A recent survey by KPMG, an international professional services corporation and one of the four largest auditing organisations in the world, found that some British companies have been lagging in their use of social networking sites for commercial purposes. Although one survey should never be taken as conclusive evidence of a broad trend, the findings should spur on any enterprise missing out on the exploitation of ‘the social’ to change their ways.
At Searchengineoptimisation.co.uk, we perform a lot of social media optimisation. In contrast with some social media services, we always join up our work with effective onsite work. This enables us to capitalise on the targeted traffic which our efforts deliver.
The KPMG survey asked managers and employers in ten countries about how much they utilised social networking sites for marketing. They asked a sample of 1850 managers and in excess of 2000 employers to reply to the questions. The figures were surprising. If true, they do not bode well for Britain’s future competitiveness in the area. American companies were apparently much more likely to have embraced ‘the social’ than their British counterparts, while Chinese firms reported that they had taken up the challenge even more enthusiastically than the Americans.
In a country as big as China, the number of firms surveyed must have been a drop in the ocean. However, KPMG found that businesses in other emerging economic powerhouses had also been swift to get on the social ladder to success so the high score for Chinese businesses was not an isolated case. Doubtless, Indian and Brazilian firms have been quick to get involved because it is a cheap way of developing excellent connections with potential customers.
A social campaign does not deliver instant results. For one to be successful in a sustainable sense, a great deal of patience and skill is required. Proceeding without recourse to a professional consultancy would be an error. This is because of the big difference between personal and commercial behaviour on social networks. It is also the case that making the most of the opportunities out there is an increasingly complex task.
Just because a company is using a social network does not mean that it is using it effectively. There is thus the strong possibility that if British enterprises are behind they have the capacity to catch up. Furthermore, the social frontier is in constant motion. This year will see the further development of Google+. It seems unlikely that Facebook and Twitter will stay the same either. Hence the opportunities to get involved successfully are increased, provided one has the assistance of an experienced and skilled consultancy.
The social networks are useful for a range of things. Although campaigns should be site-specific, the networks are often exploited for similar reasons. High quality inbound links can be obtained from a successful campaign. Giveaways and offers can be advertised on the networks. A price reduction that is only mentioned in site content will not get the attention it will receive when highlighted on Facebook, for example. Ignorance of ‘the social’ can damage the prospects of a business.