The Importance of Social Media Marketing
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Social Media Marketing differs from traditional product and service marketing, in that it does not depend on a mere unidirectional relationship between the advertiser and the consumer. Rather, the ultimate goal of Social Media Marketing is to, in essence, plant a seed and have the generated interest lead to conversations between people about your product and/or service. A successful Social Media Marketing campaign must be designed in such a way as to create a buzz. In order for this to occur, the marketer must work beyond merely creating a banner and having a social media site host it. In a sense, Social Media Marketing is something that works along a continuum and is ever-evolving. The success of such a campaign depends wholly on the marketer’s ability to entice social network users to discuss and promote a product. In order for this to occur, a Social Media Marketing campaign must be carefully planned out in order to produce content which will appeal to the intended audience. Once the seed is planted the results must be monitored, the product or service promoted, and discussions closely tracked. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING? Perhaps the most significant benefit of Social Media Marketing is the fact that – especially considering the number of users of networks such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter – the possibilities for exposure and growth are limitless. Moreover, one cannot ignore the speed and ease with which news is able to spread among users of social networking sites and beyond. HOW CAN I CREATE AND FOSTER AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY? When considering how to first approach a Social Media Marketing strategy, it is of the utmost importance to understand your audience and the kinds of products/services that they are interested in. For instance, if your customers are the type to readily participate in online social networks, it may be beneficial to add a blog to your company website. In addition, you may request that interested employees add information/blog articles to
your company site to generate interest – never forgetting to add the company logo and other features which will identify your brand into these entries. Another way to use the popularity of social networking to the advantage of your corporation is to perhaps join one or more of the most popular social networking sites and begin discussions, groups, etc. around your relevant products and services. SHOULD I CONSIDER SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AS PART OF MY MARKETING STRATEGY? Many companies have seen a profound benefit to their bottom line from adding Social Media Marketing into their given marketing plans/strategies. Remember, Social Media Marketing is the future of online advertising, and in comparison to marketing in print or other media, is relatively effortless and inexpensive. Taking all of this into consideration, it becomes apparent that there is no reason not to at least attempt to integrate Social Media Marketing into your current marketing strategy and reap the benefits of this new medium. Patrick Perkins is an independent research and writer. Here he explains what is social media marketing and importance of it in the online marketing world. To learn more about how to succeed in social media marketing, visit www.zebrastudios.com, a leading SEO Company Toronto.