Lauren Williamson | @LaurenEW90 We’ve all had a moment like this.  We’re watching a commercial or even a television show or movie where the character stops, grabs a can of cola from one side only and takes a swig with the brand name prominently displayed.  Advertising can be as bold and blatant as a slap in the face.  But these days, companies are taking a different approach to getting their message to the masses, using social media.  The majority of people in the United States use some sort of social media almost every day.  Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or another site, social media is ruling the internet.

Companies are taking to social media as a way to integrate their messages more into the everyday lives of consumers.  Using social media, companies can slide posts right in the middle of your newsfeed.  But does more advertising means more profit?  That’s the question marketers are trying to answer, especially in the wake of promoted Facebook posts and sponsored tweets.

According to socialmediaexaminer.com, 65 percent of marketers plan to increase social media budgets, even if that means taking away funding from more traditional off-line marketing outlets.  The move makes sense considering social media reaches more people on the daily and most of the page functions on social media sites are currently free of charge.  Laying a solid foundation to your social media pages and making the most of the basic services sites offer can set up your company for success when it’s time to upgrade to paid services.  There are other sites available to make sure your company is getting the most out of the free social media services offered such as Google Alerts and SocialMention.

One of the downsides of social media marketing is that it can be difficult and confusing to determine reach and growth.  Basically, is this working or not.  Specifics that are used to determine effectiveness in other campaigns won’t work the same for social media campaigns and, therefore, companies will need to determine new standards to judge their social media by.  For example, linking posts back to a main website that users can enter email information into can be one way to judge social media effectiveness.

Overall, social media marketing and campaigns are still in the trial-and-error phase.  But one thing is for sure, if you’re not active on social media, you can be positive that your competitors will be.

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