With everyone consistently using social media sites more than ever before, 2013 may the year businesses rise to the challenge of converting social users into online shoppers. Brafton noted that the new year could see social media content’s coming of age.
With significant social media growth in 2012, professionals are still puzzled how they can utilize these networks to increase and drive revenue. Naturally, different companies have different experiences with social media and what is successful for one company isn’t always the case for another.
According to Brafton, , it may be more accurate to say that 2012 will become the year of social media maturation – it’s time to figure out how to use the channel to increase sales
According to StrongMail, financial investments in social media marketing will increase next year. Facebook marketing will experience a 39.6 percent uptick in spending, while 23.3 percent of brands plan to invest resources in Twitter. However, eMarketer recently published its “US Digital Media Usage: A Snapshot of 2013” report, which points out some potential areas where growth could occur online.
Brafton reported that in the United States Facebook has 146.7 million active users each month, which is nearly 60 percent of all internet users in the nation. While looking at emerging platforms for ecommerce purposes, like Pinterest, may be tempting, marketers may decide to dedicate time and resource to hone development on Facebook campaigns because of the site’s exponential growth.
With masses of social media users “Liking” or commenting on branded posts, the next piece to the puzzle involves business owners focusing on a way to drive sales in 2013.
The eMarketer study also revieled that online shoppers in 2012 increased by 2.9 percent to total 189.6 million consumers. Online buyers also increased, but by 4.2 percent, reaching 156.1 million. According to Brafton, Americans feel more confident in online shopping, and with Facebook becoming an increasingly trusted resource for news, entertainment and product discovery, Facebook commerce may be the big trend in 2013.
Source: Brafton
