Almost half of all companies in Germany now use social media. But is this effort worthwhile?

The statistics on the use of social media are impressive:

Facebook leads the list of social media platforms with around 1.6 billion users worldwide. About 20-30 million Germans regularly use Facebook and YouTube, depending on the source.

Such a high level of market penetration naturally makes YouTube & Co particularly attractive for advertising, because unlike classic TV formats, advertising can be placed in a much more targeted manner depending on user interests and behavior.

However, in most cases, the idea or hope of reaching millions of users with a single video and without further efforts is completely exaggerated.

In the normal case, the installation of a social media channel is initially about attracting and establishing a solid audience that is genuinely interested in the respective products.

In very few cases, a video or a Facebook post becomes “viral”, so it spreads explosively. Slow increases are much more common, which can be supported by targeted campaign planning. The factors that make a contribution viral are only partially known, on the one hand, and not easy to implement despite the knowledge. Finally, it is also important to protect yourself against the background noise of e.g. several days of video footage uploaded to youtube every minute.

Elements such as emotion, surprise, recommendations from trendsetters or viewer benefits can only partially explain why something is successful. This is particularly evident in the lack of forecasting power in individual cases.

Should you do without social media as a marketing tool?

Certainly not, because you can draw interesting conclusions from some reliable figures:

It is striking that the respective advertising expenditure lags behind the actual use by years. A clear advantage for all those who adapt their budgets to the real whereabouts of their potential customers. From this fact alone, one can derive the possibilities that can arise from the presence on social channels.

Controlling an online campaign on social media, however, requires a lot of experience, on the one hand in the technical implementation as well as in the selection and definition of scope, content, time or other promotion tools.

It is best to choose media agencies that take care of the maintenance of channels in addition to installing them, because, as mentioned, a certain amount of perseverance and patience are part of the success of social media marketing.