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| Social media |
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites.
Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities.
How Are Search & Social Media Marketing Related?
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| search marketer |
Why would a search marketer — or a site about search engines — care about social media? The two are very closely related.
Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support into SEO efforts. Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find social media content. Social connections may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either within a social media network or at a ‘mainstream’ search engine.
Social Media Marketing At Marketing Land
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| Social Media Marketing |
Marketing Land is the sister site to Search Engine Land that covers all facets of internet marketing, including these popular topics within social media marketing:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
Linkedin
YouTube
Social Media Marketing How To Guides & more!
To keep up with social media marketing, subscribe to our weekly Social Media Marketing digest and Marketing Day daily recap newsletters, with the latest articles from Marketing Land and Search Engine Land, as well as the day’s news sources all over the web.
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| marketing programs |
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.
Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.
Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships.
Definition social media marketing SMM. This definition is part of our Essential Guide: IT channel sales and marketing strategy for the digital era.
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| personal protective equipment |
A smart hard hat is personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to enhance worker performance and safety in construction and related industries through embedded technology.
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| SMM |
Social media marketing (SMM) is 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. One of the key components of SMM is social media optimization (SMO). Like search engine optimization (SEO), SMO is a strategy for drawing new and unique visitors to a website. SMO can be done two ways: adding social media links to content, such as RSS feeds and sharing buttons -- or promoting activity through social media by updating statuses or tweets, or blog posts. SMM helps a company get direct feedback from customers (and potential customers) while making the company seem more personable. The interactive parts of social media give customers the opportunity to ask questions or voice complaints and feel they are being heard. This aspect of SMM is called social customer relationship management (social CRM). SMM became more common with the increased popularity of websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, and YouTube. In response, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its rules to include SMM. If a company or its advertising agency provides a blogger or other online commenter with free products or other incentives to generate positive buzz for a product, the online comments will be treated legally as endorsements. Both the blogger and the company will be held responsible for ensuring that the incentives are clearly and conspicuously disclosed, and that the blogger's posts contain no misleading or unsubstantiated statements and otherwise complies with the
FTC's rules concerning unfair or deceptive advertising.
SMM is all about being present and engaging your target audience directly, but at the same time, the medium is largely unorganized and uncontrolled. In order to succeed, you will need a strategy which helps you to reach out to the right audience and join in with the global conversation that is social media. If you have yet to be convinced of the enormous potential that social media offers to small businesses, consider the following facts: According to the Social Media Examiner online magazine, 86% of marketers in 2013 considered social media to be essential for their business with 49% of marketers choosing Facebook as their primary social media platform. According to the marketing firm WebDAM Solutions, 43% of marketers found customers through LinkedIn, while 52% of marketers found customers through Facebook in 2013.
According to Pew Research, approximately 73% of all Internet users used social media services on a regular basis in 2013, with the most popular being Facebook.
Now that you have an idea of the prevalence of social media and its rapidly growing influence, let's take a look at some of the key ways in which social media can help you connect with your target audience:
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| Generate awareness |
Generate awareness of your company and its products or services by tapping into one of the largest audiences in the world. Generate leads through your social networking connections, speeding up the process by creating events and promotions. Draw in visitors to your website and other online portals by using your social media resources to promote new content. Maintain direct relationships with your customers and potential customers in order to improve your product and get to better know your audience. Provide customer service and advice directly to your audience and get useful feedback from your followers to help track your success. Facilitate sharing of your online content through the use of social media sharing buttons, effectively letting your audience advertise for you.
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| Local SMM |
The above cites some of the key reasons to get involved in SMM, but there are many more depending on the type of business you are operating. Local businesses can also make extensive use of social media platforms targeted specifically towards traditional high-street businesses. Sites like Google Places, Bing Places, Yelp and Foursquare, among others, help you to show up in local search results and online or mobile maps. What's more is that all of the above is absolutely free to use, and while there are also paid SMM methods, the free ones are far too valuable to neglect.
