Social media marketing (SMM), a form of Internet marketing that means utilizing social media platform (social networking sites) for their brand’s marketing. It is a widely used term, primarily the methodical use of online mediums to expand one’s base over the internet. In other words, it can be termed as building your business through many different forms of media like blogs, viral videos, infographics, social networking communities, to get maximum exposure among the consumer base; the process of gaining web traffic or attention over social media sites.
Process of SMM (Social Media Marketing)
SMM’s main objective is to churn out that content that can be shared with the users over the social networking sites which will help the company to increase its brand exposure and widen the reach. A medium spreads message to another medium and this way the brand exposure multiplies and resonates in its reach to the readers. It is a form of media marketing that is also free of cost but involves precise strategies. Social media is a platform that is easily accessible in the present time, and more and more looks to the internet for every bit of their information need and so it serves as the biggest and inexpensive route for every company in their marketing strategy.
It was initially developed as a secondary option that companies were looking to capitalize their commercial marketing techniques. But with time, it has been developed as the primary and comprehensive force of marketing, drawing wide arrays of technical as well as traditional inputs.
Anyone entering this method of marketing cannot expect the results to shoot of immediately. With a wide web of social networks, it takes time for a brand’s name to make a bigger impression on a larger audience and so worth the wait, which is usually 3 to 6 months initially.
Aspects of SSM
With the wide scope of social networks and different nature of each business, we cannot outline a singular strategy or tactics to go about. But still there are few noteworthy fundamentals that are a must for each entity to point during their image building process:
1. Identity Statement: Defining about yourself, your niche and your viability. This is anything from your About Us pages on your blog or website, to your social networking site profiles.
2. Identity through Relationship: Talk to other professionals who have established their marketing networks, getting them to help spread your brand’s name.
3. User-initiated Exchange: The user comes to know about you, likes your service and products and recommends it to others.
Technological Inputs:
It covers a wide range of techniques and platforms through which a company draws their plans and spread their word:
1. New Blog Creation
2. Your blog integration within your website.
3. Monthly Blog Copywriting
4. Writing for other reputed blogs.
5. Reputation Management
6. Social Networking
7. Social Bookmarking
8. Podcasting
9. Viral Video Marketing
10. Infographic profile creation of your service and submitting it to various social networks.
Why to do SMM?
Social media is the place that connects people. And this concept has been expanded to connecting business also. Social network groups, like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon are the places where social interactions happen between people for discovering and sharing. Social media marketing is the face of that technology which lets you build relationships, reach to the people, drive repeat business and attract more customers.
A basic fact: Social media marketing is literally just word-of-mouth powered by technology. It still has that sheer power to make or break your brand in a jiffy. If you have any doubt about this fact, check these statistical facts:
75% of people are somewhat or more than to share the content which they like online, instantly with friends, colleagues or family—49% do this at least weekly. Analyze this; you would have done that too, while going through your FB wall.
How to do SMM?
Set Your Goals
Doing anything requires a perfect set of ambition or desired results. So it’s important to set goals and understand what you want to achieve from your input and effort with social media marketing campaigns.
Here how you can use the Social media tools to have a big influence on your business:
- Show your potential customers and prospects about you and what you can do for them. It is must for brand awareness!
- Give your customers some unique and exciting offers that they would love at first, so they will share them with their friends. It will help in your promotions.
- Customer service should be premium. Listen and respond to what your customers are saying and try to deliver on every count.
Social Media Tools:
There are various social networks, websites and tools through which you can embark on your social media marketing strategies:
- Email Marketing: Email marketing was a major force of marketing in the initial days of internet. And it has again gained its status as driving force for overall sales through internet. And the good news for today’s age is- Email marketing works in sync with the Social networks as well.
- Some other social media networks on which you can setup your business profile and start sharing your brand’s content:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Google+
4. Youtube
5. Foursquare
6. Delicious
7. Digg
8. Reddit
9. Pinterest
10. Stumblupon
There are many more social networking sites apart from these.
SMM also integrates submitting your website to directories through which you can expect to drive a lot of incoming traffic:
1. Yahoo Groups
2. Google Groups
3. AOL Groups
4. MSN Groups
5. Kaboodle lists
SMO:
Just like SEO for a website, SMO (Social Media Optimization) is a key component when it comes to social media marketing. SMO is a strategy for drawing new and targeted visitors to a website.
There are two ways through which SMO can be done:
- Adding social media links to content, like RSS feeds and social media sharing buttons.
- Promoting your site and its content through social media by updating blog posts, statuses or tweets.
SMM gets your company direct feedback from existent and potential customers. The interactive parts of social media are an added advantage as they give customers the opportunity to ask their queries directly from the company. This facet of SMM is called social customer relationship management (social CRM).
Why SMM?
SMM helps in better conversion rate by driving traffic from non-website visitors that is redirecting visitors through social networks. How Does Social Media Marketing Increase Conversion Rates Off-site?
Social network platforms deliver your marketing message in text articles, blog posts, videos, presentations, press releases, images, podcasts, etc. to thousands of social network profile pages of people that could be your prospects. Over the period of time, these potential customers become aware of your brand which builds trust and helps in generation of qualified online pointers. This is the time to vest your business with social media marketing and a labeling strategy that brings penetrating results.