Mike Frichol offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - Article Marketer (www.ArticleMarketer.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. Article Marketer does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: What is Social Media Marketing? Author: Mike Frichol Category: Lead Generation, Site Promotion, Communication Word Count: 534 Keywords: social media marketing,social media,social networking,internet marketing,business marketing Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.articlemarketer.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
Firstly, we should understand what 'social media' means. Media are communication instruments. Traditional media such as newspaper, radio and TV formats are one-way communication formats from the publisher to the reader, listener or viewer. Social relates to society and how it is organized with people interacting and forming communities. Social media are social formats of two-way media communication where the publishers, readers, listeners and viewers are all able to contribute to the conversation and form communities of specific mutual interests. Social Media was enabled by so-called 'Web 2.0' technologies that surfaced circa 2002-5 to facilitate multi-participant communication, information sharing, interoperability, collaboration, communities, and user or consumer generated content (media) on the World Wide Web. Social media encompasses capabilities such as blogs, online chat, social networks, online communities, wikis, social bookmarks, forums, video sharing, photo sharing, virtual worlds, podcasts, social news, etc. So it follows that 'Social Media Marketing' is the use of social media capabilities for marketing purposes. Not quite - traditional forms of marketing do not directly translate or work in the social media world. In traditional marketing you're producing materials and campaigns aimed at your customers and prospects. In social media marketing you're engaged in communication with your customers and prospects. You are using social media capabilities in the same ways your customers and prospects do, and you observe the rules set by the community you are communicating with. Those are major differences. Social media marketing can be very powerful and successful if approached and used correctly. Conversely, you can cause yourself a lot of pain if it is approached incorrectly or ignored. Think about social media marketing as social influence communication via social media tools, online communities, social influencers, public relations, customer service, etc. The top 5 social media marketing tools are Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Here are some of the many ways to use social media marketing for your business: * Exposure for your business/products/services/solutions - the number one benefit of social media marketing is getting more exposure to more people in more ways. * Improve your business/products/services/solutions visibility on the Internet - the second major benefit is increased traffic for your website and other web properties. * Generate more sales leads - the third major benefit is search engine ranking improvement which enables more people to find your business when they search for products/services/solutions like yours. * Increase customer loyalty by monitoring and participating in conversations about your business/products/services/solutions. * Gain insight from communities of interest for your business/products/services/solutions by participating in discussions and getting first-hand information about what buyers want. * Build your brand and authority by using your expertise to educate and assist people in your communities of interest. Although social media marketing direct costs are very affordable, the time demands are significant and require continuous attention. If you have any doubts, consider these statistics from several surveys - 73% of active online users read blogs, 57% have joined a social network, 83% watch video clips, 39% subscribe to an information update (RSS) feed, and according to Time magazine, social networking sites are more popular than pornography sites. If you're not doing social media marketing, you're not using the full potential of the Internet. Mike Frichol is founder and principal of Marketance (http://marketance.com/) which provides advice, guidance and tutorials for businesses to get more customers and sales with Internet Marketing. Their free weekly newsletter helps businesses get better results from marketing on the Internet. ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
