PART 1: Social Marketing Introduction

Millions upon millions of people around the world use the Internet every second of every day. The World Wide Web has fundamentally changed the way in which we interact with each other on a social level and with our colleagues, bosses and clients in the professional arena. It has also revolutionized the way the modern business appeals to its target audience and this is primarily because the Internet enables people like you and me to search for any product (from a garden hose to a high performance sports car) or service, be it a dentist or a hairdresser, simply by clicking through the virtual pages of this truly fathomless ocean of information.

Before the age of Information Technology, you would have to physically sift through the tissue-thin pages of some yellowed directory book for names, phone numbers and addresses. That or rely on the advice of a friend or a family member. Now, you are but a matter of mouse clicks away from not just the first, for example, florist it took you ages to find, but the best and closest florist to your doorstep! With a staggering 75% of all people globally going online to find information about the products and services they need, one thing has become exceedingly lucid about modern marketing principles: if you’re not visible online, then you are losing out on an incredible amount of business! Just ask the social marketing agency: all of these potential customers are hopping and skipping into your competition’s virtual retail store!

Social Media and Social Marketing Advertising: The Importance of Getting Found

With the uncompromised accessibility of the Internet, competition between businesses for this online visibility has become fierce, which means that strategies such as social media and social marketing have become indispensible. Without the right tools, strategies and investment of time and money, you may as well gift-wrap and hand all those potential customers over to your competition. So, what does all of this really mean and how can you, the business owner, increase the online visibility of your brand name and identity using social marketing?

There are three areas on the Internet that are important to target when designing an effective social media and social marketing campaign:

1. Search Engines: While this term may sound alien to you, you actually use them every time you browse the World Wide Web and are perhaps better known as Google, Yahoo! and MSN, amongst others.

2. Social Marketing in the Blogosphere: The realm dedicated to the written opinion and worded experience! Sites for social marketing include Blogger, WordPress and Bloggit.

3. Social Marketing in Social Media: The array of websites dedicated to promoting social interaction and media sharing (video, audio, photo, etc.), such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, YouTube and the 500+ more.

‘Being visible online’ means that the people who are searching for the products or services you sell must be able to find you in one or more of the above-mentioned spheres of the Internet. And when it comes to social marketing, the more the better!

Social Media and Social Marketing: Getting Found Online

It is the chief aim of any business website – with effective social marketing strategies in place – to provide information about the company, its brand name and identity, as well as its products and services. All of this information is presented in an engaging and attractive way so that web users will become convinced that they have found what they were originally looking for; not just the particular product or service itself, but a business brand they are willing to trust. So, how are all these potential customers supposed to find your website amongst the millions of companies and enterprises that sell similar, if not the same products and services? That’s where social marketing comes in!

Stay tuned for the next informative article in the series, PART 2: Getting Found on the Internet: A ‘How To’ Guide to Using Search Engines.