Social Networks Seek to Further Monetise Social Media Marketing

‘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.