Social Media Marketing

Posted on January 14, 2012 by

Social Media MarketingHow often do you hear “…and don’t forget to like us on Facebook!” or “…you can follow along at Twitter…”. Those not so subtle hints are simple tactics for social media marketing. Like all marketing strategies, the goal is to draw more attention in order to generate more revenue, it sounds simple, but it never is. Not many people can advertise on TV, but with the explosion of the social media industry, your able to expand your audience in the same fashion as the big players. The major social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Google Plus, etc., all share the same concept, expand your following base and surpass your competition.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

  • Equal Opportunity: With the use of social media marketing you are able to communicate in the exact same ways as the major players and your more specifically, your competition. All it takes is time and effort for you to grow in these communities and in doing so you can surpass your competition.
  • Direct Audience Connection: These social communities are all about interacting and sharing interesting content. This allows you to interact with your target audience in many ways, this can be on your page/profile or theirs. The benefit of this is to encourage interest and help stimulate traffic.
  • Building Fans and Reputation: When you interact in a friendly manner with your audience, you are able to build a reputation that turns visitors into committed users. This is one of the biggest benefits because the committed users are likely to share and help spread your content, further building your reputation and target audience.
  • Website Compatibility: The social bookmarking communities have become so popular that they offer badges and voting system to help promote your content. The largest of these communities are all universally compatable with just about every website platform that you can think of.

To become a serious player in the online industry you need to compete with the big boys, if you fail to make your mark you’ll fall behind and lose traffic, as well as rank. The involvement in these groups is based on rules and voting systems, the proper use of which can be free advertising. The only price you have to pay is time and effort, and if you play nice with the public you can gain a huge following.

Comments:

  • http://ivinviljoen.net/blog Ivin Viljoen

    Hello Nick. I’d like to redirect your words: ‘Direct Audience Connection’. That’s assuming that you’re simply writing for an audience. If you’re into business, you’re trying to connect with and listen to your customer. You want to know how they feel about our brand and be there when they vent. That’s what social media should be for. Not fro us to talk to people, but to listen to them,.

  • http://www.seojournalist.com/ SEO Journalist

    I do agree with you, but at some point (usually in the beginning) you need to expand and become attractive to gain an views. You can’t just listen because at the start, there is no one to listen to.
    You are correct that many of these communities are great places to review or vent on a product or service, however that’s not where they are there for. The simple purpose for them is to share information and communicate with people you wouldn’t normally get to connect with.