‘Free’ social media marketing is becoming increasingly marginalised as the leading social networks seek to monetise their marketing services, claims The Guardian.
The article follows news that Twitter will soon become a ‘pay-to-play’ network in the manner of Facebook, charging firms and marketing teams to use certain services.
However, brands are beginning to find that paid-for social media marketing – such as that provided by the likes of Facebook – is becoming less effective. Organic reach is increasingly difficult to come by, with a 2013 survey by Forrester revealing that Facebook offers less value to businesses than any other digital marketing platform.
Twitter is likely to go down a similar route. Changes to the Twitter algorithm are expected to move the social network away from a real-time feed and instead use a number of factors to promote certain specific tweets to users. It is feared that the algorithm will prioritise paid-for marketing tweets over more organic content.
So, if free social media marketing is on its last legs and paid-for social media marketing isn’t offering value for money, is it time for brands to abandon the social networks? Not necessarily, According to the same Guardian article, the top 1% of brands’ Facebook pages are able to reach 82% of their fans. The trick is to follow the lead of the top brands and create truly effective digital marketing strategies.
Ian Kirk
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