Credit Suisse’s expectations for Facebook were raised last week, resulting in shares for all floated social media companies rallying.

This underscored the important role that  social marketing will continue to have for firms.

According to the global financial services firm, the long-term average revenue per use (ARPU) will rise due to Facebook’s roll out of new products. The Zurich based group raised its expectations from ‘neutral’ to ‘outperform’, lifting its pricing target from $65 (£39) to $87 (£52).

With media reports suggesting that Facebook may soon provide mobile payments, a note to Credit Suisse clients said that higher growth expectations for the firm were to help “layer in monetization from the company’s upcoming product releases”.

The news saw an immediate increase of nearly 3% on Facebook shares, whilst Twitter rose by 1.5%. Other social media platforms also performed well in response, with LinkedIn moving up 1.8% and Yelp rising 1.1%.

At Pressroom, we also see the news as a strong signal to companies and organisations of all sizes to carry on with their good work in embracing social platforms.

It being the best avenue in the digital age for marketing and branding, small businesses in particular can really make inroads into the market by employing innovative social marketing strategies.

Increasingly, social is also the go to method for frontline customer relations. With complaints and queries able to be quickly and effectively dealt with, customer attraction, retention and positive publicity can be significantly boosted.

However, it is important for smaller firms in particular not to spread themselves too thinly.

A focused strategy on one or two of the big players, with another one or two upcoming avenues being exploited, will likely prove to have a far more effective return on investment.

Engaging with professional services in the social online marketing sphere can make the difference in isolating where best to use limited resources as well.

Steven Morris