Social Media Marketing: Basics

Social media has been defined as “a group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.” Social media Marketing is an online marketing tool that businesses, entertainers, charities, politicians, and professionals use in order to get their product or service out to the public through advertising, blogs, “pages”, videos and numerous other forms. The internet has surpassed television and radio as the number one marketing tool for advertising. It is low costn and the ability to reach customers is open and infinite.

Social media marketing takes advantage of social media networks such as facebook, twitter, myspace and others in getting information about a product or service into the stream of commerce. Social media marketing takes on many forms.

Marketing strategies involving social media marketing are somewhat easier to perform than traditional marketing. Facebook, for example, is essentially a marketing researchers dream. Every individual on facebook has pictures, profiles, and status updates that can help a social media marketer discover everything they would want to know about an individuals propensities to purchase certain products or services. It is simple for social media marketing to pinpoint what individuals should be solicited with advertisements for different products.

Some of the greatest beneficiaries of online marketing strategies are entertainers. When you press “like” on a certain musician or entertainers “page” you are letting them know that you are a potential customer and they will then be able to easily and efficiently send you information about concert dates, new albums, and other important information about that subject.

Social media marketing is a great tool for businesses because when advertising is done over social media marketing it is essentially coming from a trusted third party source. Where an individual may ignore an advertisement sent to them directly from a business through the mail, e-mail, or website advertising; social media marketing is displayed in a way that gives the impression that the social media network believes that the information would interest you when in reality it is a marketing technique.

NEXT: Email Marketing