Social Media Marketing
Web sites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts.
the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.
Definitions from Dictionary.com
What is Social Media Marketing?
According to Dictionary.com Social media is means to communicate via online communication with large groups of people and marketing is the transfer of goods from a producer or seller. One would presume that with combination of these terms we would come up with a online communication system that connects professional and social contacts to producers, sellers and consumers for the purpose of buying, advertising, shipping and selling, but is there more?
Social Media Marketing is . . .
- the process of marketing through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
~ WebTrends.com - is hard to truly describe, but a popular definition says that it is the methodical use of marketing with other technological concepts and techniques to achieve through many different media, like viral videos and blogs, because these give your company exposure. ~Brick Marketing
- a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach. ~ Tech Target
How is it done?
Social media marketing is done when a company or entity creates awareness of a product or service that they are promoting. Typically this is done by creating a page for a product or service through a social media website, giving an existing website or page a "Like", "Repin" or "Tweet" button on their page to share the found product/service through Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter respectively, as well as any other Social Media sites that I failed to mention.
Once these goods or services have an online entity and are being shared, typically users, fans and haters can then comment on them. It is that dependency on outside consumer and third parties that makes Social Media Marketing so interesting.
Whereas before the bumper stickers held more of ideals and transferred messages of things we thought were funny, cute or messages we held more dear to our heart, now they appear hardly noticed and hhave been replaced with Tweets, Posts and other devices.
Some approaches traditionally used by companies for marketing, and continually used in Social Media Marketing include the bandwagon approach (everybody's doing it), the spokesperson (think of the Shaun White Stride commercials), emotional appeals, glittering generalities, appeal (snob/ethical), humor and slogans/repetition. With these traditional techniques there is now a new one, direct unaltered consumer feedback.
One basic example of this is Empire Carpet. This is more of a forum, but Empire Carpet proactively and tries to address all complaints about negative feedback from various customers. This ranges from bad sales experiences to property damage.
Another more typical example is NASA's Twitter. I say this is more typical because through the direct use of a commonly used social media site NASA is able to keep constant contact with its followers, as well as use the sites capabilities, like hash-tags, to expand their audience and awareness.
When done properly, I believe that Social Media can effectively be used for their marketing. The biggest thing I think for these companies is to think of it like a newspaper's front page, Strong Headlines and amazing pictures.
Some approaches traditionally used by companies for marketing, and continually used in Social Media Marketing include the bandwagon approach (everybody's doing it), the spokesperson (think of the Shaun White Stride commercials), emotional appeals, glittering generalities, appeal (snob/ethical), humor and slogans/repetition. With these traditional techniques there is now a new one, direct unaltered consumer feedback.
One basic example of this is Empire Carpet. This is more of a forum, but Empire Carpet proactively and tries to address all complaints about negative feedback from various customers. This ranges from bad sales experiences to property damage.
Another more typical example is NASA's Twitter. I say this is more typical because through the direct use of a commonly used social media site NASA is able to keep constant contact with its followers, as well as use the sites capabilities, like hash-tags, to expand their audience and awareness.
When done properly, I believe that Social Media can effectively be used for their marketing. The biggest thing I think for these companies is to think of it like a newspaper's front page, Strong Headlines and amazing pictures.
