Social Media Marketing

Creating a Buzz with Customers

Social media, while a relative newcomer to the marketing scene, has become a major game changer for marketing on a global scale. Many traditional marketing practices and principles have been turn on their ear due to the power of social media.

Whether you choose to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, GoWalla, or all of them in conjunction with your company's overall marketing plan it's important to remember several factors:

1. Social media requires a time investment.
2. It requires consistency in your message and relevancy to your target audience.
3. It's more relational than it is promotional.

If you are just now considering a leap into the world of social media for your business, we encourage you to read this article entitled, "5 Guidelines for Your Companys Social Media Presence".

Social Media Revolution

The following video is great for putting things into perspective regarding social media and it's rapid rise in marketing:

Blogging

Blogging is one of the most popular social marketing strategies currently being used by companies and websites to attract customers and web traffic. Blogging is a web log that provides readers with a periodic posting of information. This information is written by a topic expert and usually relates to the focus of the website. In order to be successful, a blog needs to be formatted as a discussion or informative article, it needs to include links to the site's money pages and it needs to offer a way for readers to leave their comments and to carry on the discussion.

Viral Video Releases

Another popular form of social marketing is the use of viral video casts. This marketing strategy involves uploading a fun or interesting video clip to a website, such as YouTube, with the hope that people will like it and tell other people to view it and pass it on. This creates word of mouth advertising that can spread like wild fire. This is a great method for promoting a new band, an artists or other visual products or services.

eBooks

An older form of viral marketing is the eBook. An eBook is basically a short manual or guide that is offered free of charge to people who complete a requested task. For example, you can offer an eBook to people who sign up for your website's newsletter or who enter a drawing on your site. The main purpose of giving away an eBook is to attract people to your website; however, it can also help you to develop an opt-in mailing list for your company. In order for an eBook to be a successful social marketing tool, it will need to provide valuable information.

Widgets

Widgets are useful or fun tools that can be added to a website. Widgets add value to a site and help it to both attract traffic and to raise the site's page ranking. In addition to being used as a traffic generating tool, widgets can also be used as a social marketing tool. To use a widget as a marketing tool all you have to do is give it away in exchange for the customer: signing up for a newsletter, signing up to be on the company's mailing list or buying a product from your site.