ComScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services, noted
that for the first time Facebook entered into the top 10 Web property
rankings for January 2009. According to ComScore and industry
followers, this is a sure sign that that this year we
will likely see continued growth in usage of social
media platforms.
Social media is the new (buzzword) that is used to describe a variety of Web-based
platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to
socially interact with one another via the Web or
Web 2.0 as these
services are normally labeled.
Some examples of social media
sites and applications include
Facebook,
YouTube,
Del.icio.us,
Twitter,
Digg,
blogs and other sites that have content largely
contributed based on user participation — that is, sites that organize
and deliver
user-generated content (UGC).
Many businesses
have primarily focused on getting listed in Google for no reason other than to
drive Google's search traffic to their own Web space. Social media
is no different — businesses are looking to leverage social
media traffic to help their own sites and brands. In November
traffic to Blogger, according to comScore, was 222 million.
It is easy to see why
businesses want to attract some of that traffic.
Not all
businesses need a Facebook page or a blog to promote and advertise
on the popular social media sites. In fact, you might do
better simply by making your own online presence social
media-friendly and let your users carry your product through to
these places instead.Recommended
Reading:
Facebook Tips: step-by-step tips for setting up your own
groups
Welcome Social Media in Your Organization
If you
think about it, social media is like an online version of word-of-mouth
advertising. One user on a social site may favorite, follow, or Digg
something about you, and suddenly your brand and name is now being shown to
all of their friends, and if they repost the mention, they open your brand
up to all of their friends, and so on down the line.
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Key Terms To Understanding Social Media:
Related Articles
on Webopedia:
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Businesses can start with a company presence
or profile on different, but appropriate, social media sites. You can create
a Fanpage on Facebook, get your employees on LinkedIn, sign up
for Twitter, or start submitting relevant articles and content to social
bookmarking sites, like Digg and StumbleUpon. You can also use free blogs
like Blogger to open a dialogue between your business and consumers.
When creating profiles on these sites, remember to link
them up. For example, on your Twitter profile you can include a link to your
blog or Web site. On Facebook you can install a Digg application so others
can see what you favorite, and a Facebook Twitter application lets
your Tweets become your Facebook status update. Twitter feeds can be added
to your blog, and so on. By linking up your profiles, with one update you can blast your message to multiple social sites.
Recommended Reading: Use the
Webopedia
Social Media Glossary
for help deciphering social media lingo.
Be Open, Honest, and a Little Social, Too
To
successfully market in social media spaces, a business needs to create
honest and open profiles that will appeal to consumers — don't
pretend you are "just another user" on the site. Be honest in letting users
know that you represent a business, versus being a single person who always
tweets and links to
one business. People will see right through this.
When you use these sites, you're opening
your business up to direct dialog and comments from users. One of the
biggest mistakes a business can make is not responding. When
comments are left on your blog, a message is posted to your
Facebook Fanpage wall or someone tweets a reply to your status on Twitter, make
sure this person gets a message back from you. It doesn't have to be a
long-winded dialog, but show that you have an interest in what they are
saying. If you never respond, the user does not have a reason to come back
to your profile. Make sure you have staff members
who will continue to update these pages with fresh posts and comments to
users. Daily updates are best.
One thing to remember is that as a business engaged in social
media, you might get comments and posts that are not positive — comments
that you might feel hurt your business reputation. A
business has to always be courteous and address the concerns appropriately, no
matter how rough the comment you are dealing with is. Social media links can travel fast —- and a single
negative comment left by your staff on a public
social profile will infiltrate the
faceosphere,
blogosphere and diggosphere (you get
the idea) faster than you can imagine.
Merge Social Media With Existing Advertising
If
you're considering abandoning any of your current advertising practices in favor of going
with social media, think again. Businesses need to look at incorporating current marketing channels with
new social media opportunities. For example,
Google search engine rankings (SEO) is on everyone's priority list. Blogging
is an excellent way to optimize your content for Google. You can design
content that works well on your blog, but don't stop there. Use portions of
the content, not only on
your Web site and blog, but also for Twitter updates, Facebook Notes, in
more traditional print ads and also in your e-mail marketing campaigns or
newsletters.
Social media also provides a way for you to promote new
launches and products. You can Twitter company news and announcements (via
links), you can add product unique and fun demos in video format to YouTube, or upload hot
product shots to Flickr or your Facebook Fanpage. When an online
publication covers your business or products those news stories can also be
added to your various online social media profiles.
Optimize Your Business for Social Media
It is
important to realize that not every business really needs a Facebook Fanpage or a Twitter profile. In some cases, it just might be that right now
your small business doesn't have time or resources to invest in social
media. Still, a business can still leverage social media traffic without
joining each of these sites just by making sure you have the basics in
place. An RSS feed is crucial to success. With an RSS feed you can
distribute your content to other sites and users.
Recommended Reading:
How to
Create an RSS Feed: Follow our step-by-step instructions and
you'll be creating your own RSS feeds in no time.
You can also make your Web pages social-friendly
by offering users recognizable badges they can click on to submit
your Web page or blog post to many of the popular social sites. Add This
is one of several free bookmarking and sharing button services that can help
spread your pages across multiple social media sites. You simply create a
free account and customize the button for use on a blog or Web site. From
there you copy and paste the provided code to your page. This gives
visitors to your site one-click access to share your page on the social
media sites they are using, like this:
Next >>
Part II: 30 Social Media Sites
