Many businesses are using social media sites for marketing, due to the growing popularity of online social networking. While advertising through Facebook or other social networking sites is attractive for many reasons, marketing through social media requires clear strategies to be successful.
Benefits Of Marketing Through Social Media
Using social media like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as part of a marketing strategy can yield many positive results.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is inexpensive; most services are free, making advertising in this medium a natural complement to traditional marketing solutions. Advertising campaigns conducted in social media generate online conversations and traffic and increase search engine rankings.
Social media marketing also encourages recommendations that help companies and customers establish relationships that are easily converted into sales. To receive these benefits, however, companies must implement sound marketing strategies.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is inexpensive; most services are free, making advertising in this medium a natural complement to traditional marketing solutions. Advertising campaigns conducted in social media generate online conversations and traffic and increase search engine rankings.
Social media marketing also encourages recommendations that help companies and customers establish relationships that are easily converted into sales. To receive these benefits, however, companies must implement sound marketing strategies.
There is synergies between social media relationship marketing, network marketing and affiliate marketing.
Strategies For Marketing Through Social Media
It is important to remember that the key reason that social media sites are popular is because they are social. Any marketing campaign that utilizes this developing media needs to approach advertising socially,in a “bottom-up” method.
The following strategies will help make advertising through social media a success.
1. Create A Narrative
On most social networking sites, narrative is at a premium.
Part of the appeal of social media for individuals is that it enables them to see the stories of their friends unfold, to share in their joys and struggles.
In order to use social media effectively, companies need to develop a narrative, or the story of their growth. Some of the companies that have been more successful at creating a corporate narrative have been Smuckers and Mayfield Dairy.
Creating a social network presence is difficult without a story, since the central point of advertising through social media is to reach the customer personally. Faceless, story-less entities rarely succeed at making that sort of connection.
2. Interact With The Customers
Simply creating a profile on a social networking site is not effective marketing. Companies need to include some type of interaction with the customer as part of their social media marketing strategy.
Allowing social network users to participate in discussions and post comments on the company’s profile creates a sense of community that leads to brand loyalty.
3. Generate Content
Creating articles or videos that explain a product or tell the corporate narrative should be a part of any social marketing campaign. This new content on social media sites can attract new customers and generate sales.
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