Social Media – Free and Easy Online Marketing
Social media marketing can take on many forms — a blog; a Facebook, Twitter or MySpace page; a LinkedIn profile; or a viral video on YouTube … to name a few.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a form of Internet marketing used to generate publicity or exposure via an online community.
Social media sites allow users to become part of an online network, in which they can blog, share photos and ideas, and chat with friends or colleagues. Many marketers recognize the advantage of these online communities, and now use them to target potential (and existing) customers.
And, how exactly are these potential customers targeted? For members of online communities, it’s all about who your friends know. Users can see who friends and colleagues are connected to; this raises awareness of your brand with friends of friends … and beyond.
Why Market Through Social Media?
Social media marketing provides many benefits for businesses:
- Fits Any Budget: This new form of marketing can be relatively inexpensive … and in many cases, free!
- Gets the Word Out … Now: It provides instant (and viral) communication with a large audience.
- Optimizes Your Business: Marketing via social media sites can assist in search engine optimization efforts, by including links to your site in additional places.
- Assists Traditional Marketing Efforts: Social media marketing can be used as a low-cost way to reinforce traditional marketing campaigns.
- Builds Your Reputation: Many social media tools allow for feedback or recommendations from customers or colleagues.
- Identifies with Your Audience: Your presence within an online community shows customers and potential customers that you are current, you are up to speed with the latest trends … you are one of them.
Getting Started
Are you interested in marketing your site using social media, but don’t know where to begin? Start with creating a professional profile on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Businesses can create a fan page, which features a “Wall” for the page administrator and “fans” to post comments, photos, events and videos; an “Info” tab, which includes fields for business location and general information; a “Discussions” tab which allows the page administrator and fans to hold discussions on specific topics; and a “Reviews” tab, which allows fans to post reviews.
Users must be invited or accepted to join the page as a fan. The page administrator has access to fan “Insights;” this allows for analysis of fan interaction data, which is organized in a simple report and can be exported to a spreadsheet.
Twitter is similar to a blog, with shorter posts. Businesses can create a page and invite other Twitter users to “follow” them. Twitter pages are less complex than Facebook fan pages, only allowing the page administrator and followers to post short updates and comments.
With LinkedIn, businesses can create a professional profile, which can include a range of information. A company description is displayed on the page, along with key statistics including company location, size, industry, contact information and more.
Employees of the business can create individual professional profiles and become connected to the business; individual users can invite others to join their network, which creates a “connection.” Connections can view each others’ profiles, and can leave professional recommendations for all connections to see.
As mentioned previously, there many social media sites that can help you promote your business. So, what are you waiting for? Get social!
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