The Future Of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing – Where Are We Headed?

Social media optimization, or SMO, is a form of online marketing that focus on social media Web sites to generate traffic, buzz, and links back to your Web site. This includes the social media sites such as Digg, Sphinn, and StumbleUpon; video-sharing Web sites such as YouTube and Revver; and social network Web sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Buzz, and LinkedIn. Our Hollywood web designer team has referred to SMO as “the new SEO” because social media marketing is used to build instantly large numbers of links back to your Web site, leads to improved organic search-engine rankings.

Leading social networks contain millions of active members. Although there is a common misconception that only teenagers use Web sites like Facebook, millions of adults also use social networks to stay in touch with old and new friends and interact through sharing pictures, videos, and more. In fact, an increasing number of businesses are currently using Facebook and most recently Twitter as a vehicle to manage reputation, build brand recognition, promote products, and generate buzz.

Facebook has become the largest and most actively used social network with more than 400 million members. Facebook can be used to interact with current and prospective business associates while generating considerable traffic to your Web site and buzz about your business. Facebook is a service used by businesses of all sizes and people of all ages to network and communicate in real-time.

In addition to a personal profile page, Facebook also allows to create dedicated pages, commonly referred to as “fan pages,” to promote your business. A dedicated Facebook fan page provides a companies overview, Web site(s), contact info, press releases, videos, blog RSS, Twitter updates, company news, and status. The owner can also interact with his fans responding to their comments, posts as well as through other social networking tools made available through Facebook

StumbleUpon is a peer and social-networking technology that includes a toolbar that can be installed in your Web browser. The StumbleUpon toolbar allows to rate Web pages, videos, photos, and news articles. Submitting your own Web pages, videos, photos, and news articles to StumbleUpon is an effective way to generate buzz, traffic, and build back links to your Web site

Twitter is a free social networking service that allows micro blog short “updates” of 140 characters to followers from your mobile phone, by typing a message from the Twitter site, or using instant messaging from Jabber or Google Talk. Twitter is an excellent way to build a list of followers. For example, for business purposes, quick messages from your Twitter account, allow your friends to know when a popular item is restocked or as a means to share an unusual offer or deal

Twitter search is an increasingly popular real-time search engine (unlike the leading search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo that update their search indexes every few days or weeks) that updates its entire database of news and personal updates, as they occur. The most powerful way to use Twitter search and build a certain amount of followers is to type keywords that relate directly to your product or service. Once Twitter delivers search results, a follow-up of potential new users can be the next target

LinkedIn is a popular business-oriented social networking site that allows to build a list of contacts with other professional businesses and share information. As a part of a large database, new opportunities of  business proposals, employment and advertisement can be presented through this network as your connections grow

Video sharing Web sites such as YouTube and Revver allow users to upload, view, and share video clips. Videos is a powerful way to promote your business or to generate buzz and interest in your Web site. The most effective videos either tend to make people laugh or are extremely creative and unique. For example, some of the most viral videos on YouTube are homegrown videos that contain something outrageous or embarrassing. In addition, videos put a face on an otherwise faceless business pitch. Videos build trust in your users and can even result in a “celebrity” or “cult” following if people find your videos attractive

Social news Web sites such as Digg and Sphinn allow users to submit news stories for other members to review and vote. Currently and innovative news tend to make the front page of the social Web sites like Digg, which can generate thousands of unique visitors and hundreds of links back to your Web site within a few hours.

Getting a news story about your Web site on the front page of Digg is not easy; however, there are numerous proven strategies that would likely increase your odds

As social media marketing continues to mature, what are marketers planning to do? According to Awareness, Inc. and reported by eMarketer, 70 percent looked to expand their mix of platforms.

 

 

When it comes to social media platforms, the marketers’ top five social media choices are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and YouTube (and other video) as reported by both Awareness, Inc.’s research and Social Media Examiner’s 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

 

Social media marketing tools marketers are planning to use in 2012:

Here are the social media tools that marketers are considering according to Social Media Examiner’s 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. (Note: This research was fielded before Pinterest’s high growth earlier this year and Instagram’s purchase by Facebook.)

1.Google+. Google+’s 90 million users and 1 million business pages have marketers’ attention. In part, this interest is driven by their need to remain visible on Google search.

2.Blogs. Regardless the length of social media marketing experience, marketers want to learn more about blogs despite small usage by businesses. As a social media tool, blogs should be a no-brainer for businesses since they support the purchase process at every step, provide content that feeds social media, and support search optimization. 

3.Facebook. As the 800-pound gorilla of social media in terms of the number of users and time spent that continues to change, marketers can’t afford to ignore Facebook whether it’s part of your mix or not since it can have an impact on other social media platforms, either directly or indirectly

4.LinkedIn. While stronger among B2B marketers with its diverse content offering, don’t limit your thinking to B2B or customer acquisition. Think more broadly across your organization to human resources and other internal functions such as where building relationships is important

5.YouTube (and other video). As the second biggest social media platform after Facebook and the second biggest search engine, YouTube is a must-have in every marketer’s social media mix. Since video provides a 360-degree view of your product and shows it in real-life situations, with increased mobile devices usage consumers can view this content wherever they are

6.Twitter. Despite requiring its own language, Twitter continues to expand its reach among marketers. This micro blogging platform is best used for time-sensitive messages, customer service (if your team is properly trained), and daily specials

7.Social bookmarking/news sites. For marketers, social bookmarking is focused on socializing their owned media to increase earned media impressions. This applies to their website, blog, email, and other communications, online and offline

8.Photo sharing sites. Encompassing a wide range of options including Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, Ingram (now part of Facebook), Tumblr, and others, photos are 2012′s breakthrough, must-have social media element. The reason is simple. With a smart phone anyone can snap a shot and share it without worrying about their writing. It’s low-risk user-generated content that can lure you into contributing content. For marketers, it enhances the branding and builds content to the business.

9.Geo-location. Less than a quarter of respondents are looking to use geo-location in terms of platforms like Foursquare and Yelp. This is attributable to privacy concerns especially by women. What the data understates is the geo-location built into services like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and social shopping apps.

10.Forums. In the beginning of social media before the public Internet, forums take a number of different forms from bulletins to Q&A sites like LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers, and Quora. Q&A sites don’t necessarily require a formal social media process.

11.Daily deals. The decline in use of daily deals isn’t a surprise given the research showing risks to be higher than the potential gains and anecdotal evidence revealing a lack of long-term gain for merchants beyond word of mouth and foot traffic. That said, don’t under-estimate Amazon’s potential to expand this market via its extensive e-reader customer base.

 

The Future Of Social Media Marketing