What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is a business’s use of social media to better understand customer’s wants and needs while engaging them and having them communicate their opinions. SMM can help increase a firms their search engine rankings as well as help generate qualified leads. Using SMM can help businesses achieve their business objectives.
Company's must carefully plan these websites and make them as engaging as possible for their customers. These websites are designed to keep customer's aware of the business and to keep them intrigued. Social Media websites can help keep customers updated with a business and keep them loyal to the company.
Social media has become such a strong tool in marketing for businesses in today's markets. Not only do B2C use these, but B2B as well as non-profit organizations use them as well. Although B2B firms have a larger present on Social Media sites than B2C, they do not have any more significant marketing.
Does Social Media Marketing cost money?
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS NOT FREE!
A huge misconception about SMM is that it is free. Yes, signing up for Facebook and Twitter does not cost us any money. However, maintaining a website does cost money.
Businesses must pay an employee to maintain their social media websites. Answering questions, updating information, and monitoring the websites must all be done by someone whether it is part time or full time, and minimum wage or a higher wage.
Blogging
Blogging is also a type of social media. When bloggers talk about a business, their opinions are seen as more trustworthy and reliable. Customer's like to hear about what other people have to say about a product or service rather than hearing it from the company itself. Why is this? Customer's believe that businesses will say anything to customer's to make a sale-even if the truth is bent a little bit.
Small Businesses and Social Media Marketing
Small businesses are beginning to use SMM more often in today's market. Many small businesses were scared of the feedback customer's would post about their products or services and would shy away from this type of marketing. However, studies are now proving that most reviews are positive. These positive reviews are because customers like to help other customers.
To help you better understand Social Media Marketing, take a look at the video I have popsted below!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
Amanda Camara
great job. businesses that dont use social media are definitely falling behind the ones that do. it lets them access a customer base quicker and cheaper than conventional marketing. i also agree with the point that smm isnt free but, although it isnt free its a great way to build a customer base for cheaper than older methods.
ReplyDeleteGood sharing. Now it is no wonder to see a lot of social media brand name such as facebook, twitter and linked in showing at foot of every electronic edition of ads and post. We are entering a stage of regarding them as an necessity than the promotion for products in the old days. Still, it's amazing to witness it to bring new power for media and small size companies and streghten our economy.
ReplyDeleteGood blog Amanda! I agree with you entirely that organizations should be involved with social media, and taking it serious. It is a great cheap avenue to venture into, and the demand for it is absolutely huge right now. It's amazing the growth social media has shown over the past years, I think they will be a great tool for companies for years to come.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the use of social media will continue to grow over the coming years. The difficult task that business's need to overcoming is choosing the right social media tool. It seems as if a new site or social media tool is introduced weekly. Once companies can overcome this hurdle, then "sky's the limit." Excellent Post
DeleteI loved your post Amanda! I agree with you completely that businesses should use social media for business. With the interactive technology used in social networking today, it can have a very effective impact on your business's success. I also loved your part about how it's not free. Many people confuse this subject, and they don't realize that to advertise on a facebook and twitter page you need to pay for it. Sure you can create a page and a twitter handle, but to really reach your target group, it's wise to pay for the advertisements on facebook and twitter.
ReplyDeleteYes. Many people assume social media marketing is free because you can sign up on the websites for free. But they do not understand the time spent on making these "pages" effective. Companies have to pay people to go on the pages and comment back, update the information, and check on the page to make sure there is not anything too harmful being said.
ReplyDeleteThat`s a great post Amanda!
ReplyDeleteyes, Social media can be used to promote or give a positive image about your company`s product or service, and whether it is a B2B or a B2C social media marketing, But a lot of business fail to do so and they could actually end up giving a negative image about their product/service because they might either not respond to all the people's comments(69% of businesses do not respond to comments)or might fail to make the boring exciting, not set a posting scchedule, Over-post, etc. And yea!that's why It's not free, as you mentioned in your post, that Businesses must pay an employee to maintain their social media websites.
I enjoyed reading your blog on Social Media. A lot of people think that they know everything about social media, but there is a lot to know and understand. Some businesses do not realize how important social media is, and some who do use it, do not to a good job at updating it for consumers. By using social media you really need to make sure that you are keeping it updated with new information, and responding to consumers. Overall a great blog Amanda, Social Media is a very interesting topic to read and learn about.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! So many business's fail to see the importance of social media. Especially when they are in the stage of creating brand awareness and trying to have brand recognition. They need to understand that it is more uncommon for someone NOT to have social media and that everyone is online. Definitely the way of the future!
ReplyDeleteThe social media marketing is very successful and can help a organization make whats weak in their organization stronger. For example mc donalds has that new question blog site where u can ask any questions and they will be answered. Im pretty sure they all take advantage on what people complain about and make sure whatever it is gets better. Grea blog Amanda
ReplyDeleteI think that larger companies do not focus to much on social media web sites is because they are so large, that they figure if people want information about them they will just go to there site as to see there facebook page. as far as twitter i think it is a valuable tool for people inside a company to use. people working for clothing lines or shoe or any other kind of retail that people are interested inn should all have a twitter account to give up to date on what is going on with consumers fav brands
ReplyDeleteGreat work, Agree with you mentioned above that every business uses SMM to promote their products. Business they can find their customers only through SMM.I agree with the fact that social media does not come with lot of cost. But it also advised that social media has to be planned and stragised well. Social media has evolved and proved to be an advantage for any brand promotion.
ReplyDeleteThis regarding Fatme's point where she talks about how little company's actually reply to customers. OI can speak from experience, where I work there is one girl who deals with social media which is fine, because it is a small company, but when she finds a negative comment concerning HostPapa service, the employee actually sends out an email with the information, and the contact of the person to all the call center and then has to wait to hear back until someone has replied before she can then clear that complaint and reply to the person. Because she does not know the technical aspects of how to help the angry customer she has to have ask for help which is not always the best system. Someone that understands the systems and how to help tech wise should maybe be replying on Facebook and Twitter.
ReplyDeleteCustomers like to help other customers. I like how you worded that. This ties back into what you said about bloggers and how they are more trust worthy and reliable. I agree with this in the sense that these are customers giving out tips to other potential customers. I would believe a blogger before I would ever believe the company especially if it were regarding a product that the blogger had actually used and I was planning on trying that product.
ReplyDeleteThe trick to SMM is getting peoples attention at the start. If you are a new business, you need to post something that is compelling, humourous, or just all around eye grabbing, that way you can start a customer base where you get a steady feed back. I do think its funny that people think SMM is free, time and man power still cost money last time I checked.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to note that what type of social media you use and what type of content you post, depends on who your target market is. Posting content your target market would not enjoy or posting on a social media site that your target market would not be on is not productive. Using social media effectively requires some research.
ReplyDeleteTo elaborate on what would help company's better understand consumer wants and needs; the blogging and social media that you wrote about as well as YouTube videos, wikis, and pod-casting are all forms of Consumer generated content. This is really where company's gather information which gives them the real wants and needs of consumers, because it is coming directly from consumers.
ReplyDeleteWell done Amanda.
ReplyDeleteSocial Media is a huge outlet for any business, and if used properly can be a huge asset. Nearly everyone uses social media, and we are on it a lot. We can Choose who and what products we follow or like, so in turn, marketers know that majority of their advertising will be seen by their traget
Great blog Amanda! Business' have to understand the importance of the use of Social Media Marketing. It is definitely a very important way to connect with customers and get their feedback an opinion through it. Seems easy for businesses to keep their facebooks or twitters updated, but it is actually a lot of work. The better response we want from our visitors or customers,the more engaging and interesting the content should be.
ReplyDeleteI agree that businesses should look into taking marketing efforts to social media. However, I know that it may not always be successful. The business I worked for in the summer was in an industry where social media was not necessary, they relied on direct marketing rather than marketing via social media.
ReplyDeleteThrough this experience I think it depends on the type of business you are involved in.
Great Post, I agree with you that websites should understand the importance of social media an they should not take it lightly because social media is the cheapest and easiest way for companies promote their products or services.Companies need to interact with their existing and new customers for their feedback and opinions, so that they can understand about their consumers and make more utilization of social media.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
ReplyDeleteSocial media is becoming an integral part of a company's marketing plan. Some rely on it more than others depending on the nature of business they participate in. To Sam's point - I agree, interaction is important in providing feedback and gathering information to acquire new customers.
Cool post on a topic that I have had a keen interest in for some time, social media marketing is the marketing of the future in my opinion, it is easy to use and reaches a massive audience. Any company that doesn't utilize this great resource is sure to suffer for it.
ReplyDeleteSocial media marketing is definitely the way of the future. It's such a great way to target many people perfectly, since they give you all the information willingly. Simple, fast, efficient.
ReplyDeleteSocial media marketing is important aspect in the business world these days becuase it is easy way to reach your customers and understand thier needs and also give you chance to increase sales.
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