How Social Media is changing the face of Marketing | Teresa Heath-Wareing | TEDxTelford

Summary

The speaker expresses her enthusiasm for social media's role in transforming marketing, highlighting its rapid evolution and global reach. Starting from her own journey in 2004, she discusses the industry's growth and the shift from traditional marketing to a more interactive and personalized approach. She emphasizes the impact of social media on communication, customer service, and research, showcasing examples like Tesco Mobile's Twitter use and influencer marketing. The talk concludes with predictions for future trends, such as AI chatbots and personalized advertising, asserting that social media's influence is just beginning.

Takeaways

• 🎯 The speaker has been passionate about social media since the inception of Facebook in 2004 and sees it as a transformative tool in marketing.
• 🌐 Social media has become the fastest moving industry, allowing businesses to find and grow audiences globally.
• 📈 The speaker emphasizes the importance of businesses taking social media seriously, beyond just having a presence, to truly leverage its potential.
• 📱 The rise of social media has changed communication, with platforms offering innovative ways to connect, such as emojis, filters, and live streaming.
• 🗣️ Businesses now use social media for customer service, making it easier for customers to get quick responses to their issues via platforms like Twitter.
• 🔍 Social media has become a powerful research tool, allowing marketers to gather insights directly from consumer groups and feedback.
• 🎨 Marketers have had to evolve, becoming content creators to engage audiences through blogs, podcasts, and videos.
• 📊 Facebook's advertising platform allows for highly targeted marketing based on personal data, revolutionizing the reach and effectiveness of ads.
• 📈 Internet advertising spend has surpassed TV advertising spend, indicating a significant shift in marketing budgets towards digital platforms.
• 🌟 Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful way to reach audiences, with influencers capable of significantly impacting sales, as seen with Zoella's book club.
• 🔥 The potential for content to go viral can rapidly accelerate a business, as demonstrated by the Dollar Shave Club's YouTube video that led to a surge in orders.

Q & A

What is the speaker's excitement about being at TEDx attributed to?

The speaker is excited for two reasons: having a TEDx talk on her vision board since its creation and the theme 'not business as usual' aligning well with her industry of social media.

What does Mike Stelzner, head of Social Media Examiner, say about the social media industry?

Mike Stelzner states that social media is the fastest moving industry in the world.

How does the speaker describe her experience with traditional marketing in her first job?

The speaker's first job as a marketing assistant involved mundane tasks like franking letters for direct mail campaigns and sending fax campaigns, which was not what she expected after learning marketing theories at university.

What were the two main problems the speaker faced when she started her own social media business?

The two problems were that everyone seemed to be doing social media without the level of expertise she wanted, and businesses did not take social media seriously, often assigning it to the youngest person in the office without understanding its marketing significance.

What is the main aim of the speaker's business when she started it?

The main aim was to educate and teach businesses not just to do social media, but to love and appreciate its potential in marketing.

What is the estimated number of Internet users as of 2018, according to the speaker?

As of 2018, there are approximately 4.1 billion Internet users, which is 54 percent of the globe's population.

How has social media changed the way we communicate, according to the speaker?

Social media has encouraged sharing everything with the world, opened up new ways of communication like emojis, bitmojis, face filters, and live streaming, and has changed business-to-customer communication by using platforms like Twitter for customer service.

What is the significance of Facebook's advertising platform for marketers, as mentioned by the speaker?

Facebook's advertising platform allows for highly targeted advertising based on personal details like age, sex, location, salary, job title, family status, and interests, making it a powerful tool for marketers.

What is the role of 'influencer marketing' in reaching large audiences, as described in the script?

Influencer marketing involves individuals with a large social media following who collaborate with businesses to promote products and messages, significantly impacting sales, as exemplified by Zoella's book club increasing book sales by 1100%.

What is the impact of going viral on a business, as illustrated by the Dollar Shave Club example?

Going viral can rapidly accelerate a business, as seen with Dollar Shave Club, which received over 12,000 orders within 48 hours of posting a viral video and has since reached 25 million views.

What future developments in social media marketing does the speaker anticipate?

The speaker anticipates more personal marketing through AI chatbots, advancements in online shopping experiences, and the continuation of social media's growth and impact on marketing.