The popularity of 
social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook has increased at a phenomenal rate in recent years, as documented by PaidContent’s “Twitter Added 5 Million users in March” written in April 2009, and MediaPost’s 2009 report “Facebook reaches 200 million active users”. Other more recent statistics have also spread some negative publicity about social media – for example, a poll conducted by Sophos in May 2010 revealed that many Facebook users are thinking about quitting their use of this very popular social media site due to privacy concerns.
As we witness evolving trends in the popularity of different social media sites, one thing that we can be sure about is that social media marketing is here to stay. Social media can be effectively used by businesses for online marketing and branding through both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) networking.
Here are some of the popular ways in which social media is currently used by businesses:
Branding – it’s a great way to get the word out about your brand and to rise above the pack of your competitors.
Building communities – people enjoy the interactive element of social media. They are interested in expressing their opinions and participating in conversations about all sorts of subjects. Holding competitions that offers enticing prizes are a great way to create buzz and get people talking about your brand.
Advertising medium – you can advertise your brand to a huge audience on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Interaction – the name of the game with social media sites is interaction, whether it is with your customers or peers. For B2C purposes, the more you get to know your customers, the better your ability to market your products and services to your target audience. On the B2B side of the ledger, building social media relationships with other businesses that can complement your own company is another technique used by savvy business owners to promote awareness about their brand.
Market research – social media can also be used for market research purposes. It’s a great way for finding out more information about your prospective customers – their likes and dislikes, their preferences, to find out their opinions on new products that your business is releasing, or to ask on what your customers want for future products.
Social media is here to stay, and your business needs to develop a social marketing strategy that allows you to leverage the enormous power of social networks in promoting your products and winning new customers. Businesses that don’t take advantage of the rise of social media networking are failing to use one of the most potent marketing weapons in their arsenal.
[...] Read about the ways in which top social media sites are used by businesses who are serious about marketing using social media. Posted by nita on Jul.01, 2010 Filed in: Blog Related [...]