
Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, Orkut and YouTube.
Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and huge amounts of traffic.
SMM conceptually differs from traditional marketing based on the fact that in SMM, you’re not actually trying to sell your product directly to your customers. Instead, engergies are focussed on creating brand awareness and creating better and bigger channels of communication between a company and its customers. In other words, hardcore selling takes a backseat.
The underlying logic behind this is that when someone logs into a social network, they’re there to socialize and catch up on friends and not to buy products and services. However, if people see that a huge chunk of their friends are buying a particular product and have nothing but good words to say about it, these people might get ‘influenced’ into buying their products.
Social Media Marketing is based around online conversations. It is not controlled by the organization. Instead it encourages user participation and dialogue. A badly designed social media marketing campaign can potentially backfire on the organization that created it. To be successful, SMM campaigns must fully engage and respect the users.
Any company that caters to a mass market can implement a SMM strategy to create more brand awareness. ROI on every startegy can be calcuated using the various online tools (such as Google Analytics) so profitability is ensured.
The hindrances in implementing strategy is the old-world school of thought that does not see the internet as the next big frontier in Marketing. Take for example Facebook: It has 222 million registered users. If Facebook was a country, it would be the fourth largest country in the world today.
Now, imagine if you placed an ad on Facebook. You would instantly be reaching out to 222 million leads!
Major corporations like Coca-Cola, Nike, Adidas, etc. have already created strong and staunch SMM marketing strategies that allow them to interact with their customers on a grander scale.
Using social netowrks as a communication platform also allows companies to save on resources spent on marketing, sales, pr, and support activities. Leads can directly contact the company to find out its products. Customers can give feedback, resolve issues, etc. using social networks.
Social media marketing is not difficult at all. It is something every one can do with some effort and knowledge. It isn’t some secret art form that only experts can master. Unlike other skills, social media has a remarkably low barrier of entry. Everyone is invited to the party. No one is excluded.







