What is Social Media Marketing?

What is Social Media Marketing?

The inspiration for this article lies in a fantastic slide presentation I saw fairly recently on slideshare.net. The presentation, aptly named “What the f*** is social media?” was put together by Marta Z Kagan.

Over 74 slides, one is just hit with fact after fascinating fact – initially about the reach and penetration of social media, and then how to converse with audiences. It’s truly inspiring stuff.

Wikipedia broadly defines social media as the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings. Kagan sums it up nicely saying “social media is people having conversations online”.

The mechanisms for these conversations include a number of mediums – some are communicative, others collaborative and others include multimedia or a combination of all three. Social media can take many forms, but one element that consistently sets all of its incarnations apart from “traditional” media, is that it is produced to be shared.

There’s more to social media than social networking sites. While extremely popular (Time magazine wrote in October 2007 that social networking sites are officially more popular than porn!), they are not the only way people connect online. Other media include wikis, microblogging (like twitter), blogs, social bookmarking (like del.icio.us and StumbleUpon), photo sharing (like Flickr), video sharing (like YouTube), pod casts and many others.

How big is this phenomenon really?

There are over two and a half million articles in English on Wikipedia. 75% of Americans watch at least one video online a month. YouTube alone has hundreds of millions of videos being viewed daily. There are over 200-million blogs on the internet. Just under 60% of the people online have joined a social network.

And these are just some of the staggering numbers that get thrown around. This just serves to prove just how powerful and wide the reach of social media is.

What’s the difference between social media and traditional media?

The main difference is that social media is not a monologue. It is a dialogue that the brand sometimes does not lead. People are talking online right now – and this is an aspect of social media marketing.

Research has shown that 90% of people who can skip television adverts do just that.

A 2007 Nielsen report entitled “Trust in Advertising” showed that people trust referrals from their friends and other customers far more implicitly than one-way company messaging. Fundamentally, people don’t care what a company or brand thinks, they care what their friends think.

So, how do you harness this?

The short answer is: subtly. You can’t always lead the conversations – and you need to be honest. Don’t bombard the audience with noise and marketing messages – they will just switch off, or you’ll be lost in the din – neither are optimal situations.

Create personas and communicate. You need to allow your customers to feel ownership of the brand. You need to enable, engage and inspire people. A flat one-sided message is not going to get anybody excited about a brand or product, and this is how to start a buzz.

There’s no real “trick” to social media marketing. What it comes down to essentially, is listening to your customers and participating with them.

AlterSage is a Cape Town based Internet marketing consultancy servicing a wide range of local and international clients. AlterSage’s online marketing services include social media marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine optimisation and pay per click campaign management, among others.

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Social Media Marketing: Game Theory and the Emergence of Collaboration

The emergence of social media represents a challenge to the traditional “one-to-many” model of mass media, which in turn represents a challenge to traditional mass marketing. While the marketing industry scrambles to comprehend and take advantage of new peer-to-peer models of content sharing, marketing industry analysts and press have declared a revolution, insisting that the marketer-consumer relationship is undergoing a fundamental sea change that places power squarely in the hands of the

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Social Media Marketing and Small Business

Social Media marketing does not have to be overwhelming, mysterious, or immeasurable, as a promotional tactic for small business. Most business books about social media marketing tend to focus on the variety and types of online media (Facebook, Twitter et al), instead of focusing on developing Social Media marketing plans. It’s no wonder that small business is reluctant to get involved with social media. It seems most Social Media marketing books have lost their business focus and adopted a si

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30-Minute Social Media Marketing: Step-by-step Techniques to Spread the Word About Your Business

BIG PRESENCE isn’t just for BIG COMPANIES anymore! A social media marketing handbook for small business owners on the go Social media has opened the door to anyone who wants to promote themselves–including small businesses. Designed specifically for busy small business owners, this book puts you on the fast track to maximizing your business’s visibility and generating profits—regardless of the size of your marketing budget or the time you have to devote to it. 30-Minute Soci

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Question by Carl C: What are the main difference between email marketing and social media marketing?

Best answer:

Answer by Gudsud55
email marketing, is gaining popularity over the conventional ‘Direct Mailing Folder’ and social media Marketing.

email is digital, where as ‘Direct Mailing Folder’ and Social
Media Marketing, print is on paper (hard copy). Environment activist propose least use of paper.

Thus, the difference is …………………………. !

What do you think? Answer below!

Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement

Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement

How to implement winning social media marketing programs to improve products, services, and profits A July 2009 Anderson Analytics study found 60% of the Internet population uses social networks and social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Written by a social media marketing expert, Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement shows marketers how to create a winning social media presence, and is the first book to then focus on what to do with the le

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More Social Media Marketing Products

Your Website Will Have Improved Search Engine Rankings When You Use Social Media Marketing

Your Website Will Have Improved Search Engine Rankings When You Use Social Media Marketing

I am sure you have heard the latest buzzwords, social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Where did all these terms come from and will you find these terms in the English language dictionary is debatable. However these terms provide a serious benefit in the search engine optimization ranking services and should not be ignored.

Social media websites and networking web sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

So how can you take advantage of this obviously new but what seems beneficial activity? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. Do this is taking advantage of a form of marketing that you may know it as word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

Get the definitive guide to social media marketing and networking for free at http://techoss.com/social-media and dramatically improve your website operation.

Gregory Burrus– helping people in business and nonprofit organizations succeed through the use IOVC Technology.

Social Media Marketing ‘ 5 Steps to Free Traffic

I am sure you have heard the latest buzzwords, social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Where did all these terms come from and will you find these terms in the English language dictionary is debatable. However these terms provide a serious benefit in the search engine optimization ranking services and should not be ignored.

Social media websites and networking web sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

So how can you take advantage of this obviously new but what seems beneficial activity? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. Do this is taking advantage of a form of marketing that you may know it as word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

Social media marketing is a new, free and very powerful tool and it can serve you very well when you are searching for free internet marketing methods to promote your internet home business online.

Social media site are called social for a good reason. This is a place for people from all over the world find and connect with other people with same interests and hobbies, and form groups online, build friendships, have new relationships and share their favorites interests and ideas.

It was only natural for these people to start and use these groups, friendships and new relationships for their businesses. When you have online friends, you can reach a larger crowd of people, all are potential customers, and this is how the social media marketing or social networking was born.

So how easy it is to use the social bookmarking for internet marketing purpose?

Step 1 – Join some of the leading social media sites. Websites such as Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon and more are very popular social media sites. Bookmarking a page in those site and some other sites can be indexed very quickly by the search engines, this is very good if you want to drive traffic to your website, free and let the search engines notice you.

This tactic is very good, When you need to drive traffic to a new website and have no money to invest in advertising.

Step 2 – Complete you profile. If you want to promote your internet home business using social media sites and social networking, try to give as much details as you can. When you are online do not hide behind a screen name, if you are here for business let the people know a little about you, sign in with your real name, write a few detail about yourself and on your home business. At the end give a link back to you website and a few of your mostly recommended products.

Step 3 – After finishing your profile is time socialize. Social marketing is all about making friends, finding people with the same interests as yours, joining groups and building relationships.

These friends are important for your business and they will help you in time to promote your home business, but you will have to help them too.

Step 4 – Now it is time to start the social networking. Social bookmarking is the word. You bookmark you website or blog, and you let people know about it. You also have to bookmark other people websites and blogs, and vote for your friend’s bookmarks.

When in social media marketing you need to give to others if you want them to give back to you, this is when you get the best results.

Step 5 – Ask your friends to vote for your favorite links and offer to do the same for them. From here the traffic to your website will only grow and you get it all for free.

If you join the top leading social media sites, you will get more traffic, as the website popularity grow you will get more votes, your bookmark get indexed faster and this is also counts as a backlink from some of those sites.

Join Tanny Lahav at http://www.Learn2Earn2.com and learn how to use different internet business ideas such as social networking to promote your internet home business.


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Real-Time Marketing for Business Growth: How to Use Social Media, Measure Marketing, and Create a Culture of Execution

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Question by Ebay Powerseller: Can Social Media Marketing replace Search Engine Marketing as a viable way for companies to market online?
I “Stumbled Upon” www.FtheBigThree.com which does a good job of showing the opportunities that could be available for marketers in the “Social Media” category. Not completely sold yet on it but kinda warming up to it. I guess I’ll have to start learning SMM to go along with my SEM and SEO. So, many abbreviations….so little time.

Best answer:

Answer by imisidro
NO — they can work hand in hand, but social media marketing cannot replace search engine marketing

Search engine’s usage is far way more than social media use. Plus traffic from search engines are more sustainable and longer term, while social media traffic is more sporadic.

If you get a top placement for a keyword in Google, for example, you can expect that to continuously give you traffic until someone else topples you from the top spot — and that is not always easy to do unless you made a huge mistake or the search engines changed their algorithm.

You can get a huge burst of traffic from social media sites such as Digg — only if your link is in the homepage. Once your link is pushed to the archives, traffic dries up.

Social media sites depend on the FRESHNESS of the information, while search engine sites depend on the RELEVANCE of the site to the search query and that gives an edge to older pages

For a savvy marketer, he/she needs to utilize and maximize both venues to get the most traffic. The two should work hand in hand, and not one over the other.

Give your answer to this question below!

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