Social Media Marketing
What is Social Media
The emergence of social media has completely transformed the way that we can communicate with the mass market. Unlike traditional media that will broadcast one programme to a large number of people, social media allows a narrowcast of a large number of programmes to individuals. This is done in a far more subtle way though, with inclusion of the individuals. Therefore a totally different approach must be taken to reach these people.
Basically, social media can be defined as people having conversations online. These conversations are delivered through channels like: blogs and micro blogs; online chat; social networks and social bookmarks; RSS feeds; message boards and podcasts; photo and video sharing sites; and wikis to name just a few! It is easily accessible to anyone with Internet access, opening doors for organisations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organisations to implement marketing campaigns. Organisations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.
Social Media dismisses authority, secrecy and hierarchy. Therefore people may share their opinions regardless of their upbringing, culture, social status, race, colour or creed and more importantly, can discuss these opinions that will further enlighten many truths and dispel any myths.
Social media gives businesses the opportunity to build loyalty and customer confidence in their products and services that they sell. Basically, People want to buy products and services they know and trust from sources they know and trust. Beware though, because social media can have the opposite effect if not done correctly!
How will Social Media Networking help my site traffic grow?
62% of adults worldwide use social media. Experienced social marketers can see the influence this has had and have statistics of 91% seeing an improvement in website traffic due to social media campaigns. With a staggering 79% generating quality leads.
How do I get involved in Social Media Networking?
Working with social sites is similar to working with the media. Give them a good enough story, secret, tip, or resource that they can sink their teeth into and you’ll have an army of talkers spreading the word about you and your business. This translates into referrals, which convert into sales. So even if you reach less people through social networking, your conversions will be far higher.
How does Social Media Networking dovetail with SEO?
As more and more internet users begin to use tags to find information (a tag is a keyword that a human associated with a website, vs. a keyword that a search engine attributes to a website), Search Marketing professionals cannot ignore the growing dominance of the social networks.
But the added, and perhaps more exciting bonus, is that while you grow in popularity with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, your search rankings will continue to increase as a result! Your popularity signals Google that you are an authority in your market according to your human audience.