Social Media | The Marketing Channel In The 21st Century

If you are not adapting social media into your marketing strategies, well, what are you waiting for? I still talk to so many people that either don’t understand the potential of a popular social media campaign or think they work in an industry that is not viral. Social marketing is the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social awareness using concepts from commercial marketing.

Like commercial marketing, the primary focus is on the consumer--on learning what people want and need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the consumer, not about the product. You might have heard about the “4 Ps” that traditional marketers often talk about i.e.,

1. Create an enticing "Product"
2. Optimize the "Price" the target audience believes it must pay in the exchange;
3. Make the exchange and its opportunities available in "Places" that reach the audience and fit its lifestyles;
4. "Promote" the exchange opportunity with creativity and through channels and tactics that maximize desired responses;

The third and the fourth P in the twenty-first century need you to focus on Social Marketing, regardless of what product or niche you work with.

What is Facebook?
Facebook is a social networking site designed to connect users. Sites such as MySpace and Friendster are similar, but Facebook is generally considered the leading social networking site among college students. Facebook has been gaining market share, and more significantly a supportive user base. Since their launch in February 2004, they’ve been able to obtain over 8 million users in the U.S. alone and expand worldwide to 7 other English-speaking countries, with more to follow.

Key Points for Successful Social Marketing
1. Create an Identity
Choose a title, category and description that are relevant to your product or brand. Enter as much information as possible about your group including contact info, location, and purpose. Every social network with a profile page can be an opportunity to brand yourself or your business. Create a separate profile for your business. If you’re an unknown, use one of your main keywords in the URL. It’s a mass-market tool that facilitates niche relationships.

2. Form a Group and Add Friends
You can create or join groups on Facebook and share information with others. You can form a group for advertising everything from an MLM to Want-to-be-Millionaire internet gurus. After you formed a group, you can text-message other members, send them emails, comment on their profiles or contact them. You’d be surprised at the range of types of groups there are.

3. Apply Marketing Strategies
Welcome new members and send out periodic emails to your group. Don’t spam them with useless information - keep it focused on the topic of your group. Keep the group alive by constantly adding information. Encourage others to do the same. Keeping it fresh and update will encourage others to return. Where ever possible promote your group including references on your web page, in your email footer and in your RSS footer. Treat the people in your group as friends rather than potential customers and your new group will grow and expand - with it will comes the traffic and new customers. You can buy an ad on Facebook. It’s called Facebook Flyers Basic so you can create banner-like advertising on networks. This is a great way to target advertising to a specific demographic. Facebook also has Flyers Pro — a cost-per-click advertising program that’s triggered by keyword searches (like Google Ad Words). The article has more in-depth tips on how to do this and I’d be interested if anyone reading this has tried either advertising method.

At the moment, Facebook is the site that comes closest to fulfilling the promise of social media. In so doing, it raises some bigger questions about how we’re going to be using the Web in the future. The theory is that these networks will create a virtual environment in which like-minded people can find one another. Facebook is getting the temperature just right, and in the process has been able to give social media real social capital. Facebook is a massively successful social networking service that grew to prominence in virtually no time. Its features and tools are highly appealing, and Facebook users are extremely well networked in real life. ***

Source: www.amazines.com

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