The 11th of January marked the day that many SME’s dreaded especially those who relied on their organic reach on Facebook to drive their brand awareness and gain traffic to their pages. ?
Mark Zuckerberg has finally put his foot down and putting Facebook users first and company’s pages last. What’s worse, if your content does not stimulate engagement Facebook’s algorithm will flag your post as irrelevant and will stop showing your page’s content all together! In other words, if you don’t use paid Facebook ads, your posts and your company’s page will disappear into the abyss and become obsolete. ?
Yet, with over 16 million active users in South Africa (staff writer, 2017), Facebook is still the best place to your business ?. With that said, it’s beneficial for SME’s to incorporate other Facebook Marketing strategies to increase their brand awareness, like using Social Media Influencers (SMI). Considering Scott Cook’s popular quote, “a brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is”, SMI’s have a higher chance of creating meaningful conversations and raising interest around your Product/Service. SMI’s are also much more affordable than using well-known celebrity brand ambassadors as SMI’s are more relatable to their followers. Plus, if you’re looking to get your event or latest product offering to trend on Twitter, SMI’s are the best way to get the ball rolling and get their users on the bandwagon. The challenge that comes with using SMI’s is ensuring that their values, lifestyle & persona resonates with your brand’s values or else negative associations will develop.
What are your thoughts on using Social Media Influencers?
