Social Media and Digital Marketing

Through the significant expansion of the web and the constant increase of users and future technologies, digital marketing has become more and more important to business' due to the scope of communication available around the world. Social media has had a huge part in this instantaneous communication between B2B and/or B2C consumers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on, have had major roles in the digital marketing world. Gian Fulgoni from comscore.com stated that 'social media has just eclipsed portals in share of time spent on the Internet. In November Facebook attracted 150 million unique visitors in the U.S. alone while accounting for 10% of total minutes spent online. But it’s not just Facebook that comprises social: In the same month in the U.S., LinkedIn attracted 41 million monthly unique visitors, Twitter saw 40 million, Google+ attracted 29 million, while Pinterest and Instagram each received more than 25 million visitors' (http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The-Top-Ten-Burning-Issues-in-Digital#socialmedia). This further reiterates the the potential success that digital marketing can have through social media. With the explosion in consumers’ use of social networks, marketers are wrestling with the challenge of how to best utilise these channels to communicate with consumers. In many cases, social holds the promise of word of mouth persuasion achieved at scale (http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The-Top-Ten-Burning-Issues-in-Digital#socialmedia)

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Though in saying that some question whether we are being further bombarded with marketing and advertising. We have been so exposed to marketing and advertising that we don't recollect what billboards we have seen or the many bus advertisements have drove past. Now due to the technology of the internet we are consistently being marketed to whilst at home, indoors, on the internet and/or Facebook. Now to the point where we are becoming oblivious to online marketing too. Laura Lake from about.com mentions that 'I was following this company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS Feed. I was receiving close to 5 to 7 communications daily about upcoming events. Perhaps that doesn't seem like a lot but take that times 5 times a week and you'll see my point - that's approximately 25 to 35 emails weekly...I wanted information on the events and I was even interested in attending them, but I was turned off by all of the communication. Over communicating with potential prospects, customers and even event attendees can unfortunately result in your message being lost, confusion and even the loss of your audience. This is not an area where "more" works. It's actually the opposite - less is more' (http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/Marketing-Communication-How-Much-Is-Too-Much.htm)

In essence is social media now being used as a mass marketing tool ? Instead of being utilised more effectively as a platform to a more quality based targeted marketing tool ?