From the Notebook

Before anyone can make a good start at social media marketing, there is the need to understand what he or she is signing up for. Understanding social media marketing will only make it easier for internet marketers to succeed as businessmen. It can be easily understood once we understand the words “Social Media” and “Marketing”.

What is Social Media?

Social media are tools used for interaction over the internet, using highly accessible communication techniques. It can also be defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”

For those who may want to know what Web 2.0 is, it is a web application that facilitates users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as consumers of user-generated content in a virtual community.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. It has increased communication for organizations promoting brand awareness and improving customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

What is marketing?

Marketing is a process involving market research, selling products and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising. It involves strategies for sales techniques, business communication, improved customer relationships and business development.

Marketing requires identifying potential customers, maintaining them and looking out for customer satisfaction.

When marketing is done over the internet it is known as Internet Marketing and most businesses today depend largely on internet marketing. They cannot survive without actively taking part in social media marketing.

Hence – Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is simply the combination of the definitions above.

It is a form of internet marketing which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in social media networks. It uses social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service to promote business online.

It compounds activities around social interaction, content, videos, images and audio exposure, making it interesting and exciting for customers and marketers alike. It is a way of engaging online communities for the purpose of generating exposure, opportunities and sales. It also includes writing content that is remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content can then be marketed by popularizing it or even by creating a “viral” video on YouTube and other video supporting sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Stumbleupon, social media sharing Flickr, YouTube, review/ratings sites like ePinions, and many more.

Advantage of Social Media Marketing

The number one advantage is generating exposure for a business, followed by increased traffic and the building of new business partnerships.