What is Social Media?
Social media is the term used to covers a wide range of platforms and technologies in which website users can share and collaborate online.
It is a great example of Web 2.0 technologies which are all about sharing, and has seen a phenomenal change in the way in which people now work, socialise and communicate around the globe.
Social media marketing is an essential part of any marketing plan for all kinds of businesses now, but how can you take advantage of this and how do you decide which social media is relevant for your target market.
Interaction is the focal point in using Social Media Marketing, allowing you to interact with customers, prospects, stakeholders and employees. And it is very definitely here to stay.
Social Media marketing allows you to display content in many different forms, from text, video, audio and video. And the big keyword in Social Media is communities, which is why it has proven so popular, Social Media allows people with common interests to get together online and share information, images, video, thoughts etc.
There are literally thousands of social media websites and there are every increasing numbers launching on a daily basis. Some of the most types include:
Video Sharing – YouTube is a perfect and incredibly successful example of this. Video sharing platforms allow users to post video content and allow others to comment, view and provide links.
Social Networking – The most well known being Facebook and MySpace with LinkedIn being the business equivalent. Social Networking sites allow individuals to interact online with like minded individuals and friends. You can create a personal profile which you can choose to publish to either everyone or a select number of invited individuals. Some Social Networking sites allow advertising content and can be an incredibly powerful tool for some businesses.
Blogging & Forums – If you think of Social Media as being all about collaboration, then Blogs & Forums are a perfect example of this. Blog is short for Web Log – and in effect is a simple website that allows a user to upload content and then allows for others to provide commentary or response to that content. Blogs are a really good way for a business to express an opinion on industry topics and to become an authoritative voice in a given market sector. Blogs are also a great way to assist in your SEO campaigns as blog articles are often picked up by the search spiders and can be very keyword rich copy.
Photo Sharing – Flickr is the best example of this, but Facebook is the most popular photosharing application in the world. They pretty much do’ what it says on the tin’. A photo sharing platform allows you to upload images online and share them with others.
Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites allow users to publically bookmark a sites content, if you think of it as sharing your ‘favourites’ with friends. When you bookmark something socially you allow the content to be available to other relevant users who in turn can then bookmark them – it’s a great way to simplify and make your favourites available from anywhere (not just on your own computer). And if you are website owner you should enable web visitors to bookmark yoursite, you will see icons on other websites for Digg, del.icio.us. amongst many others, it is really simple and quick to add them to your site, and can greatly assist with driving new visitors to your site, who may otherwise not have found you.
If you haven’t considered Social Media marketing amidst your digital marketing activity this year, then give one of our social media marketing experts a call on and we’ll talk you through all the different options.