What is Social Media Marketing?
Don’t feel embarrassed if you don’t know what a Social Media Agency does – many companies pushing Social Media Marketing Services and Social Media Strategy and Online PR don’t seem to quite have grasped the concept!
In layman’s terms, Social Media Marketing Agencies makes use of online channels and resources to gain and maintain customers.
But be warned – it’s not for everyone! Carry on reading to get an idea of whether a social media marketing strategy could benefit you and feel free to contact us for advice.
The information below highlights the different Social Media Channels available
Social Networks have to come at the top of this list as they are sites which can be personalised to suit the needs of individuals or companies. They owe their popularity to the fact that they can be used to interact with friends, family and people with similar interests. It is particularly appealing as a marketing tool because users can easily be split into niche geo-demographics for targeting specific products or services.
Blogs are online diaries written by individuals or organisations and are often used as a formal or informal way of reviewing products. Bloggers’ opinions can carry more weight than the mainstream press because they are viewed as being more independent and not answerable to editors or advertisers. Public relations (PR) with an influential blogger should not be rushed into as an effective PR strategy would have to consider whether the blogger would wish to be approached.
Wikis are databases of information set up by specific communities – for example a university. The most famous example of a Wiki is Wikipedia which contains encyclopaedia-style entries about a vast array of subjects and is available to a worldwide audience. They are created and edited by the people who access the Wikipedia pages. But companies are not encouraged to create their own Wiki page as this goes against the spirit of the service. Companies should concentrate on addition rather than creation – adding useful, fact-based additions to their pages.
Podcasts – CEOs often use this form of broadcasting, as do senior management and even comedians and politicians. Podcasts are audio or video files that utilise a subscription or feed such as RSS. The world of radio first embraced the concept but social media marketing strategists weren’t far behind. Big-hitters such as Steve Jobs of Apple use Podcasts as a way of giving people regular updates about new industry developments in a way which is more eye-catching than conventional press releases.
Forums host direct interaction between individuals on specific topic areas, some of which could be useful to your business. Their informality and heavily-opinionated nature offers useful feedback for marketing strategists.
Multimedia is a way of sharing content through specific channels – YouTube is the most obvious example if you’re looking for videos, while Flickr is favoured by the photographic community.
Micro Blogging If you have ever ‘tweeted’ then you have engaged in micro blogging – defined as giving short and sweet updates on your activities, thoughts or status. Conveying this information can often be done in less than 140 characters – just enough for new company information or general advice to be passed on to interested subscribers.
Social bookmarking sites can provide a useful substitute for the Internet browser bookmarking function. By logging into an account all bookmarks can be displayed online. The bookmarked sites are also visible to other visitors on the social bookmarking site, with a score card feature identifying the top-rated sites. They can prove an invaluable tool for driving extra traffic to a useful news articles.
Social news sites have much in common with social bookmarking sites, helping users vote on how useful they found a particular news story and also offering the facility to comment on articles. Check out Digg, one of the largest social news sites, to get a taste of how they work.
Entertainment in social media terms refers to virtual worlds such as Second Life – an alternative reality where virtual world people can interact with one another and trade virtual goods. It is possible to set up a virtual company in Second Life to promote your (real) services and products.
For more information on how No Pork Pies can help you manage these services such as Social Media, Audit, Research, Implementation, Channel Development, Online PR and Social Monitoring please contact us.