There’s bad news for businesses counting on their ads on social media sites to DIRECTLY affect their sales. Mark Dolliver of Adweek says that a recent study by Knowledge Networks has shown that “just 16 percent of the social-media users surveyed said they’re more inclined to buy brands that advertise on social sites.” The good news though is that majority of social media users agree that seeing the ads is ok with them and even consider it a “fair price” to pay for their being able to use the social media sites for free. The even better news is that more and more users are using social media sites more frequently, which means more exposure for advertisers.
So what does this mean for advertisers? It simply means that you shouldn’t really count on social media site ads to get much direct sales. Instead the goal should be more focused on increasing brand awareness. Furthermore it would be a good idea to dabble on other ways to make use of social media to help your business aside from paid ads. Make use of the social aspect and actually create an account for your business that you can use to interact with your clients. Remember the major benefit of social media is because it is SOCIAL, which means relationships. It’s not about how many people look at your ads but how many people end up customers but how many customers end up having a greater appreciation for your brand and how many of them start talking about your business to their friends.
