Social Media Marketing refers to the use of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc. to promote a product, a service, or a company. The main goal of social media marketing is for brand or product awareness. Aside from that, social media marketing also helps in customer service, corporate branding, and reputation management.
As compared to traditional marketing through newspapers, television and radio which is one way communication from the source to the public, social media marketing is a two way communication between the product/service/company and the social media user. This means that there is interaction on a more personal level between the product/service/company and the social media user. The personal interaction between the two helps in fostering loyalty among customers and helps in the conversion of social media users to customers of the product/service/company.
Social media marketing programs usually focus on creating content such as pictures, videos and articles that attract the attention of social media users and encourage them to share the content to their social media networks. Through this, the content is passed on to others who find the content interesting enough to pass on also to their other social networks. The content is spread to a wider audience and it sticks through as it appears to be from a trusted, third party source as compared from that of one from the company itself. Therefore, this branch of marketing is a work-of-mouth type of marketing process. Due to the wide reach of social media sites, the product/service/company is introduced to a wider audience and not just limited to a particular area.
There are numerous ways to market your product/service/company through the use of social media. It could be as basic as opening up a Twitter account or a Facebook account for your product/service/company. It could also be through adding social media add ons to your site to enable visitors of your site to share the content/page to their social media network. Others also advertise their product/service/company through ads in social media sites. Serious social media marketers use a variety of techniques which makes it more effective since a wider audience is reached through different channels.
Social Media Marketing is a fairly new area of marketing. More and more companies and businesses are looking into social media for their marketing efforts because of its wide reach and because it costs less than traditional marketing. As technology advances, people continuously seek for effective venues to promote their businesses and companies. Social Media Marketing may be the next big thing in marketing and advertising.