Social Media (Web2.0)

Social Media is, without a doubt, the most wide open area for internet marketing today.  It’s so new that very few businesses even know what it is, to say nothing of having a plan to use it to their advantage.

This will change.

The business world is becoming more aware of it and is fumbling through using primarily trial and error.  The time will come when using social media as a marketing channel will be as common as using the yellow pages was 15 years ago.  It’s not here yet though, so the time is perfect to gain first mover advantage.

What is Social Media?

Social media takes many different forms, but they all have one thing in common – the content is produced primarily by “regular” people and that content can either spark interaction with other people or it’s part of a discussion that’s already happening.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Del.icio.us and Squidoo are all social media sites.  These sites exist as collection points for content produced by the people, to be consumed by the people, and the point is to engage each other  in a discussion about things that are important to us (whatever that may be).

How Do We Use Social Media to Our Advantage

The most straightforward and common way we use social media for our clients’ advantage is to tap its formidable SEO benefits.  The search engines love social media.  It’s like catnip to them.  We often create content for our clients that is designed to either rank on its own (for instance an article on Squidoo) or to link to our client’s main site (and thus help increase it’s ranking in the search engines).  These techniques are important and beneficial and completely legitimate if done correctly, but in doing so we’re enjoying the benefits of a side-effect of social media but not really using it to the fullest possible extent.

To fully use social media you need to figure out what the purpose of the site (and community) is and then make content which increases the knowledge, entertainment, or value of that community.  The end goal is to get people (potential clients or partners) to know, like and trust you.  Then when they need something that your business provides, they’ll use you instead of a stranger.

Traditional marketing in the social media arena can actually hurt you.  People love to buy, but they hate being sold.  The don’t like being marketed to when they recognize it as marketing.  So if you go in and get all promotional right out of the gate there’s going to be backlash.  We see it happen all the time.

For example.  The purpose of YouTube is to inform and entertain each other.  If you make a video, it better not be just a commercial or it’s going to be either ignored or attacked.  If, however, you make it entertaining or informative then it’ll be accepted and people will like it (and you) because you’ve fulfilled the primary function of the community.

Social media is complicated, but doing it well (and doing it now) will have a huge impact on your business.  Contact us and we can help you avoid the pitfalls and  make sure you do it right.