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Social Media Marketing – How to??

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Social Media…???Social Media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. Its various characteristics are:

Participation : It blurs the line between media and audience

Openness : They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information.

Conversation : Not a “broadcast” but a two-way conversation

Community : Allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively

Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.

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What is Social Media Marketing

• Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

• There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

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Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is becoming a major tool for Search Engine Optimization. Primary and Secondary Traffic: Though the primary traffic, which comes

directly from the social media websites ,may not be so useful, the secondary traffic ,which is referral traffic from websites which link to and send you visitors after they come across your content through the social sites, are very targeted and useful for your websites.

High Quality Links: When a website receives a large number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, it develops authority. Search engines trust it. It will help immensely in Search engine ranking as well. In a sense, you are obtaining these quality links through borrowed trust.

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Why to do Social Media Marketing• It’s Natural.-Not only do you get natural links without any discernible pattern, your website is

exposed to large groups of people in a spontaneous fashion. This differs from paid advertising which has overt commercial overtones.

• It’s Defensible.- Once successfully mastered, social communities can be a great source of web traffic on top of any traffic you are already receiving from search engines. While you can’t easily increase your search engine traffic, social media traffic can be very easily controlled through strategic marketing.

• It’s Low-cost/High returns.- If done by yourself, costs are limited to only time and perhaps the expenses involved in hiring a freelance programmer/designer. The benefits will often exceed the cost. It would take you thousands of dollars to buy many links; social media has the ability to give you that for free.

• It Complements Other Efforts.- Social media optimization and marketing is usually community-specific. It doesn’t interfere with any other methods of getting traffic to your website. It can and will fit perfectly with an advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.

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Instruments of Social Media• Social networks : These sites allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with friends to

share content and communication. Like Facebook, MySpace.

• Blogs : Perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs are online journals, with entries appearing with the most recent first.

• Wikis: These websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document or database.

• Podcasts : Audio and video files that are available by subscription, through services like Apple iTunes.

• Forums: Areas for online discussion, often around specific topics and interests.

• Content communities: The most popular content communities tend to form around photos (Flickr), bookmarked links (del.icio.us) and videos (YouTube).

• Micro blogging: Social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content are distributed online and through the mobile phone network

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Using Social Media Marketing Instruments

Social Networks: Anyone can connect with anyone from anywhere. Some tips for effective marketing in social

networks :

a) Make friends • Find your existing connections • Network through groups • Add to your email signature, blog articles, bio or profile…

b) Be helpful • Answer questions • Share interesting content • Make connections

Some major recommended social networks are: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn,Hubspot.

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Using the Instruments…. Blogs: A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries

of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Tips for blogging • Make your opinion known • Link like crazy • Write less • 250 Words is enough • Make Headlines snappy • Write with passion • Include Bullet point lists • Edit your post • Make your posts easy to scan • Be consistent with your style • Litter the post with keywords

Some recommended blogs are Wordpress,Blogger.

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Using the instrumentsWikis : They are great for collaborative working, for instance creating a large document or project plan with a

team in several offices.Tips for using Wikis for marketing:• Collaborate on website content with peers• Create a press page • Write press releases collaboratively .Document your processes (how do you upload a press release, write a

blog, where is your booth property stored, where are your promotion codes?) • Plan an event: all the details such as time, location, staffing, shipping, URLs, contact information, etc. • Report the results of your ad campaigns .• Document every iteration you make on your Google Adwords campaigns so you can go back to them later

and reverse your changes or understand why your campaign performed how it did• Create a reseller partner wiki • Jot down your ideas, collect your thoughts, write up a brilliant marketing strategy • Share information about your competitors, their pricing, URLs, their strengths and weaknesses• Review, comment on, and contribute to your co-workers’ work on the wiki

Some recommended wikis are : Wikipedia, Wikia, Wikihow, Wikinews.

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Using the Instruments

Podcasts: It is the subscription feature that makes a podcast so powerful as a form of social media.

Tips for marketing:

• The most basic way of participating in a podcast for brand awareness is to sponsor a podcast related to your product.

• You can tap one of your own experts or endorsers to create valid content that would be interesting to your buyers.

• You can also use podcasts to enhance the mileage of an existing PR event.

Some recommended podcasts are iPod with iTunes, Podcast Alley, Yahoo Podcasts.

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Using the InstrumentsForums: Internet forums are the longest established form of online social media.

Some tips for using internet forums for marketing:

• You should never join a forum to just start posting about how your product or service is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

• You can generally use your signature line to promote your Web site, product, or service.

• Avoid simple, and what are often considered useless, one line posts that say something like "Good idea" or just posting a smile icon. Rather, make sure posts are valuable.

• Don't just post a few times to the forum then disappear. Visit the forum consistently, so you can begin to build relationships.

There are lot of forums for different niches like sports, news, internet marketing etc.

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How to do Social Media Marketing(Continued)

Content Communities: Content communities look a bit like social networks – you have to register, you get a home page and you can make connections with friends.

They comprise of:

• Social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon-: Links to your own web site or blog when posted to a social bookmarking site create backlinks to your site. Search engines value inbound links to your site.

• Video-sharing sites like YouTube: The viral nature of YouTube videos helps in generating traffic for your sites, products etc.

• Photographs sharing sites like Flickr: If there is a Flickr group about you , it helps in creating relationships. As testament to its enormous success, Flickr was bought by Yahoo! in 2005 for an estimated US $30 million.

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Using the InstrumentsMicro-Blogging: Micro-blogging is tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging and social

networking ,with Twitter being the new rage.

Some tips for marketing:• Build a Strong Network of Friends as it will lead to chances of higher secondary traffic.

• Synchronize Updates with your Website

• Develop a Natural User Profile and update with interesting stuff.

• Cross Post Your Updates , if you are member of multiple blogging platforms.

• Concentrate on one account on rather multiple accounts.

• Network with Other Users by sending private messages to friends.

• Ask Questions for Information ,if you already have large number of people following your updates.

Major Micro-blogging networks are: Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce etc.

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Thank you for watching our presentation

For in depth information on Social Media and other internet marketing methods please

logon to http://www.iexpertsforum.com