Social media marketing is the use of a variety of social networking platforms and communities for marketing, customer service, public relations, and sales.
They can include the most commonly used networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter or they may be effectively managed through blogs or niche communities such as LinkedIn or any combination of options.
Its goal is to attract attention about a specific company or event of interest.
The buzz that is created is spread by word of mouth, otherwise known as virally.
As more people talk about the product or organization, brand recognition is increased.
Social media marketing is not controlled the way traditional marketing campaigns are.
Once it has been released on the Internet, it takes on a life of its own.
It encourages user participation in a variety of discussion settings.
Whether the buzz is created by a press release, advertisement, video clip or photo, the publicity that spreads like wildfire is just as uncontrolled.
As a result, organizations that choose to promote themselves online should take care when crafting the campaign.
Although the popularity of the Internet has allowed us to connect with people around the globe, sometimes the message gets lost.
There is so much information available today that most people are overloaded.
In the last few years, social media marketing has gained acceptance as a useful and effective marketing method.
When in its infancy, most organizations concentrated on getting as much news and information posted on the Internet as possible.
They tried to have a presence in all of the most popular social networking communities as well as some of the niche blogging platforms.
As Web 2.
0 features became familiar to the user at large, target markets were more firmly defined.
Organizations are beginning to realize that they need to focus on the networks where their primary consumer has a web presence, rather than the largest networks.
People care about what is going on in their community.
This is as true for their online communities as it is in their physical location.
By focusing social media marketing campaigns in these areas, brand recognition will increase and marketing budgets are used more efficiently.
Once the right customer base has been found, the attention results in an increased return on investment as well as revenue.
Market research is more effective and the value of consumer feedback becomes priceless in understanding what the customer wants.