Social media marketing is in the news a lot and it’s something that businesses are finally getting. According to a new report from the University of Massachusett’s Center for Marketing Research, more than 79% of Inc 500 firms said that social media is important for their marketing strategy.
But what is Social Media Marketing and how does it differ from traditional marketing and outbound marketing tricks like dial marketing? While social media is conducted on social media marketing channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, it’s not about the channels. Rather, it’s about the social media marketing VALUES.
What is Social Media?
Social media is participatory. Comments, conversation, news, photo, and video and podcasts are made public. This is not just comments and conversation from your brand but also from your customers, community, and — yes, it’s true — even detractors.
Social media connects experiences with a community and brand.
Social media is based on the notion of influence. This is the same principle as traditional public relations, but instead of the journalist acting as the gatekeeper, each individual can have influence – regardless of their day job.
Social media applies cross-platform and cross-task. It’s not about the platform. It’s also not just a marketing task, but an interdisciplinary and cross-department task. Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service.
Social media marketing is just one component of Inbound Marketing. It’s not the be-all and end all.
How about your business? Do you consider social media important? What results have you seen from using it?