The recent social media marketing industry report ‘How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses’ (http://dtn.fm/sXxo2) reminds us of Cardinal Richelieu’s defensive gambit: the pen is mightier than the sword. When marketers who used social media channels were asked to select the single most important form of content for their businesses, if they could use only one, videos were selected by just 19 percent. As might be expected, many thought a picture worth a thousand words; 34 percent went with visual assets. However, close to half (45 percent) thought blogging best. Now, those lettered marketers will be happy to know that with FRAME from Agora Holdings (OTC: AGHI), their pearls of wisdom can be scattered widely over the social media realm.
The survey, undertaken by the Social Media Examiner, found that ‘Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) are the two most important social networks for marketers. When allowed to select only one platform, 52 percent of marketers selected Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 21 percent.’ However, ‘Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), YouTube and LinkedIn hold the top spots for future plans: a significant 66 percent of marketers plan on increasing their use of these social networks.’ The social media system is Facebook-centric; the platform has, by far, the largest number of users at 1.59 billion, according to Statista. No doubt because of this user base, 93 percent of marketers are active there, while ‘68 percent want to learn more about it and 62 percent plan on increasing Facebook activities.’
Naturally, in a medium so novel and so little understood, a majority of marketers are unsure how effective their social media efforts are. For example, ‘only 45 percent of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective,’ and some ‘91 percent of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media.’
The space for social media management tools was, until recently, a vacuum. However, true to the old saw that nature abhors a vacuum, that space is rapidly filling up. Still, opportunities remain for startups in the field. One of the earliest entrants, Buffer, announced (http://dtn.fm/b8Uyf) in January 2015 that it had 2,002,495 total registered users, 168,455 of whom were monthly active users. Two million users is a drop in the social media ocean. There is obviously room for more players.
Buffer’s annual revenue run rate (annualized revenues) was $5.06 million in January 2015. Like most other app businesses, marginal costs are very low. The cost of providing the app to another customer is negligible. Cash from increasing revenue then becomes, mostly, income. This might have had Buffer’s founders laughing all the way to the bank. The company reported it had more than $2 million in cash.
Like Buffer, FRAME provides the capability to post to many social media accounts. FRAME makes blogging easier. It also has a variety of data analytics features that, together with its publishing property, can be managed from a single dashboard. FRAME comes in two ‘flavors’. One is designed for individuals; the other is meant for business enterprises. The company will offer free access to FRAME for non-commercial users with the expectation of building a user base very quickly. Commercial users to be targeted include investor relations firms, public relations firms and other marketing and promotional agencies that employ social media.
Currently, FRAME is integrated with leading social networks Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and it operates on Android, iOS and desktop. Agora Holdings is currently exploring development to integrate the platform with LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Tumblr.
For more information, visit www.agoraholdingsinc.com
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