“Brands are not finding a true business model on Facebook and social networks. Why? What are the dangers of a strategy focused on Facebook? How to monetize Social Marketing? Social media platforms have multiplied over a decade? What impact does this have on Facebook?
Social media as an advertising tool for 2023 continues to be popular despite the decline in consumer trust in these media, according to Integral Ad Science, a specialist in evaluating digital media quality and brand safety. Specifically, 91% of marketing executives plan to advertise on social platforms in 2023. It is worth noting that mobile remains a crucial priority for nearly half of media experts. Indeed, consumers spend 4.5 hours a day on their mobile devices. The study also notes a growing demand for advertising in CTV (Connected TV). Nearly half of media experts (44%) say that CTV and online video have the highest potential for innovation in 2023.
Corporate Communication without ROI or a true business model?
The goal of marketing is to offer the right product or service to the right person at the right time, at the right price, while generating maximum satisfaction, loyalty, and value for customers and, consequently, for the company. Therefore, marketing is inherently “ROI-driven,” which pragmatically implies knowing how much it costs and how much it brings in, as it is based on customer relations.
The advent of social marketing is a logical continuation of relationship marketing. Provided, of course, that one can “engage” the relationship with customers or fans of the brand in an online space controlled by the brand but benefiting its users, and even owned by its users. Like relationship marketing, social marketing must be interactive, precise, measurable, and ROI-bearing. Indeed, it is not pure corporate communication or online advertising. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, advertisers dogmatically explained to us that the media were noble and that “non-media” was for soup sellers, mail-order companies, and merchants of the temple. Unfortunately for the advertising world, the numbers logically reversed, and the share of “non-media” spending is now overwhelming (63.7% versus 36.3%).
Beware of fuzzy indicators that do not bear ROI. Of course, corporate communication apostles, unconverted to the benefits of CRM and its profitability, will find a thousand pretexts to encourage advertisers to invest in social networks. To do this, the impossible-to-measure ROI on social networks will not be mentioned, but the “qualitative” benefits, word-of-mouth, image, e-reputation, and visibility will be praised. So be it, Facebook and X (Twitter) as media have undoubtedly acquired power, but they are not engagement platforms.
Facebook: for advertisers
As an advertiser, a brand can choose the best placement in a print magazine, the most suitable for its targets, the most read, the most beautiful medium. By paying for a full-page ad there, where needed, you certainly have no guarantee of profitability, but well, it’s advertising. A beautiful ad, in a beautiful magazine, with a top-notch placement. Image, notoriety, word-of-mouth… Thus, unless the support agency has gone mad, no competitor will pollute the page opposite your insertion, and presumably, the (independent) editorial staff will not write any disparaging articles about your brand.
Capturing the interest of potential consumers on Facebook is no small feat, as Facebook on one side charges advertisers for it, and dearly, and in the same move, Facebook does everything to distract them: videos, family photos, and friends, messages on your wall, chat messages, news feed, list of your online friends…
Facebook, its numbers
With 2.989 billion users worldwide as of April 2023, including 40 million in France, Facebook is the most widely used social network globally. With 17 billion monthly visits, Facebook is the 3rd most visited site globally, after Google and YouTube. The average age of Facebook users is 32. Facebook ads potentially reach 41% of the world’s population.
In France, 96% of people log into Facebook using their mobile, and 62% log in only via their mobile. Also, 38.9% of Facebook users are over 45 years old, and nearly 60% are over 35. Through Facebook, marketers can reach a potential audience of 2.25 billion individuals. 62% of people say their interest in a product increased after seeing it in a Facebook video. The average engagement rate for Facebook pages is 28.3%.
Accumulating “Likes” on your brand page is also not a source of ROI unless you interact with contacts. To do this, nothing beats seducing and attracting them to an online proprietary space, a place of assistance for consumers, clients, users, and fans of the brand…
Facebook is a real Business Model for… Facebook!
Advertisers must therefore rethink Digital and integrate their economic imperatives with profitability in mind, using key performance indicators less ethereal than those of our dear advertisers—who earn a commission on advertising space sold but are rarely incentivized based on the actual profitability of your digital campaigns.
Towards brand communities
To be profitable, social marketing must be mastered by brands. They must develop dedicated spaces nurtured by customers, fans, or superfans. A space 100% controlled by the brand but serving customers, including mutual assistance forums, blogs, idea boxes, and other conversational modes whose architecture evolves according to the needs of customers, high-value-added advice between peers, multimedia content, all in your colors, with the brand’s DNA.
This space of assistance—or brand community—dedicated to your fans allows them to find specific answers to generic problems (non-personal or confidential), benefiting from real-time support. Be careful not to confuse with “enhanced” blogs or brand forums that are not interfaced with CRM and therefore not ROI-generating.
It is therefore your fans, superfans, best customers, brand ambassadors who breathe life into the community, animate it, nurture it, make it evolve, and do so in exchange for recognition, a real status, an enriched and unique Customer experience.
