How to get the benefit of Social Media Marketing?

Comscore Feb 09 result shows that face book get over a third of the numbers of unique visitors of Google and it continuous to grow. Face book is getting closer to Google. Social network have already taken over mail in terms of popularity.


I am not writing this piece to promote face book, I just want to draw attention on social media sites like facebook, twitter, linkedin, stumble upon can help a brand manager to drive more traffic to his/her website and get more conversion at lower cost. Brand managers can interact with people while increasing brand awareness. One can also watch what people are saying about his/her business on social media sites and use that information to manage online reputation.
There is an opportunity available in social media sites to cash. Are we marketers/brand managers are cashing on this fastest growing social media space? Here are few points to keep in mind while cashing on social marketing.

Blogs: Blogging is a great way to get interactively connected with your customers. Its important to put a regular schedule to update your blog otherwise people will check your blog and they will see the same old stuff so often that they will stop visiting your site.

Blogging is about creating conversation and joining others in progress. It’s also important to know what is others in your industry are saying. Get in on the discussion by posting your comments. Blog post would always be encouraged to give your name, URL when leaving a comment. This is a great way of build visibility. One should also include a blogroll for link trading.

Make Friends: it’s your obligation to follow rules and regulations posted on various social media websites while exploring the social marketing opportunities. Don’t spam the system. Make sure you should know them and follow them.

The most important rule of social marketing is always making a contribution to the community rather than only giving product messages.

Join Groups: you need to join different groups to find your customers. Groups at Yahoo and Google are organized into interest based list. Join the group and start contributing in the group and make friends through comments and participate in discussion.

Answers: Yahoo answer is a good place to share your expertise and make a direct connection with your potential customer. It’s a great place for you to strike away at prospects. You are getting a person who needs your expertise.

Video Blogging: It offers a richer web experience than a text blogging because its combine’s movies, sound, still images, and text, increasing the information and potentially emotions shared with users. Rich media allows to explore new ways of communication. Video blogging is a good choice to showcase your product. It’s a good option for business like travel, hotel, restaurant, real estate etc.

Book Marking:: There are many book marking sites available today viz Stumble Upon, Digg, Delicious etc. Stumble upon discovers websites based on your interest, learns what you like and brings you more. It is easier and much quicker to join groups related to your industry and add friends from those groups. Once you have added friends you can post sticky content, other users will stumble upon what you have added. When visitors give your pages good feedback, your content would be shown to more users. Stumble upon biggest benefit is to increase the traffic. You can’t sell your product and services on stumble upon.