Social Media Marketing Services
The social media marketing services sector is a constantly evolving space where new trends and technologies emerge every month. The social media marketing services market is also highly competitive, with hundreds of digital agencies competing to win the business of big brands that have become increasingly reliant on social networks as part of their online presence.
In addition, new entrants into the marketplace are improving their chances of success by offering innovative solutions based on emerging trends like content marketing, SEO, and local search. This report will provide an overview of this area to help you develop your strategy to capitalize on current developments in this field and make it more efficient.
Social Media Marketing Services, Market Overview
There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of social media marketing agencies in recent years. This has been fueled by a sharp rise in demand for social media management services among companies attempting to create a more efficient presence on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
The number of digital marketing agencies offering these kinds of services has increased from 250 to 400 year-on-year between 2009 and 2011, according to internetretailer.com, which is attributed to growing awareness of social media’s importance as an interactive, inexpensive communication channel that facilitates two-way dialogue between customers and brands.
A survey conducted by Econsultancy last year suggested that the sector may have further room for growth, too, with ninety percent of marketers saying they were planning on increasing their budgets for social media marketing over the next twelve months.
However, it is important to note that there has been a significant increase in supply but not an equivalent rise in demand, which could lead to an undercutting of social marketing prices and fierce competition between agencies. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to stand out from their rivals and win lucrative contracts as they try and find new ways to differentiate their services.
The continual evolution of technology appears to be one way in which social media marketing agencies can try and stay ahead of the competition and remain competitive at the same time. There have been numerous developments in this area lately, with Twitter recently entering into a partnership with Facebook search engine Bing so users can discover trending topics both inside and outside of Twitter in a much easier manner.
Another development has been social media marketing solutions that allow small businesses to market their services via Facebook and other networks without running different websites. This is being facilitated by new technologies, such as the launch of an app by Go Network that allows brands to create interactive mobile apps using existing Facebook pages to reach a wider audience.
Social Media Marketing Market Size
The global social media marketing services market was estimated at $3,450 million in 2011, according to Technavio, which provides research and consulting on information technology markets. It predicts that this figure will increase at a CAGR of 28% until 2016 when it is expected to be worth around $7,990 million.
Another study by socialmediatoday.com produced much higher figures which suggested that the size of this market could be around $8billion in 2013. However, these figures are not supported by any third-party sources and hence appear to have been significantly overstated to be worth considering at this stage.
Social Media Marketing Market Segments
There are numerous segments within the social media marketing agency sector, including brand management, campaign development & execution, content creation & curation, and customer relationship management. The majority of the world’s biggest brands use agencies with a portfolio of services ranging from social media training to creative design solutions so they can get the most out of their online presence on social networks and other digital channels.
Social Media Marketing Trends
Trends in 2012 have included the increasing popularity of video marketing due to the launch of Facebook’s video tagging feature, which allows users to add videos onto any page or profile that they upload without having to use YouTube first. This has opened new opportunities for social media agencies as brands attempt to build awareness of their services more efficiently than before by creating smaller, more highly shareable clips rather than long-form content.
Another major trend is the need for increased security when implementing these kinds of solutions at companies with several large firms, including LinkedIn, Volkswagen, and Adobe, recently becoming victims of hackers attempting to access private information through their social media pages.
Social Media Marketing Conclusion
As social media marketing is an increasingly popular set of services to provide, there are many different agencies out there with very similar offerings that will be competing for your business soon. It is, therefore, essential that you run a comprehensive search to make sure that the agency you decide on has the skills and expertise required to meet all of your requirements before entering into any contract or deposit agreement. Doing this will significantly increase the chances of finding a solution that genuinely works and produces actual results.
