5 Heartbreaking Truths about Social Media Marketing

Sure social media platforms bring in heaps of opportunities for businesses to reach their target audience easily communicate with them and convert without much of the hassle. But it is in this hype that many people tend to overlook some truths- which eventually steer their social media marketing efforts to failure. 

If you’re working to expand your brand’s reach on social platforms like Baidu, Weibo, QQ and Twitter, here are 5 heartbreaking truths you must first know and understand.

1.       Competition on social media platforms is just too much

There are millions of brands on social media websites; many just like yours- offering the same products, services and at the same price tag. And there’s a war going on to capture the audiences’ attention and interest. You need to outstand this crowd to be more visible. 

2.       Popular platforms might not be suitable for your brand

Social media websites like Facebook and Weibo boast the largest user base. However, for your particular business type, they might not be very suitable. And this is something that many brands, with their ‘herd-like’ mentality, don’t want to see and care. If you’re target audience is young, college-going consumers, SnapChat and RenRen must be at the top of your priority list.

3.       Connecting and communicating with the audience is the most difficult part

Even when people start following your brand over social media platforms, communicating with them effectively is quite hard. Keeping them interested all throughout, conveying your message clearly and then converting them- all takes time and consistent effort.

4.       Blindly posting doesn’t help; a definite content strategy is needed

A good social media marketing approach must have a defined content strategy. Just blindly posting irrelevant stuffs, in the name of consistency, does more harm than good. You must be careful about what you’re posting, when you’re posting and how those posts are helping you achieve your business objectives. 

5.       “There is no free lunch”; Social PPC is very important for success

Spending in PPC ads even on social media websites has become a relevant part of marketing practise. Posts that have high return value- with a definite CTA- must be prioritized by the audience. And hence you must be ready to spend a decent amount in social Pay Per Click ads. 

These are the five truths about social media marketing that beginners must know and address in their overall approach. Or better, they should hire the best social media marketing companies for better result.

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3 Statistics That Can Change Your Marketing Approach In China (…For Ever!)

They say stats speak volume than observations and opinions of even the top experts. So today we bring 3 important statistics that can (and should) change your, or the approach of any good SEO and social media marketer in China for that matter. Here we go…

1.       Negative comments from your fans can tarnish your brand

In a recent survey by Tencent, it came out that 46 per cent of Male social media users and 30 per cent of female users in China don’t hesitate in leaving negative remarks against particular brand. Among many reasons why they would leave downbeat comments, the top one was “feel disgusted” with 76 per cent votes, followed by “disagree with the content” and “poor quality” with each 32.6 per cent and 28 per cent of votes respectively.  

If you really care about your brand image and reputation, you would know exactly how even a single negative comment can impact your business. Leading a cascading affect, the damaging remark will influence others and do exactly opposite of your business goals. 

So, given such a large portion of social media users are open to leave negative comments, you should be extra considerate and thoughtful as to what you post on your profile.

2.       Instant Messaging (IM) services over Social Media platforms

According to CNNIC, in the social application market, Instant Messaging has the highest usage rate of 90.7 per cent, followed by social networking with just 60.7 per cent. 

This clearly suggests that one should spend more of their time and resources marketing their brand, product or service on IMs like WeChat than on social network platforms. Although marketing on Instant Messaging platforms is a rather new thing for rookies, there do exist good B2B social media Asia based agencies that can help you capture the large and untapped consumer market.

3.       Weibo users don’t Interact with friends much comparatively

Given it is a social media platform- the biggest one in China to that- one would think that people use Weibo to make and interact with friends, but that’s not what the recent finding suggests. 

72 per cent of Weibo users use this platform to get trending news, 65.5 per cent to follow interesting contents and 59.7 per cent to get useful knowledge and help. Interestingly, only 38.3 per cent use Weibo to interact with friends.

These numbers mean 3 things- 

·         Your old and outdated posts (contents) are just as good as ‘nothing’.

·         The cliché marketing approach ‘act like their friend’ is no good on Weibo. 

·      Although the margin of difference is small, you are better off engaging your audience with INTERESTING contents than (over) KNOWLEDGEABLE contents.

These three are the important statistics that should (and must) change your digital marketing approach in order to get better conversion and ROI. But in case if you’re still clueless about what these numbers “really means”, we suggests you dial a good SEO and social media marketer in China right away.

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