Recently, the social media like facebook and twitter are becoming popular. The meditation retreat has tried to advertise on facebook. Since facebook can filter the target to specific audience. There are about 4000 people who are interested in meditation and Buddhism in Sydney alone on facebook. The retreat limited budget to $5 a day on trial advertise on facebook.. The result of advertising on facebook has increased in number of visit from 705 (on period 24/01/10-23/02/10) to 917 (on period 24/03/10-23/04/10) which is about 30% increasing
Number of visits (on period 24/01/10-23/02/10) before using facebook advertise
Number of visits (on period 24/03/10-23/04/10) when using facebook advertise
From the statistic it seems that facebook advertising can add up the number of visit. However, the cost for facebook advertising is comparatively high about $150/month which is not good in return on investment. The Middle Way Meditation retreat may consider terminating the trial soon later. The other choice that the retreat can do is forming a group of the past participants on social network to help in spreading the word around to their network friends which will cost nothing.
Take this result as example, the marketer who use online shop or web site still have in mind that the powerful search engine like google still bring a lot of customers to their site. While social media may give more chance to reach the target audience by the filtering facility which is good for the narrow target audience.
Reference
http://www.dhammakaya.org.au/retreatThe statistic provide by Google tools.
Satisfied customers may go on Facebook and advertise the business in their own time, and spread good word of mouth. Not all of them will, but some will. So providing a positive experience business wise and advertising on facebook, can eventually create people who voluntarily endorse the brand on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteGrish
Shebley say…
ReplyDeleteI do agree Psatit but don’t you think that through the search engine, it will “open up the door” to other similar products and services by other companies, organizations or manufacturers to the audience? For example, I am looking for a handmade acoustic guitar “Brand A” which I found out that it is available at Sheb’s Music Store. Through the search engine, I found more than 100 music stores that sell it but with different prices and Sheb’s Music Store appeared on page 7 of the search engine.
While moving from one search result to another, I might not end up browsing Sheb’s Music Store website because my interest now has changed to Psatit Guitar House (on page 2) which has more guitar choices. Psatit Guitar House indirectly is killing Sheb’s Music Store business without any intention. However, the search engine has given me more alternatives and choices in gratifying my purchasing power. It gives more benefits to the audience/consumers but not to the marketers. Nevertheless, by promoting the products and services on the social networking channels, marketers are able to direct the audience attention directly to their page.