Ben Uzor Jr
Slowly but definitely, social media are growing in popularity,
trying to replace the corporate websites of small, medium and multinational
businesses in Nigeria. Businesses are increasingly developing innovative social
media strategy to connect with and ultimately sell to customers. Before hand,
end users, suppliers, distributors and general merchant organisation
oftentimes, resort to web portals of their brands for fresh contents and
exclusive deals, however, nothing begging for attentions could be found on many
websites at present. But more importantly, the social media landscape – and the
technology – is constantly evolving, which, according to industry watchers should
make it easier for businesses to wrap their marketing plans around.
And just like the initial trend and subsequent evolution of
websites, industry watchers say businesses across the globe are figuring out
how to use social media as a customer acquisition tool. According to them, while
websites are not going away anytime soon, they may be the big loser to social
media. Jim Blasingame, a small business advocate believes websites have some
critical factors working against them. “Most are not easy for the typical owner
to update, which is increasingly important to customers. They don’t come with
their own community, nor help you build one. “One of the most troubling
statistics in the 16 years since the first commercial website is that half of Small
Medium Businesses (SMBs) still don’t have one.
“My prediction is that within three years, over half of small
businesses will have a social media presence, because this strategy comes with
both of the elements lacking in a website: easy to create and update, and
community-building tools. Folake Ani-Mumuney, head, marketing and corporate
communications at First Bank Nigeria Plc warned that in not too distant future
corporate websites will be replaced by their social media, fueled by more and
more consumers engaging in daily conversations, often involving brands, across
multiple applications, platforms and networks, wholly independent of these
sites. Ani-Mumuney made the remark at Brand Communication seminar held in Lagos
recently, stressing that most companies are giving up on the idea of a
brochure-ware website which serves as the information hub centre for a brands
attractiveness to customers and sustainability.
She said, although a brand is groomed to align with contemporary
dispositions in the society, as consumers’ conversations become increasingly
independent of corporate sites, falling traffic will render them ineffective in
their current form. In a lecture entitled, “Sustaining the Brand”, Ani-Mumuney
maintained that companies, “…may not necessarily morph information on your
brand to social media, rather you should make sure that necessary information
your customer will require is there anytime, because people would like to
access ort source for any information concerning your company or brand even
with their mobile phones. “So the very scope for a brand in this shifting
marketplace will be its core values and purpose.
“The strict definition, execution and adherence to values allows
for a brand to move without cannibalizing itself. “Corporate website is
supposed to serve the purpose as launch pads for outreach rather than
destinations for inbound interest. Their main role will be to constantly engage
consumers in conversation and actively control any misleading information about
the brand. Researches have shown that in the last seven years, the core of a
business’ online marketing program consisted of: a website, the customer
database and an email marketing program, perhaps, as de-facto plan for many
businesses as they appear, the platforms are not only waning in the shadow of
newer forms of communication, but quickly becoming antiquated models of
thinking.
Result of a Social Media Benchmark survey conducted by
business.com shows that 2948 businesses were involved in decentralization of
marketing plan. Over 40 percent indicated they maintained a social site
presence. Further more, among then are 1,197 respondents that indicated their
company maintained a profile on one or more social media sites, 8o per cent
maintain a Facebook presence and 56 per cent have a company account on Twitter.
The average company has a presence on three different social media sites,
announcing a big change in mentality and certainly a windfall to the online
marketer.
The head, marketing and corporate communications at First Bank
Nigeria Plc added that the focus of brand awareness at any given moment,
especially to the brand at large, a product launch, or some larger conversation
to which it is relevant should be a moving target driven by conversation flow,
engagement levels, technology tools and context. Before the advent of
ad-nauseam social media platforms, corporate communications, applications, and
on-line marketing and branding were perfected by organizations via websites,
with many businesses in the mid- to late 90′s paid mind-boggling amounts of money to have
their websites built to good salesmen at web companies mass producing
websites.
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