Social Media Marketing for Business

A decade or so ago, we used traditional media (newspapers, radio, television, and – later – corporate websites) and traditional vehicles (telephone and email, for example) to create, gather, and share information about the world around us -- ourselves, organizations, businesses, products, services, events, and news). Today, more often then not, we use Social Media.

What is Social Media?

Social Media is a group of web-based and mobile Internet applications (or sites) like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and blogs, that allow for the exchange of user-generated content. It’s interactive, dynamic, and allows for the instant creation, gathering, and sharing of information. Social Media has become an incredibly powerful communication tool, and has influenced how we get, discuss, and react to information. More, with social media, news and views spread like wildfire (for better or for worse).

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing is the use of those applications/sites by individuals, organizations, and businesses to market themselves -- to tell the world (their audience, their social network, or their customers/clients) about their perspectives, their mandates, or their unique selling points. And while traditional marketing (newspaper, radio, television) was often expensive, slow, and one-sided, Social Media Marketing allows us to do the telling in a much cheaper and faster way.

Why is Social Media Marketing great for business?

Social Media is a great marketing tool for businesses:

It’s far less expensive than traditional media (often it’s free), and it’s instant! Users can take advantage of an already in-place network of active social media users to provide their business with powerful word-of-mouth advertising, and can reach more people faster than traditional marketing vehicles. Further, it’s interactive and dynamic and, as such, a great way to build brand loyalty. (Current and potential customers love to feel heard.)  

Social Media Marketing is also a great tool for creating consistent branding over a variety of platforms, and a great tool for marketing campaigns -- not the least of which benefit  is the fact that you can quickly measure campaign success and feedback.  And depending on feedback, campaigns can be targeted easily by choosing different applications/sites and user groups.  

Social media marketing can help to increase brand awareness, traffic, customer reach and to help you understand customer behaviour, feedback. But it can also be a risky endeavor if you don’t have time, knowledge, and experience on your side. Here’s why:

Traditional media (news, TV, radio) was one-sided – as audience members we were told something, we listened, and we chose whether or not to act. As the individuals, organizations, and businesses who did the marketing, we had complete control over if, when, and how we respond to feedback, complaints, and trends.

With social media marketing, we’re saying something (publicly) about our business/brand, and not only asking audience members (customers/clients) to act, but also asking them to help us out by way of spreading/sharing our message. It gives the customer the control.

So what if feedback isn’t good?

We can’t just participate in Social Media Marketing by getting the message out there. We must hear the response, analyze it, and then react. That's where Social Media Monitoring comes in.

Related Reading:
Top Social Media Monitoring Tools & Software
Social Media Monitoring for Business
Explore Stir's Social Media Marketing Services