Social Networking
Social Media Marketing is defined as any form of direct or indirect marketing that promotes a business through the conversations and sharing which occur on the social web. For example, Twitter updates, Facebook posts, forum posts, and comments published on blogs, videos, images, and so on are all social media marketing tactics. Even the one-click sharing of links that happens across the social web is a form of social media marketing.
The primary objective of Social Media Marketing is not only to start conversations and encourage sharing right now but also to keep those conversations and sharing related to your business going in order to indirectly promote your business well into the future.
Social Media Marketing also helps you directly market your business. For example, you can post a discount code for purchases on your Twitter profile or announce a new product on your Facebook page. Direct marketing tactics are used to motivate consumers to perform an action in the short-term as opposed to the long-term marketing objectives tied to ongoing conversations and sharing.
Social Media Marketing helps small business owners build brand awareness, create more entry points to their content and branded destinations across the web thanks to the power of the compounding effect of blogging and social media participation, and develop relationships with potential customers and online influencers around the world.
What is Social Networking?
Social Networking, also referred to as social media, encompasses many Internet-based tools that make it easier for people to listen, interact, engage and collaborate with each other. Social networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, message boards, Wikipedia and countless others are catching on like wildfire.
People use Social Networking to share recipes, photos, ideas and to keep friends updated on our lives. In many cases, you can use Social Networking tools from mobile devices, such as Blackberries and iPhones, as easily as from a PC or Mac.
By its very nature, social networking is interactive. You can tell anyone (that you want to talk to, and that wants to listen to you) anything about your opinions and experiences - and vice versa - through Blogs, Facebook pages, videos and even 140 character messages called tweets. You can also build communities based on common interests, causes and concerns.
While we don't have room to discuss all of the Social Networking sites, here's a sampler to help you get your head around today's most popular social networking tools:
- Blogs are sites that people set up to provide information and opinions about events, ideas or anything else they want to discuss. Blogs can include links to other related sites, photos, videos and sound as well as text.
- Twitter is a micro-blogging site. Twitter members post text messages called "tweets" of 140 characters or less, using either a computer or a cell phone. Other Twitter users can "follow" your posts, but you can decide if you want to let them follow you or not.
- Facebook is a social networking site where you can set up a profile, join different communities, and connect with friends. More than 600 million people currently use Facebook and the fastest growing demographic is people over the age of 35.
- LinkedIn is a social networking site with about 70 million members. While it shares a lot of the same features and capabilities you'll find on Facebook, LinkedIn focuses specifically on helping people build career and business communities.
- Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Articles provide links to related information. Wikipedia is shooting for 1 billion visitors by 2015.
- YouTube is a site to share and watch videos. Anyone can record a video and then upload and share it via the YouTube site. Everyone can watch the videos on YouTube. YouTube has 100 million + viewers a month.
