October 26, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook seem to be just as reviled as they are popular. But with millions of users signing in every day, their marketing potential is undeniable — even if many efforts to leverage that potential have failed miserable (and annoyed a ton of people in the process). So, the question still has merit: Can you really use these sites to improve your online marketing spend, or are you just wasting your time by indulging in today’s current fads?
Well, for the most part, experts will tell you that they are indeed worthwhile, if you use them intelligently (and with restraint). They may not be the best places to create a brand, but put a somewhat already-familiar brand on there, and you can leverage some big-time traffic.
According to a recent article in eGaming Review, the best advantage of these social media sites is that they provide "marketers with the perfect opportunity to gain exposure for their brand and products by setting them up to become a constant live presence, communicating directly with their demographic and allowing for their followers and friends to communicate back."
“Messages sent out through a social media channel such as Twitter go directly to the brand’s followers,” states the article. “This proves to be a much more efficient and powerful form of marketing, resulting in higher brand exposure, to the right people, which leads to a better conversion rate.”
The article backs up the claim with a success story: It tells the tale of EGR’s own online gaming portal, which, through the use of Twitter, has experienced a traffic increase of 50% after a single month of use. (Read the article here.)
That’s the kind of percentage most Internet marketers would be more than happy with. And the best part is that Twitter is free, easy to use, and doesn’t take much labor to utilize efficiently.
No, this is not a commercial for the website, which has its downside, as well — for starters, it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the pointless minutiae that the site produces. As a time-waster, the site has few rivals. But for the smart marketer, it remains an opportunity unlike any other, the benefits of which perhaps aren’t even yet fully understood.