The Social Media Bubble has burst? I don’t think so
The Next Web posted an article today that made me think – The Social Media Bubble has burst It made me think because that was a bit of an audacious title designed to grab attention – copywriting 101.
However, I think that the notion the bubble has burst based on the share price of Facebook is flawed. People seem to have forgotten that exactly the same thing happened when Google went to IPO, they had a ‘disappointing’ launch and for the subsequent month, the share price reflected that disappointment. But much like the over hyped launch of Facebook, Google’s stock then sky rocketed and since that 2004 event the shares have gone from launch value of $85 to, at the close of play yesterday $570. Admittedly we are talking 8 years on, but I would wager that Facebook will follow a similar trend.
Facebook isn’t going anywhere and with a database of 900,000,000 and growing, it is effectively selling the opportunity to access a proportion of your target market and laser pinpoint them. Facebook’s recent opening of an office in Dubai Internet City shows it’s intrigue in the Middle Eastern market and the plans for the upcoming years is to get as much advertising revenue out of this region as it’s still a couple years behind the curve when compared to the States, Europe and Australia. However, advertising is not their only strategy moving forwards. Much like many companies should be using their web presence to build their own databases so that they can market to them until they are no longer interested, joint ventures and affiliations with Facebook will enable them to add multiple revenue streams to their advertising revenue by selling other people’s complimentary products to their database.
Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimisation and Community Management are an integral piece of the online marketing jigsaw, using these methods correctly can lead to huge improvements in your company’s bottom line, but they have to be setup and utilised correctly, in tandem to all the other pieces of the jigsaw. An encompassing online marketing strategy will ensure that all your online endeavours are working hand in hand towards the same goal. One of the original Social Media Mavens was Perry Belcher and although his information is now by online standards considered ‘old’ – his Social Media Party Principle is still an accurate representation of what Social Media is and how it should be used.
