Radius Global Official Blog

A vision without a proper plan and action is nothing. Give your business a winning edge this year by figuring out certain areas for improvement. We must focus on new and most productive ways of marketing of our products and services to achieve our objectives and goals in a most efficient and effective manner.

We all know that online marketing is the most cost effective and result-oriented medium of marketing today. Considering this fact, social media marketing is the best of all. So, this blog is all about social media marketing. I would like to answer the question of most of my peers that, “Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since Industrial Revolution?”

It’s a fact that social media is the easiest to justify in terms of ROI as compared to other marketing strategies. Let me quote some figures here first:

• According to the experts, “Generation Y” will outnumber “Baby Boomers” in year 2010. Out of them, 96% have already joined social networks.
• Interesting thing to know that, 1 out of 8 couples married in USA last year met through social networks.
• Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months. It means if Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest right after United States.
• 80% of the companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• 80% of twitter usage is through mobile devices. It means people love to update anywhere, anytime.
• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles.
• There are over 200,000,000 blogs on internet today. And above 50% of the bloggers post content or tweet daily, like me.
• About 80% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.
• Only 18% of the traditional TV ads generate positive ROI.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook daily.
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.

People say social media is the word of mouth. It’s not the word of mouth; it’s the world of mouth in fact. I believe that today, people care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them. In current era we no longer search for news, the news finds us no matter where we are. Similarly, in near future, we no longer search for new products and services. They will automatically find us via social media.

So, social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It’s not an economy, it’s a people driven economy rather. So we must admit here that social media is not a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It’s definitely a biggest shift since Industrial revolution.

Following are some of my guidelines for successful social media marketing in 2010:

• Remember successful social media marketing programs involve listening and participation by audience.
• Beware of the fact that you are not the controller of the message. It’s always people driven communication.
• Always welcome participation, feedback and co-creation. Let people speak their own words and point of views.
• Don’t let people to change the road map. Focus should be on final objectives.
• Be patient and humble.
• Be optimistic and opportunistic.
• Be collaborative.
• Being fake is an evil.
• Don’t focus on just one social media network.
• Not listening to your audience is a crime.
• Never go against the rules of social networks.
• Excessive push strategy is a bad strategy.