ABSTRACT
Marketing analyst Michael Stelzner says that the top five advantages of social media marketing are increased exposure of organizations and brands; increased traffic to company properties, particularly websites; increased customer loyalty; enlightenment about consumer preferences; and lead generation for future sales. Research by Social Media Examiner shows that marketers prefer to use, in order, blogs and narratives, visuals, videos, live videos and podcasts for their social media marketing efforts. One goal of social media marketing messages is to gather information about consumers. Databases that store such information now drive much of marketing communication—and social media can be a highly effective tool for gathering facts about customers as well as potential customers. Social media marketers also need to join online, consumer-initiated conversations about their brands. New research shows that almost half of consumers say that social media reviews and comments affect their purchase decisions and their opinions about products.
