Speculation has been bubbling away for the last couple of years about how long social media can reign supreme.
A white paper written by Will Ashton, managing director of Alchemy Social and published in The Drum on 22nd February, states that the growth of social media users is now beginning to plateau. Whilst January’s issue of B2B Marketing Magazine reports on the less than wowing success of Google Plus (a new social media platform launched in 2011).
According to B2B Marketing Magazine, social media really took off in the early 2000s, with Twitter being the last in a run of site launches in 2006 (apart from Google Plus). The revolution has changed the way we advertise and has given public opinion a real voice. People drive marketing campaigns now, not brand managers!
At OTB we find that 12 years on, social media is still a new and baffling marketing tool for some of our clients. There are two camps – one that is switched on and gets it, and another that just don’t see the benefit – “how will it make us money?” they ask.
I think there will always be this divide, and even if the bubble is getting a bit thin at the edges, social media campaigns and the effects of social media will continue to influence the advertising industry for many years to come – just like Wonderbra’s Hello Boys ad!
