[reh321]

There is a local success story here with a company that started out selling software to monitor a client's digital presence, but discovered the real money was in feeding the monster with tailored content (basically a bunch of university students writing tweets and Facebook posts part-time). Do you actually get business from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook et al, or is it just a way to maintain appearances? I did a special project for credit in my final year of university, doing a marketing study of Telidon a decade before anyone heard of the World Wide Web, but I look at the trillions of digital messages being transmitted today and I see nothing but noise in all four dimensions. My customers are swimming in communications, trying to keep from drowning, in an industry that has literally run on nuts, bolts and rubber for a century. I have no idea how anyone can properly market in a "soft" industry.

I have asked similar questions about the value of getting people to "like" a company on FaceBook {or even LinkedIn}; what does the "liked" company actually gain? Is there documented gain, or is the primary gain in the morale of the company being "liked'?

[Phroon]

I have asked similar questions about the value of getting people to "like" a company on FaceBook {or even LinkedIn}; what does the "liked" company actually gain? Is there documented gain, or is the primary gain in the morale of the company being "liked'?

If you like a page on Facebook that means that some of the posts they make will show up on your news feed. So they primarily gain more eyeballs on their marketing.

[H. Sapiens]

I have asked similar questions about the value of getting people to "like" a company on FaceBook {or even LinkedIn}; what does the "liked" company actually gain? Is there documented gain, or is the primary gain in the morale of the company being "liked'?

Obviously, If the company makes interesting content users actually care to watch and read they have an open line to their customers. Who don't want that? Secondly, social media interactivity feeds back to search engines, meaning better search results. Pentax seems to recognize they have to be there (FB, Instagram etc.) but I suspect they hire a company to make a campaign and then don't follow up. This is good for the companies they hire but helps Pentax very little as Google and other search engines want to see persistence. It is as close to throwing money out the window as it gets.

Creating interesting content on a regular basis is, as Monochrome writes, something which requires dedication. While creating sexy content is very hard in many fields (attorneys and undertakers face some challenges) it would of course be possible for Pentax, having access to images from all over the world, they could create guides and tutorials and so on. I have noticed several of their competitors are active doing this form of content marketing.

[johnmflores]

This is why social media is important:

Thanks to “Damn, Daniel” white Vans had a great quarter - Quartz
https://apple.news/AAzEwbldzSqWFrK__JTs1NA

Instagram and Snapchat skew younger than Facebook, which is now the social media of old people. If Ricoh wants to reach the next generation of photographers they need a strong presence there. If I were them I'd be pushing the Theta hard there.

[monochrome]

Do you actually get business from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook et al, or is it just a way to maintain appearances?

You have to understand the uses of each platform, set your expectations to match them and take your specific actions to maximize that response.

• Twitter is not a commercial space. It is a political echo chamber. It has become angry and hateful. I removed the Profile and history.
• Instagram is not a commercial space for service businesses, but can work for retail, where seeing a product matters
  • .Using Instagram to announce the USA K-1 delivery date was effective
• Facebook is to get your brand in as many feeds as possible, daily, repetitively. Image and name recognition is #1, brand messaging #2. You want to build a following. You exploit that with announcements and contests. Selling happens independently.
  • The K-1 contest kept Pentax and K-1 in daily feeds all over the world for months. I don't use Facebook any more.
• YouTube is a product selling platform. It works very well for hard items because you can demonstrate them. It is closest to traditional television commercials. My son demonstrated products on YouTube and produced 4:00 minute videos.
• Snapchat can be used effectively to sell retail products, especially On Sale items. Again, it is a Follower-building platform with repetitive impressions as the primary goal. It is personality-driven.
• LinkedIn is not for selling - it is for impressions, content delivery and approaching potential customers (in other people's networks) directly. The size and quality of my primary network is extremely important; then I mine the contacts in my Followers' networks, and each of those, and so on.
  • The most effective post I ever made in terms of views, forwards, comments and Invitations to join members' Networks (that is the Golden Key) was an article I licensed rating the toughest 37 Golf Courses in the world. Two years later I still get response to that post. I contact every single person that touches that article and ask to Join their Network. Then they get my feed. Some of them have become good customers, some are sources of referrals, some just have interesting networks - but they're all good.

[gaweidert]

Never had any of these newfangled things. Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Anything else I am missing out on? I have had one for about 4 years, but it was a company phone and of more a pain in the neck than anything else. Since today is the first official day of my retirement I went out and got iPhone 5c's for the wife and I yesterday. I finally convinced her that she may just like to upgrade to a smart phone. When I got them set up I sent a text to our kids telling them that mom now had a smart phone and they blew up her phone with texts kidding her about it. I had to tell her what an emoji was. She finally decided that smart phones were not that bad after all.

Like it or not, in the new economy, most of the disposable income is in the hands of old farts like me who saved up for retirement for almost 40 years. We don't use a lot of things like twitter etc. When we want to talk to someone we call the person or go visit them. I would rather read a newspaper or magazine than be subjected to the visual and verbal assaults that result if you go onto any of the so called "news" web site.

[chibae]

I find Facebook to be effective for marketing in my area. I do livestock portraits and am on the areas farmers pages where members buy and sell livestock, discuss upcoming shows, share husbandry tips, etc. I create content on my business page and then "share" it to the farmer's groups.
Many of those in those groups have show stock, children in 4-H, etc. This keeps my name "out there" among the very people I hope to have as future clients. It does bring me bookings and really is just another form of networking.

[monochrome]

Many of those in those groups

Direct marketing to interest 'Groups' can be effective. There isn't a natural interest Group for my business. :0

[RGlasel]

The most effective post I ever made in terms of views, forwards, comments and Invitations to join members' Networks (that is the Golden Key) was an article I licensed rating the toughest 37 Golf Courses in the world. Two years later I still get response to that post.

Financial services industry, right? Congrats, you hit a home run with an article that would be highly interesting to people who need high value financial services and two years ago you were still ahead of the herd. I can't avoid LinkedIn, but I ignore every notification that isn't a request from a long lost work colleague. I don't need spam from lazy headhunters or mindless "clickbait" articles shared by someone who didn't last six months with one of my customers. One difference is my industry is mature, with very few new entrants, either as vendors or clients. New business comes from fulfilling promises my competitors couldn't keep. YMMV.

[monochrome]

. Me too - I truly dislike unsolicited approaches.

I accept LinkedIn contacts by referral and make new introductions by referral only. I ask someone in my Network to introduce me to those people I've identified (such as those people who 'touched' a post) - i.e my employee actually sends the prepared message to the Contact.

Same with new clients - only by referral, and I choose whether a new relationship will be a good fit.

I'm not a stockbroker, and it isn't a typical financial service.

LinkedIn is for research and communicating with my Network - people who know me and look for my posts; my comments were to explain that success on social media requires more than a secretary posting a photo now and then.

[Zygonyx]

...which was quite demonstrative, thank you