Social media power grows –Ralph
ABOOM in social media marketing globally has forced many local businesses to shift gears towards coupling traditional forms of advertising with Internet-based platforms with hope of boosting attention and, inevitably, profits.
Social media has changed global interaction and doing business. Jamaicans account for more than 700,000 Facebook profiles, placing it high in the ranking of countries in the region for the most usage.
It is estimated that 40 per cent of the world population, around 3 billion people, actively use social media. Of that number, 74 per cent are believed to be influenced by social media when making purchasing decisions. Therefore, businesses became compelled to add social media analytics to their marketing and communications strategies to effectively measure consumer perception of brands.
Big companies go as far as using social media influencers, and it is estimated that every dollar spent on influencer marketing, around US$6.50 is earned.
On the most recent airing of The Exchange, a business forum by The Gleaner and the Jamaica News Network, regional product manager for Yellow Media Group Carou Ralph told the programme’s host, Neville Graham, that the company had been rebranded to keep up with the times.
Formerly the Yellow Pages, Yello now serves its customers with physical copies of their directory to complement its online services.
“Social media is where conversation is happening and the conversation is influencing people’s behaviour. If you can’t, things could lead to customer churn because conversations can become negative. It is just an evolution and not about doing one thing over the other, but identifying the audience and the right message to put in front of the audience,” Ralph explained.
PROBLEM SOLVER
Kemal Brown, chairman of Global Digital Marketing, another guest on the programme, along with Ralph and Conrad Mathison, described social media marketing as a problem solver that has “helped businesses to scale and have global awareness”.
He said: “The narrative has to be widened. When you look at social media and digital marketing on a wide spectrum, you are talking about attention and influence. The business community is trying to inorganically and organically increase the attention that respective businesses are getting. Attention means brand awareness to a respective problem that someone is having and when you provide a solution to that problem, which is what an ad allows”.