Social Marketing!

Although social marketing has been around for some years it existed by virtue of the evolution of technology & society and is a by product thereof. Social marketing in a simplistic sense is marketing a product or service by way of telling your ‘friends’ (i.e. your Facebook, Twitter or Myspace network), initially it was an avenue slightly unorthodox in nature as it would be stereotypical of a ‘salesperson’ to provide exceptional ‘deals’ to friends & family opposed to inducing a full price purchase from them.

Now days it is the norm to extend invitations to these networks of extended ‘friends’ or as they would appear ‘business associates’ to read a Blog, try a product, basically to check out something new. Ultimately, the aim of these mass communications is to drive traffic into every corner of the web at light speed; by contrast, an ‘old school’ approach would be to design a large advertising campaign, getting the word out through various mediums at an escalating cost.

It was destined for social marketing to become the initial means to spread word of products and services, the cost is virtually nil and any measurable cost is a ‘virtual’ one i.e. the time to create and the space it uses up; did you ever think that we would be using ‘time & space’ to explain a ‘virtual’ concept when those words engender the theme of the theory of relativity – it’s all relative.

Never the less, social marketing has further evolved to be coupled with the old school marketing campaign yet toned down to reduce costs. Where a tweet or comment was once a communication which only value was intrinsic to that of the person initiating the communication it is now a vital first step in the race to drive traffic and induce sales. This is a win-win situation as driving traffic is of great benefit as is any sales; just as evidence of a storm is discernable days after it has passed, the scattered effect of social marketing can be seen all over the web. It’s a matter of getting your communication into the information stream, once it’s in it can end up anywhere and everywhere.

Social Marketing is my very favorite way to introduce myself, my standards, and
my promotions. When people get to know your motives, and your intentions
they can then judge for themselves if you might be a person that they want to
do business with. I have been online now for many years, and most of my success
is from building trust in others who are seeking to earn money. Since I have now found the best method of receiving lots of money, it is my goal to share it with others who are struggling and searching for the same. Not as a business or organization, but just plain ole people helping people. There is nothing more rewarding.

It would seem that one reason for this sudden explosion in Twitter Marketing would be the current economic client, forcing smaller businesses to look for more cost effective marketing, recruitment outlets and customer service. And it seems that Twitter is starting to work for them.

Social Marketing is great, provided you are selling a product or trying to introduce yourself. I think that a lot of social markets (is that what they would be called? Not too sure..) like Twitter are way too saturated as it is to get a product out initially. Everywhere I look, I see bots following me looking to sell me a product or make me click a link. It's definitely the best advertising strategy I've ever seen. [/sarcasm] Ruins it for the rest of us.

I've had some very good results when marketing to other places like Facebook, you just either have to be very covert about your methods or very out-right about your product. "Fan pages" are brilliant ways, for a number of reasons.

Then again, you can always add in the viral aspect of social marketing that makes it even more brilliant. :)