Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing
With the powerful impact of Social Networks – especially Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa – in terms of Traffic Generation and in that sense as an increasing competition for the Internet giant Google, Social Media Marketing can no longer be ignored when it comes to Branding ourselves and our Websites or Blogs and harvesting Traffic where the Traffic really is, meaning where people hang out today and are approachable in one way or another.
Social Media Marketing
Bearing in mind the enormous amount of websites and blogs out there . . . the question then is: what can Social Media Marketing do for us – meaning for our Business?
The answer to this and the strategy we apply from there depends on what we determined in our “Secret Garden”, meaning what our Business is:
> Is it an Affiliate Program?
> An MLM?
> A product or a range of products of our own we want to sell or a Service we offer?
> Or a combination of various income-generating Business Opportunities?
What can Social Networks actually do to serve my Purpose and increase my Google ranking, Visibility and Traffic – not their’s… as we discussed earlier?
What are the Benefits of Social Networks for my Business?
Social Networks are established by people who wish to share, communicate, chat and exchange in a relaxed, rather private and entertaining ambiente. Fun and Entertainment away from all the stress related to business is the motto. Of course, Social Networks are heavily targeted by sales forces and hungry business opportunity seekers, but this was not their initial purpose and on the surface it still isn’t. In fact, what applies to Email Marketing counts here as well: what’s not permitted is SPAM. I should be able to decide who I wish to talk to and whose information I want to see; I wish to be in control of my personal environment.
But am I?
Whether rules on the Internet are meant to be kept – and by whom – is another story and illustruous material for this topic abounds, but it’s not my topic today.
What we learned at the Ycademy Seminar (November 2009, day 1) amongst others is that we can benefit from Social Networks in terms of:
As explained above, this is a perfect environment to freely share things of interest with anyone or with special groups – which gives us a possibility to attain visibility with what we do or have to offer without being intrusive. If my business is Pink Flamingos and I share my intrinsic knowledge about say… how to increase birthrates of this dying species in a Pink Flamingo Forum to bird lovers and ornithologues, then those people may be drawn towards me, may be convinced of my knowledge and good intentions… from where follows Trust and… Sales. It’s just normal and the way it has been working offline and will continue to do so.
By integrating Social Networks into your Google Top 10 targeted marketing campaigns – say by embedding a Picasa Slideshow or Flickr pictures -, your business will immediately have a broader Marketing impact and better results..
Control
As discussed above, there is a certain amount of control through wise handling of the Privacy Settings, but don’t fully depend on them. One can detect and prevent leaks and disclosures but don’t put on the Internet what should not get into the wrong hands. Discretion does not seem to exist online.
It appears that the importance of controlling one’s name will even increase in the future.
Your Profile on Social Networks
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Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing.
