Social Media Marketing is ideally designed for small businesses. At the core of social media is something called ‘relationships’. For relationships, you need to invest time and not money really. While small businesses are in short supply of money, they can afford time.
So in effect, in traditional marketing (which is what large companies do), the exposure is directly related to the amount of money spent. In social media marketing, exposure is directly related to the time spent at it and the ability to build a network (‘relationships’).
Business owners benefit from the social network websites by being able to update their business’ profile and coupons whenever they want, communicate via the social network’s internal messaging system with the fans of their business.
Social media is thus bringing about a fundamental paradigm shift in the marketing world.
But then, what is social media?
Social media, I would say, is a confluence of technology, interaction and networking through words, pictures, videos and audios. It is used for a whole lot of different things on the web.
And what is social media marketing then?
Social media marketing (SMM) can be best described as a method of using social media to create awareness and credibility leading to profits for the business.
So what are the benefits of SMM?
1. A lot more online conversations about your brand
2. Quick turnaround in traffic when you hit a major social network
3. Partial or full replacement of traditional marketing at a fraction of the cost
4. Major impact on search engine rankings through huge quantities of backlinks
5. The power of recommendation is huge and one can reach influencers with SMM
6. Online advertising (read banner ads) blindness is increasing and SMM has the potential to send visitors to your website
How do I start using SMM for my business?
1. Blogs - The first step is blogging. Read blogs, comment on them and start your own blogs. Of course on subjects that you really like to talk about.
2. Social Search – See what people are talking about your business and get active on this circuit. Manage your reputation here.
3. Social Bookmarking – Participate in social bookmarking communities and keep tagging. Contribute to the community.
4. Participate in Yahoo Answers! and other such sites.
5. Social Networking – there are tons of sites where you can build your ‘business case’ but ensure that you have a good case. Site examples: facebook, myspace, linkedin etc.
6. Don’t forget micros like Twitter, Thwirl, Friendfeed.
7. Take photos and videos and share them on youtube, flickr.
8. Join groups and mailing lists.
9. Be on the search for other interesting sites where people network. Contribute where you can. Once you get active on the social media circuit, you will keep coming across a 1000 such new opportunities.
Summary —–
Investment: Time and small amounts of money
Return: Relationships, Traffic, Links
Right from the get go, after our first interaction with vSplash’s sales professionals, we knew it was the web company for our website. They listened to our design and technical needs, took extensive notes, and got back to us almost immediately with their own lengthy list of recommendations, alternate suggestions and a proposal on the next steps forward. This was the first indication that the process of redesigning our website wasn’t our problem alone — it was to be a truly collaborative journey.
