximizes earned media presence and build and maintenance the community. This all to obtain a footprint within different forms of social media. Furthermore, responding to trends of the target group, occurring as question-answer machine and boosting discussions within social media are other factors which have to be realized.

How does it work, affiliate marketing via social media?

Look at yourself, you are certainly more likely to buy a product where a friend or family member family is enthusiast about than you assume of a seller how good a product is. Everybody knows a seller has just one goal: selling. Mouth to mouth advertising is still one of the best ways to acquire customers or sell products. As you can see affiliate marketing can be compared with network marketing.

Because the fact that more people buy products online, affiliate marketing is a growing market. The origin of affiliate marketing is in America; Amazon.com introduced the “associates program” in July 1996, which was a great success.
Affiliate marketing is a technique to promote products through another website or mailinglists by using a special link which is connected to a system so sales can be followed. If there comes a sale trough the link the affiliate has right to an agreed amount or percent of the sales. Businesses can also see which banner or link is the most clickable.

Businesses use affiliate marketing for several reasons. First of all, it is much cheaper than expensive marketing campaigns. A business only pays if actually a purchase has been made. A business which do not make use of an affiliate depends on own marketing campaigns and acquires customers on that way. By using one or more affiliates multiple customers can be attract which ensures more revenue.
The most common used terms to determine earnings are:
- CPC (Cost per Click): compensation per click on a banner or link;
- CPM (Cost per Mille): view x 1000;
- CPL (Cost per Lead): fee for subscription to a service, requesting a brochure or making an appointment;
- CPS (Cost per Sale): fee for each sale.

Social media is a way to get good quality affiliates. Many people join ´Groups´ when they use social media. A group is managed by someone who, in most cases, can send group messages to all members of the group. The manager must be persuaded to send a group message about the companies product and at one time a large group of your target group has been reached.

How can companies attract attention through social media?

As I mentioned in my previous post, many marketers are guided by hypes. Under the marketers are a lot of trendsetters but especially a lot of followers. Nowadays followers presume the opportunities in social media after the success stories about Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. The multichannel internet strategy is supposed the best way for online success for organizations. In this strategy social websites have a limited function. To develop a successful campaign are marketing research, a considerable budget and patience essential.

Social media is mostly used to stay in touch with family and friends. A much smaller proportion of the social media users uses social media to orientate themselves on new products. This narrow interest has to deal with the way on which people are approached by companies. Social media is a personal matter in which people are centralized. The classical advertisements do not gain profit because users are surfing around in their social network with other purposes. Therefore, companies have to make sure that they become part of the social network of their target group.

Social media is focused on sharing information. Many users surf around in their own network to read the ‘facts and gossips’ about their friends. A company has to behave with a same entry on social media sites. Thus, advertisements on pages are not profitable but designing a company profile and behave like a regular user. Sharing pictures, giving advice and linking trough videos are examples of the behavior of a regular user. If a company is interesting enough for users, then they will get more friends and goodwill will grow. A lot of goodwill in social media means that your sales through other channels increase, for example trough the company’s website.

Social Media Activities as Commercial Tool will Double!

I was nosing around on the Internet and I ended up on the news item ´2010: Extreme much marketing in social media´. The news claimed that two to three marketers reserve a larger proportion of the marketing budget for social media activities. This is according to the research by the American marketing company Alterian. Alterion questioned marketers in the world to their plans in the area of marketing strategies. Almost 40% of the respondents who want to invest in social media said that they dedicate around 20% of the traditional budget for activities on social media. These figures are remarkable because only 16% of the consumers indicate to be influenced by commerce into social networking, as you can see in my earlier post (28 februari 2010).
The marketing activities on social media in 2010 will double, because currently 36% of the marketers use social media as a method for direct marketing. Another interesting point is that 42% of them do not uses ´clickstreamdata´ in their customer database processing. By this circumstance they cannot measure the impact of the online campaigns in social websites. It seems that many marketers are influences by the hype of social media as a commercial tool. The questioned marketers labeled social media also as a prerequisite for success.

What do you think? Is this invested money wasted or will consumers be more open to commercial activities trough social media over time?