Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing focuses on increasing traffic, conversions, sales, and brand awareness.  This definition is very similar to the one for search engine marketing.  The major difference is that individuals participate in online communities, thus becoming part of the ‘social’ environment of the web. People collaborate and share information with others utilizing a variety of social media sites.  By joining these communities and building ‘social awareness’ of your brand, you can connect with your target customers and the general public, potentially influencing millions of consumers.

More and more internet users are joining social sites to research, get opinions, read reviews, and share information – and they ultimately use that information to make buying decisions.  These sales can take place online or via telephone or may even lead to an in-store purchase.  In many ways, social media marketing takes the search engines out of the loop.  By concentrating all your resources on rankings (both organic and paid), you are missing a golden opportunity.  Social media sites offer enormous potential to increase your ability to reach your target audience.

Social media opportunities exist in social news sites, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, and other social communities and environments. Participation is the key!  You need to work hard to get results.  These communities are all different and it is unrealistic to attempt to participate in them all.  The key to success is to identify the ones that are the best fit for your business and your strategy.  Research and planning are vital parts of any success social media campaign.  Once those two steps are complete, you will be ready to join the online conversation as an active, caring, and respectful member of the communities you’ve targeted.  If you’re willing to do the work, the rewards will follow.

Social Networking
Networking has always been a valuable business activity.  In the twenty-first century a great deal of networking has moved online.  Now you have the opportunity to network not only with others in your industry, but with customers, potential customers, and market influencers without having to give up your lunch hour or invest in boxes of business cards.

Social networking entails sharing information with people that have similar interests and are open to hearing what you have to say.  Users link to others within social networks and can share events, tools, and other announcements with groups of friends and colleagues. Examples of social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, and Twitter. 

Once you have joined a community you can join shared interest groups relevant to your industry and participate in the conversation and networking.  The key is to establish yourself as an expert through active participation, thus gaining the respect and interest of others. If you are dedicated, earning the respect of the members can lead to you becoming a leader of that community.  As with other types of networking, this can lead to referrals and business opportunities.

Social Media News Sites
Social media news aggregators allow community members to share and rate stories and features.  Users link to news, articles, blog entries, and to each other.  Examples of these types of sites include Digg, Reddit, and Propeller. 

These communities rate each submitted news item.  This leads to increased visibility for the most popular pieces.  Articles or web pages that make it to the front page of one of these sites can see a dramatic increase in traffic.

Members of these communities have some common characteristics.  They generally have short attention spans.  Therefore, the information you provide should be concise and accurate.  Ensure that you use a compelling title and an informative description.  Include pictures with the text.  Add appropriate tags.   Active community members on some of these sites can become ‘power users.’  These people with power accounts are held in esteem by the community and have a strong influence on others.  Social media news sites are very popular with people involved with ‘linkbaiting.’

Linkbaiting
Linkbait refers to a compelling feature on a website that attracts attention from visitors and encourages them to link to it.  These features can include games, tools and applications, videos, unique information, the very latest news or gossip, incendiary opinions, or other types of sensational information.  Because this type of information can spread virally, it can attract a large amount of inbound links to the originating website as well as increasing traffic and brand exposure.  Often social media news sites, such as Digg, are used to spread the word.  These sites are frequented by people who like to share information.

Social Bookmarking and Tagging
Communities are also places for sharing great content. Social bookmarking sites allow users to bookmark sites of interest so that they are accessible from any computer. Examples of these types of sites include Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon, Ma.gnolia and Yahoo! My Web. 

In addition to centralizing your bookmarks for your own use, these sites make it easy for you to share your favorite sites with individuals, groups, or networks.  Social bookmarking sites allow you to "tag” content so that it can be categorized and organized for social searches.  Tagging is very similar to using keywords.  It helps people find your information within social media sites.

As you might imagine, these types of sites can help increase traffic to your site and to specific pages or features within your site.  They are also good for building and sustaining brand awareness.

Other Communities and Environments
A whole host of different online communities and environments can be classified as social media.  These include those listed above as well as popular sites like YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Squidoo, and Yelp, as well as industry blogs and forums.
In addition to these more general sites, you may want to investigate vertical or local social networks.  Vertical networks are communities related to your specific business or industry.  Local communities center around a specific region or city. Participation in these can improve the targeting of your social media efforts. 

Micro Communities
These communities can be small but can offer you a very targeted audience by being focused on your industry niche.  This means that you can get high quality traffic that is a match for your content. 

Examples include:
Care2 - connects non-profits to other non-profits; they work with a lot of large companies
WebMD – they added a community in 2006 that allows tagging, blogging and other opportunities to talk about your brand.
Library Thing - share and review books, great for authors and publishers; you can market books there
Yelp - A local reviews community; vertical, but huge. 15 million reviews to date. Small or local businesses can control your own description and information.

Conclusion
Social media sites offer many opportunities to supplement more traditional search marketing activities.  When implementing a social media campaign, be sure to keep the following points in mind.

Social media is user-driven, leaving you in the hands of the participants.  Someone could have an unfavorable experience. You may cross swords with them in a community. In those cases their reaction can damage your marketing effort, your brand and reputation, and, ultimately, your bottom line.   

You should aim to be transparent but thick-skinned on these social sites.  Do not try to be something that you are not.  Transparency is the key or the damage will be multiplied when you are eventually exposed (and you will be).  Along with this, you will have to be comfortable being under the scrutiny of others.  You may have to apologize for mistakes and admit to the truth of negative reviews or comments. Learn to take your lumps and make amends where necessary. This is not for everyone.

If you go into social media marketing with honesty and with a real desire to contribute, then you can make it work in a positive way for you, your brand, and your business.