Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler may not be winning many friends in their quest
for taxpayer dollars. But according to The Wall Street Journal, the auto giants
are attempting to win the media war by posting on social media sites like Facebook
and YouTube.
Social media is among the most powerful marketing and PR tools available today.
Search engine marketing specialists are helping businesses play the newest
game in online
marketing to promote their brand in the public sphere. Forrester
Research predicts that by 2013, businesses will spend almost $4.6 billion in
Web 2.0 tools in order to tap into social networks. Its April 2008 report forecast
forty-three percent growth in the social media market.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media refers to all the shared or community-based content on the web:
wikis, blogs, microblogs (Twitter), newsgroups, and sites for sharing video,
photos, links, and writing (YouTube, Flickr, MySpace). These vast public
forums present an invaluable resource for businesses to get across a marketingmessage or increase engagement with their brand.
How Can Businesses Make the Most of the Social Media Marketplace?
Social media is a grassroots enterprise built on constantly evolving content.
The old rules of print media marketing dont apply here, nor do the banner
ad-based strategies of early search engine marketing. Businesses new to this
game can get up to speed by signing on with a search engine marketing consultant.
Social media outsourcing providers handle the complex, ongoing engagement
necessary for companies to maintain a presence on the major public forums.
Tasks may include:
- Building a website
- Optimizing the site for search engine marketing
- Networking and Linking
- Publishing and updating content regularly
- Sharing and interacting with the
online community
- Monitoring the site
The Benefits of Social Media Outsourcing
Establishing an effective social media campaign takes intimate knowledge of
the available media and the techniques that resonate with users in each community.
Social media marketing takes a greater degree of sensitivity than traditional
search engine marketing, since users prize these platforms for their genuine,
grassroots character. Heavy-handed advertorial content or product promotion
will not sit well with this constituency, who regard brazen commercialism
as astroturfing (faking grassroots content). Social media audiences
demand value from commercial content.
Online marketing consultants offer this insider expertise, along with the
bandwidth necessary to create and maintain an active social media presence.
By signing on with a social media consultant, businesses can expect to
have an effective social media marketing campaign up and running in thirty
days or less, says outsourcing industry analyst Frank Casale.
Social media is the coming wave of online
marketing. No business can afford
to ignore this influential media space. With professional SEM or social media
outsourcing company willing to share their expertise, no business has to miss
out.
Sources
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
CRM Buyer
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