What is Social Media?
When it comes to marketing, Social Media is a platform that you or your business can use to communicate with your audience “socially”. So, unlike your website which, is less interactive, social media platforms are used to actually interact with your fans and clients. Generally businesses use social media sites to share content, encourage audience participation and conversation. It’s also great for assisting clients (think live customer service), building a reputation for your brand across the web and sending targeted traffic to your website.
What are some popular Social Media websites?
Social sites can range from Social Bookmarking Sites to Social News Sites. Eminent Social Media focuses on Social Networking Sites and Social Photo and Video Sharing Sites for our client Social Media development and management.
Social Sites Defined:
- Social Bookmarking Sites: (Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon) Interact by tagging (bookmarking) websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people.
- Social News Sites: (Digg, Reddit) Interact posting your own content or by voting for articles and commenting on them.
- Social Networking: (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+) Interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions.
- Social Photo and Video Sharing Sites: (YouTube, Flickr) Interact by sharing photos or videos and making comments on other videos or images.
Social Media Optimization verses Social Media Marketing: What’s the difference?
When you register for a new social media account, you are prompted to fill out bios, add business details, links back to your website, etc. Because there is an opportunity to utilize free flowing fields on many of the popular social sites, this is where we would optimize your profiles using your keyword strategy and other relevant information to make your profiles more visible to the search engines. Optimization is built in to the on-going strategy as well, through content and interaction.
Social Media Marketing is taking your now optimized platforms and using them to market to your audience. This can be done through sharing, interacting, posting images and videos, commenting on relevant posts, etc. When you use our marketing services, we also link boost your profile locations, which is an SEO technique used to increase your search engine rankings for relevant keywords from your marketing strategies.
How many social media sites should I sign up for?
There are thousands of social media sites to choose from, but reality is, it’s impossible to play an active role on them all. Depending on your niche and industry, it’s more effective when 2-5 Social Media communities are being utilized. Most businesses need a Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. If you have videos then we also recommend YouTube and sometimes Vimeo. For images and custom photography, we recommend Flickr.
When building your Social Reputation and Brand Identity it’s important to keep your profiles and accounts limited to what is realistically manageable, so you know the message being communicated is precise and consistent and your efforts are focused on the platforms that reach the largest, most targeted audience.
Why is Social Media marketing worth my time and investment?
Social Media is KEY to your online marketing strategies. When done properly, your optimized social media profiles will dramatically increase your brand awareness, create viral marketing opportunities, allow you to speak directly to your audience and lead nurture followers who may have not converted initially, but will over time through your social interactions. Social media can be built into your website and readers can share your content, helping it gain additional exposure which expands your reach on the internet. There is also a lot of search engine value in social marketing and referral traffic, resulting in increased website traffic and conversions.
How much traffic can I expect to get from social media?
Social Media referral traffic to your website ranges as much as business types vary. There is not a ‘set’ number you can expect, you may get nothing or you may get thousands of visitors. Some social sites (like Facebook) are capable of sending several thousand of visitors, while smaller, niche sites may send a few hundred or less. Pages that draw a lot of inbound links are likely to rank well in search engines, which in turn can lead to tons of on-going traffic. But remember, the goal is to focus on quality, not necessarily quantity – social media should never be about how many followers you can get, or how much traffic you can generate; but rather increasing quality traffic for better conversions.
How can I make money with social media?
Generally speaking, Social Media should be looked at as part of a larger marketing strategy. Of course there are businesses that have a lot more viral marketing opportunity through social media interaction simply because of the type of service or product they have – however, many traditional businesses should expect social marketing to be somewhat supplemental to other website marketing strategies, such as SEO and Link Building or Pay Per Click Campaigns for increased website traffic. However, social media marketing can certainly generate leads, direct clicks (referral traffic), newsletter sign ups and raise awareness for your brand – all resulting in increased conversions and increased bottom lines!
Have a question of your own? Bring it on! Just send it to hello@eminentsocialmedia.com, contact us here or give us a call at 800-871-4130 ext 1!
