Social Marketing Is The New Wild West Of The Internet. Will You Thrive, Or Merely Survive?

Social marketing is a form of internet marketing which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks. Social Media is a shorter term that describes the space overall, and covers the activities around social interaction, content, videos, images and audio exposure.

How to convert and monetize all this activity with social media?

Since social marketing allows you to interact with others, create and promote content that can get links and viral attraction, you can – with the right strategy – reach key influencers using this medium. You *can* convert traffic if you target appropriately (research needed), and do not spam. Read each point below to get a deeper understanding.

Assistance:

The most important tip in the social media workplace is to limit talking about yourself – provide ways to help others instead. Remember, it’s not about you, its about your customers/visitors/clients.

Contribute:

As in every other aspect of marketing online, content is king! Providing quality content will always separate you from the masses.

Videos:

Video marketing on the web is growing exponentially. Be sure to avoid direct selling. Humor and weirdness work well in this medium.

MicroCommunities:

Locate and join microcommunities – they are social communities that are relevant to your business. It is much easier to have your voice heard in these and similar markets, than trying a post to Digg that may go nowhere. Those are the perfect places for the “big fish in a small pond” rule. Create highly relevant and linkworthy content, research what others are writing about, and connect with the top players and influencers.

Submit:

Review the resources below, and consider building out profiles over time. If you submit content, make sure it’s useful, unique and that the title of your post stands out. Pick one or two resources to start, and don’t overextend yourself. Some of the top social marketers in the industry spend 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. This is a lot of manual (social) labor, but you don’t have to go at it that hard. Make sure to ask friends to vote or comment on your postings, befriend others, but no spam. Make intelligent posts and do not spam. The submission(s) will most likely be rejected, and worst case, your account blocked or suspended.

Top Social Media Resources:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
4. Del.icio.us
5. StumbleUpon
6. LinkedIn
7. Flickr
8. Digg
9. Reddit
10. Technorati

Social marketing is very much in the infancy stage. It is all the rage right now, and no one really knows whether it will continue to grow exponentially or whether it will slowly fade away. The important thing to do, in the words of Nike, is just do it! Get in there, contribute, and have fun!

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