Social Media Marketing Defined: Social Media Marketing (SMM) refers to the art of building  trust and exposure for your brand utilizing social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Digg to name a few. What makes Social Media unique and attractive in a product or company’s marketing strategy is that through social media, consumers have the ability to interact, contribute and ultimately feel like they are a part of your brand or company.

 

 

Before the introduction of social media marketing, most marketing and advertising campaigns focused on the traditional push vs. pull models. In both models, the consumer was exposed to a product or service in which either he/she would be asked to purchase something.

With social media Web sites and blogs, company’s can leverage consumer trust in their product and continue to build their product line based on the real time feedback of consumers. As an extension of the social media benefits listed above, the following also holds true; when consumers feel like they have a particular connection or trust with your product, it becomes much easier to retain them. Costumer retention in today’s market is extremely important when one ways the major increase in competition as a result of the online shopping Web sites such as amazon.com and ebay.com.

Example: You own a sports apparel company in Los Angeles and are interested in targeting Los Angeles Internet shoppers that are looking to buy basketball equipment. Research has shown you that your target demographic is talking about a new pair of basketball sneakers that just came out. You identify the most authoritative social media Web sites/ blogs discussing these sneakers by identifying the social media Web sites/ blogs with the most traffic, responses and frequency surrounding the new basketball sneakers. You connect your company to these outlets by beginning to provide useful content and thoughts about these sneakers, like what makes them a great pair of sneakers, how they compare to other sneakers on the market, where you can get them for the best price etc. As your target demographic begins to identify your apparel company with useful information on issues important to them, consumers begin to visit your Web site for other information or products and continue to come back to you for other relevant information.

Process:

1.Define your goals: Is the purpose of your campaign to drive traffic to your Web site or is it to build brand awareness?

2.Define your key messages: What is it that you want people saying and associating your product/ brand with? Create 3 possible messages you would like people to associate with your brand. Expand on those examples. Give three phrases, elevator speeches and or slogans for each message.

3.Define your ROI: Once your goals are established, we can determine how to measure the success of your campaign ROI can be measured by traffic to any specific URL that you choose or can be measured of in terms of the magnitude and reach of online discussions and interaction surrounding your brand.

4.Develop a Social Media Game Plan: Before kicking a successful social media campaign into high gear, it is necessary to assess where the conversations and traffic are coming from and what is creating a buzz and interest in the interactive community/ who the buzz is centered around. Once we can address where to focus our efforts, then we aim and focus are efforts more efficiently, in a time and budget considerate fashion.

Products:

Web Site Widgets/Toolbars

Web site must first be set up to support sharing information/ linking to various social media Web sites. (A good example of a free toolbar for this is Wibiya)

Facebook:

Create, design and provide content for either a fan page or group. Gather potential friends. Create strategy for updates/ event invitations.

You Tube:

Create a personal You Tube account for the client. Set up client with the appropriate technology/ professionals necessary to implement new videos (if necessary). Upload videos for and embed code to company, personal Web site and spread the link in other social networking areas (e.g. Facebook and Twitter). They can be funny, educational or just outright entertaining, depending on your client audience.

Twitter:

Create and design Twitter account. Grow a follower base and be efficient with regards to who is being followed. Create strategy with client to insure frequency of updates and good content for tweets.

Digg:

Create and design Digg account. Start digging any articles or news relevant to your product, service or industry. Grow the client’s friend list, and share and learn from other professionals with similar interests.

 

Flickr:

Create and design Flickr and/ Picassa Web album. Upload relevant photos. Send invitations or links to your albums from Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

Linkedin:

Create and design the client’s Linkedin company profile. Strategize which groups to associate the client with. Set up a new group for the client and begin inviting other professionals to join.

Blogging:

Create, design and structure a unique blog for the company to add either as a feature or as part of their Web site. We will not write content for the blog. We will only facilitate the process of setting one up and showing the client how to run it.