It has been just under 30 years since the first ever website was created. In this short amount of time the way business approach marketing has changed drastically. The mass popularity and availability of social media platforms has provided businesses with opportunities to promote their services and products like never before.
In 2020 there are over 4.5 billion people using the internet; with 3.8 billion of these people being part of a social network. These numbers seem too good to be true, and they are, the huge consumer base on these platforms does not mean that a business can attract all those people.
As time progresses the likelihood of individuals actually clicking on a paid advertisement decreases whilst they are browsing on not only their social accounts but also the internet as a hole. Studies finding that 17% of millennials never intentionally click on ads and as little as 2% click on them very often (Kats, 2017)
Although I have made it seem like social media marketing is not effective, in reality, its the complete opposite. The ABS has found that 1 in 3 businesses have a social media presence (ABS, 2015). This social presence would not be so common if it wasn't effective in achieving the goals of a business.
You may be asking yourself - "but how is social media marketing useful?" - and the honest answer is that it's useful in literally every single aspect of its existence, even after considering the downsides I just mentioned. Marketing through social media may not attract everybody but it sure as hell attracts a lot more people than traditional forms of marketing such as a newspaper or a billboard. For example the previously mentioned 2% of millennials who regularly click on ads, is a significantly larger amount of people who are viewing your advertisements than the amount of people who may happen to see your billboard on their morning commute (especially when you consider the literal BILLIONS of people who have social media accounts).
Social media marketing has been around for a couple decades, is the most effective form of marketing currently and almost certainly will rule the future of marketing.
Thanks For Reading
Thanks for your time. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below.
Blog #1 of 7
In response to another question;
If I was to own a business I would have elements of both traditional and social media marketing present. But I would 100% favour social media marketing.
if you were to own a business, would you favour social media marketing or traditional marketing?
I can't reply to comments individually. So, thank you to everyone who commented.
http://info.cern.ch/ <= this site gives you a look at the first website if anyone is interested
Ive always assumed the first ever website would of been created a lot more recently
Great blog! I’m not surprised that almost nobody clicks on pop up ads