Social Media Marketing – What It Is and How It Can Benefit You
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase social media marketing but may not actually know what it is or how it can be used to aid you in your marketing efforts. Let’s take a look at this, and see if we can’t clear up some confusion.
Social media marketing can be defined as using the various social media outlets, such as what are known as the Web 2.0 properties, to further our marketing programs and campaigns. The idea of a social web is very enticing, as the prospect of many hundreds or thousands of followers and friends following your moves and offers, can get any marketer salivating. It is a bit of a wild west show out there, as new Web 2.0 sites show up every day, and old ones fade away. What was hot two months ago is blasé now. It is a brave new world, indeed.
To get your mind around how this can work for you spend some time creating the goals you have for your social media marketing campaigns, and then make some hard choices, especially if you’re running this by yourself. You’ll want to be ruthless about time management, and the number of sites and services you take on. There are only so many hours in a day, and to be effective in a field as whimsical as social media marketing you really need to focus. You can always scale it up a bit more later, when you get a handle on it and can afford to outsource it.
Believe me, I know it’s much more fun to go and tinker and twitter all day with all the various Web 2.0 goodies out there, but if your goal is to make some progress with SMM, you need to be laser-targeted.
Decide early on if you will be trying to brand yourself. If you do want to do this, make sure to do it from the beginning, and also to take care in how you do things. Using social media outlets to spam people will get you branded as a “marketer” (of all things!), and unceremoniously shown the virtual door. Try as hard as you can to make your presence a helpful and congenial one, willing to help without expectation of anything in return. Once your reputation is established, you’ll have legions of loyal followers who will have put their trust in you, and then you’re home free. This is truly the nut you have to crack in using social media marketing to further your business aims.
Social media marketing encompasses so many areas that may have relevance for your business. You’re establishing brands, developing relationships, doing market research using the very audience you hope to sell to, creating and dropping back links, establishing your site as an authority, and so much more. Take the time to craft a wise social media marketing strategy and you’ll be richly rewarded!
Tags: Social Media
