‘Does Social Media advertising work?’ makes very little sense as a question. Now it’s been answered

Is the argument here that social media advertising works because people are spending money on it?

There’s certainly no argument that the money is being spent. However, the real battleground here is conversions, even click through rates. That should be the determiner of whether or not it works, none of that information of which is provided here. And for sure Unilever may have great results but they have the money to buy a large share of advertising. How about small-medium businesses?

This guest post isn’t particularly useful.

If it doesn’t Simon, you might as well have started a business making typewriters.
Nice to have an article with some research though, rather some mealy-mouthed opinion.

Shouldn’t this argument be titled: ” Can social media be monetised?”

To say it ‘works’ would be more a discussion on whether people will sell your product for you through social media.
To which the answer seems to be they will if the product or service is good. Equally, they will damage your reputation if it’s a bad product/service. Actually it seems human nature is such that people are more likely to go to the effort to condemn a product rather than sing its praises. Social media is, after all, really just digital word of mouth.

Does social media work? Probably. How it works is less clear and this study fails to identify that.

“I didn’t have to tell them every way I got there,” Mr. O’Neal said. “It’s not about the data. It’s not about the analysis. It’s not about the tool. It’s about the question they asked: Does social activity represent an increase in my sales, and the answer is yes.”

This is hardly definitive evidence. And it’s important to note that’s there’s a big difference between correlation and causation. Still much work to be done.

Unilever spends $8 to 9 billion a year on advertising right? So being given ‘tens of millions’ is not much than their Christmas party budget.

So sure, social for them works in some capacity, but it’s a tiny, tiny part of their budget.

First I will declare I have a vested interest in this topic as a Director of 3W Social Media.

The use of social media infuluncers is nothing new. Celebrity’s have been endorsing products for years. Social Media has created a huge number of online celebrities who have invested significant time and energy it their online profiles and are starting to earn an income for their efforts.

Fraser T – I am crying.

Dear Fraser, I know it looks a little self-serving for a social media guy to trumpet social media. But I was driven to it by frustration, really. How would you feel if you were a manufacturer of hammers and you kept reading articles that claimed “hammers don’t work”?

And as far as your complaint that I produced no empirical evidence (Hmmm raises this also) you are quite right, I didn’t. Can’t do everything in one article! But the fact that Unilever – the bellwether of our industry – is satisfied with its own data is certainly significant, is it not?

You can make any sort of ad and pop it onto Facebook. But that won’t get you a load of comments, likes and shares. This is why content, not ‘advertising’ is ultimately the king on social. And yes, there is a difference.

Back to the beginning then? The jury is undecided….

Has anyone come across anyone who can effectively demonstrate a decent ROI from social
Media rather than a feel good feeling…hoping lots of people saw the message or took notice of it? I haven’t

Yes, I am happy to demonstrate decent ROI from Social Media Influencers, and to be very blunt anyone who engages Social Media Influencers without knowing ROI is not doing the right thing by their brand or the Social Media Influencer.

Professional Bloggers and Social Media influencers are business partners of the brands they represent, and as in any partnership the expectations need to be established upfront.

It has nothing to do with Likes, Regrams, or Followers. It is about people responding to a call to action in the posts.

Quality content costs money/time to produce, and both sides need to be very clear on what the campaign involves and the outcomes expected.

It is far easier to measure ROI on a Social Media Campaign then any TV or Print ads.

Remind me again, what’s the current market price for a thousand ‘likes’?

Does Yoga work?

I don’t do yoga, personally, but I know people who do yoga and they say they feel good about it – so they keep doing it.

The concept of something ‘working’ can’t really be the core of this question about Social Media effectiveness.

I would imagine Unilever have set up some clear objectives and found a way to use social media (amongst other platforms and mediums) to achieve them, Simon is right about this being a clue to some positive experience

It’s equally as lazy and uninformed to assume it WILL work for you as it is to dismiss it as NOT working for anyone.

“Does Social media advertising work?”

What you are really asking is “Does advertising work?” The answer is sometimes it does and other times it doesn’t. Certain ‘channels’ can work better for certain products or industries than others.

The GREAT thing about Social is that it is digital and therefore tracking response is possible.

Advertising must be used to flog crap products. For amazing products, it might not be needed, or can be needed to make them even more shiny and attractive.

My answer to ‘Does Social Media advertising work?’ would be: It can.

You want empirical evidence huh? Look social media advertising has been in use for rather a long time now – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter as examples of major platforms. Do you honestly think they would have persisted this long if they were not providing a return for customers?
It is difficult to imagine anyone involved with marketing or advertising these days not knowing that Social media advertising ‘works’.
There are marketers making enormous profits and driving ridiculous quantities of traffic to their web properties – I personally know this, and experience it daily.
social media advertising is a different skill set, this is why many traditional advertising people do not know how to make it work well. You have to know the idiom, and your customer very well!