Photo by Ludwig GatzkeBy: SEO Sapien

A lot of people are confused by the term social media marketing and believe that it is only advertising on a social networking site, where networks monitor what users are doing and place ads next to them, hoping they will get a click. However, social media marketing is actually about different kinds of collaborations between people and finding ways that individual fans of a particular brand product or even a company can endorse it themselves on various social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others.

Social media marketing differs from industrial media marketing in that industrial media generally uses very expensive tools requiring a great deal of financial capital to publish its information, where as social media marketing uses fairly inexpensive tools that enables anyone anywhere to publish or access information. Both social media and industrial media have the capability to reach a small audience of one or two, or large audiences of millions. However, the time lag is generally much longer between a communications from industrial media as compared to social media when responses can be instantaneous. In addition, there are currently few, if any, limitations on social media such as on pages or hours. The audiences are encouraged to be active participants, to add comments, or blog or even edit articles or stories, as they deem necessary.

Social media optimization, or SMO, uses methods that generate publicity through social media and online community websites. There are many different types of technologies and applications for social media like blogs, vlogs, wikis, emails, podcasts, instant messaging and many more. Two of the most popular reference services are Google and Wikipedia. You can share photos at Flickr, videos at YouTube, personal music at Last.fm, microblog on Jaiku and Twitter. Besides the now universally known Facebook and MySpace, you can also go social networking on Avatars United, Youmeo and Second Life (social network via virtual reality).

Experts insist that social media is here to stay. Companies are now recognizing the need to be more involved in social media marketing, because it is through these channels that they can hear most quickly and honestly what consumers need and want. Businesses are learning that they now no longer wield absolute control over the behavior and buying decisions of their consumers. By paying attention, for instance, to a pro or anti product blog from a consumer, marketers have access to open customer discussions they never had before and then, in turn, open their own dialogue to be able to drive the needed change quickly.

Social media marketing opens up a world of fast flowing creative experimentation where an idea can be tested online in the morning and by afternoon there is a response. Social media techniques should be combined into the marketing mix to optimize the places where the impact can be maximized. The key element in successful social media marketing is to be swift but make sure to drive change in proactive way rather than being reactive.

Author Resource:-> SEOSapien is a SEO Company. We offer affordable and guaranteed search engine optimization services in English, Italian and Spanish. You can visit http://www.seosapien.com for more information and prices.

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by John Stone

About the Author

John Stone is an expert at driving traffic to any website or keyword he chooses. He can show you how to get top ranking in google just like the article you are reading. John’s Blog Facebook Training

John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing)

Photo by lirontockerBuilding branded profiles, engaging prospects and connecting with potential employees and strategic partners are all powerful ways to tap into Facebook and  LinkedIn.

But, for the typical small business, there may actually be some equally important social networks you may not be so familiar with. The big networks get all the press, but small networks, say for instance, like the connectodex found here at OpenForum may prove tremendously valuable for small business folks due to the small size and targeted focus of the membership.

The list below represents some of the more active networks I’ve encountered when it come to small business social networking.

Visit a handful of these sites and choose several that feel right for your business. Once you build a profile, taking full advantage of the opportunity to link to your primary business offer full descriptions of your products and services, spend enough time to go a bit deeper.

Write or republish some articles or blog content, search and identify a dozen or so people to connect with, and give some advice, point to someone’s great content or answer questions from other members.

Don’t try to jump into every new network you can find, but do jump into a few outside of Facebook and LinkedIn and make yourself a bit of a larger fish in these smaller ponds.

In addition to OpenForum check these networks out:

• Biznik – this network for small business folks is blending online and offline by allowing members to collect by city and host and promote local events

• StartUpNation – a wealth of information focused on startups and very active community

• Wall St Journal – community build around subscribers  and geared, as one might suspect to professionals and financial folks

• Small Business Brief – heavy dose of search engine related content but very active small business focus

• Inc magazine – another popular business related magazine with community of entrepreneurs

• StartUp Biz – very fast growing network with lots of tools to promote yourself

• PartnerUp – small business focus and big on helping people find answers and connections for the things they need

• BizSugar – allows you to submit, share and vote for the best business information links on the Internet.. Great place to promote and discover your small business content

• CoFoundr – Programmers and designers use the site to find co-founders, build teams, and get advice.

• Entrepreneur magazine – Entrepreneur magazine’s community site has a lot of activity and content

• Business Week Exchange – Site from Business Week magazine is a great place to promote and find content on the web, tends to be a bit larger business focused

• Naymz – one of the better sites for those focused on building personal brands – highly indexed in the search engines

Image credit: andresmh

John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach, award winning social media publisher and author of Duct Tape Marketing.

Success is all in the marketing – Hattiesburg American
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Geeky gadgets Hands on: Xbox 1080p streaming, social networking impress Ars Technica The upcoming Xbox Live fall update brings with it Twitter integration, Last.fm, Facebook, and instant streaming of video content at 1080p. ..

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Business Daily Africa Is time ripe for another shakeout in the Internet's social networking market? Business Daily Africa What's likely to emerge is a social networking market where there are multipurpose sites that have vast economies of scale, like Facebook and myspace.

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Is time ripe for another shakeout in the Internet’s social networking market? – Business Daily Africa

OTCBB: UNDT) Universal Detection Technology., (PINKSHEET: NVSR – TMCnet
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Look beyond traffic and links and you will find the real value.

Social media, and by that I’m lumping together blogs, RSS, social networking and social book marking sites, presents the marketer with a rich set of new tools to help in the effort to generate new business.

But, if that’s the only way you view social media, as a set of tools to perform a set of tactics to reach the set of objectives you have always tried to reach with your marketing, then not only are you really missing the opportunity, you will probably find yourself wondering what all the fuss is about.

You can’t approach new media with old thinking. Taking full advantage of social media requires understanding and adopting a specific social media strategy.

First and foremost you must appreciate the differences between social media and, say, direct mail. With direct mail the outcome is likely, to create an action. With most social media, it’s to create a connection. Both of these have equally important places in the long-term health of a business, but how they happen is significantly different.

Try to do one with the other and the results may actually backfire – ie: Ads on Facebook? There are definitely instances in which a social media play can align with an organization’s industry focus and become natural facilitators of lead acquisition.

I think the best way to look at social media, though, is to view it as a way to open up access points. These points can then be leveraged to create content, connection, and community. Do that well, and they can also add to lead generation, nurturing and conversion. Think of your web site as the ultimate destination or bucket to catch what comes through your social media access points.

Blogging – If content is one of the golden measures, blogs are a given. This one has become so mainstream it’s hard to think of in the same light as say Facebook. Blogging enhances all forms of content creation, drives search traffic and enables the start of connection and community in the form of comments and conversation. Employing this tool effectively feels a bit like social media 101 – a required course of action before advancing.

In Action: A blog connected to or functioning as your website, a blog network for your customers, a blog network for your strategic partners, an idea blog for your industry.

Tools – Typepad, Wordpress, Wordpress MU, MovableType, Drupal, Square Space, Twitter

RSS – Perhaps best known as a subset of blogging, RSS is what drives the spreading, filtering and aggregating of ideas and content. RSS technology has the ability to make content more useful.

In Action: Simply researching through news, republishing news and search results, reformatting information – data and calendars, creating custom news feeds, mashing lots of feeds into one.

Tools – bloglines.com, Google Reader, GoogleNews, YahooNews, aideRSS, mySyndicaat, Feedburner

Social Bookmarking and News – Social news and book mark sites live to promote ideas and reward the creators of those ideas for creativity and consistency. The best social news plays consist of targeted campaigns focused at a specific site or audience.

Getting on page one of Digg or del.icio.us or creating this week’s viral hit on You Tube can send your site’s traffic through the roof, but there a couple things to consider.

These are communities that reward participation and hard work (that’s not to say people haven’t figured out ways to beat the system, but go in realize that methodical work is ahead.)

Choose a community with the proper focus. Digg is technology heavy, Small Business Brief is for small business

Tools: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, YouTube, Google Video, Mixx, Small Business Brief

Best Practices: Build deep once, Study and read, Find and pitch influencers, Make it easy for you and your readers, Build networks, Promote your chosen site.

Social Networking – The recent rise in popularity of sites like MySpace and Facebook clearly points to the desire for community. As marketers rush to these sites it becomes clear that virtual “no soliciting” signs are hung out.

Networks are networks and while the meeting place may be new, the rules (manners) are the same. If you goal is to establish yourself as an influencer of an existing network, you must be prepared to earn the right, mostly by giving, helping, guiding and building relationships without overt efforts to cash in.

The long term can be very fruitful, with patience you can make connections, improve your visibility and increase sales.

Tools: ecademy, Facebook, mySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Jigsaw, Ryze

Best Practices: Participate actively, Pitch influencers, Make it easy for yourself and your network, Find connections

Building Your Own Social Network – The next wave in community building is the personalized, niche, hand-build community. There are some emerging tools that make this idea much more doable, but creating your own community is a serious investment in terms of time and resources. Done well it can be the ultimate in terms of building a brand.

Tools: Drupal, Ning, KickApps, OneSite

~ ~ ~

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting www.ducttapemarketing.com

Hi guys. I know Thursday is not my usual day for posting, but we recently received an interesting e-mail here at TatStore that I wanted to pass on to you guys. Before I get into this topic I’d like to express the two distinct reasons I’m sharing this post with you. One, I think this could be a great opportunity for our customers. Two, Visa’s marketing strategy is very interesting, and at least nominally, we received this because we blog.

As for the first point, the Visa Business Network is an application developed by Visa to cater to the needs of (small) business owners, specifically their networking needs. This program is unique in a couple of important ways. First of all, it is legitimately free and accessible. That’s kind of a big deal when information products and business networking services are fetching a pretty penny, many of which fetch it monthly. Also, they developed it to synthesize with facebook perfectly. I’m hesitant to call it a “facebook app,” even though they do, because it is not exclusively available on facebook to the best of my knowledge. It seems like the content is consistent no matter where you access it whether at visabusinessnetwork.com or apps.facebook.com/visabusiness. However, the app parts of it seems well executed.

Once within the program you will have access to several tools and resources that seem to include video training programs, forums, and networking tools. I would like to say that I only signed up yesterday and didn’t poke around a whole lot, but I felt like I looked around enough to know that at least it seems valuable. If you’re still not sure whether it’s worth checking out or not, Visa is willing to offer you a $100 credit toward facebook advertising. The one piece of advice that I have heard that I would like you to keep in mind is that you need to be very careful when managing your facebook advertising campaign. I have heard from several sources that you should be incredibly focused with your targeting, and also track it closely. Make sure that it’s making customers and making money for you, because people on facebook tend not to want to be advertised to.

Now the second larger point that I would like to make, is that this particular marketing effort pursued by visa is very innovative, and I think will be successful and become more common on our steady march into the future. Mark received an email from a real person containing the following opening paragraph.

“Tatstore Blog last week and I’m digging you guys. Kudos to you and your team for being a well-written and informative resource for your readers. I dig the hybrid of geeky tech reviews, tattoos and marketing. I’m hoping that you guys will find my information below useful and relevant to your readers. Hopefully, it will be another resource in making their business websites more search-engine optimized and a platform where they can show off their unique art work. Please don’t take this as spam. I’d truly love to get you and your staff’s feedback on our launch announcement.”

Now, for a very simple paragraph this tells me a lot of things. First of all, this may be spam, in the fact that I may not want the content (in this case I did), but it is definitely not spam in the sense that it was not written for me. This salesperson at least took a moment to quickly scan our blog and put together a pretty concise and pertinent compliment. But not only that, with her first comment she actually transferred to us something of social value, namely a digg. Not surprisingly, it seems that Digg was not particularly happy with her and banned her account, but the marketing principle is right on. And then, the most important element to any marketing campaign, is the quality of the offering, and she follows through with a wonderful form email which explains her program and her incentives. Keep in mind though, it could have been an even better offering, and we would have missed it if we didn’t have a blog for our business.

Like my grandpa says, “Let this be a lesson to ya’.”.

Read the press release from Visa here.

Tomorrow RIM will launch MyBlackBerry. It’s a community in which BlackBerry owners can build a unique profile around their specific device…perfect timing for early Tour adopters who may currently be unclear about their selection of apps. Users can share and rate their favorite apps, ask and answer questions regarding accessories and functionality as well as tips and tricks to make using your device much easier and more efficient.

As you can tell from the screen shot below, a list of “Top Apps” and “Top Tags” among other things will be part of the “Applications” tab…and likely static throughout.

RIM’s efforts may be considered a waste of time and money by some considering the existence of other established social networks (Twitter, Facebook). But I think it’s a good idea considering BlackBerry App World is clunky and has been known to cause problems for some.

I tried registering today. Apparently I’m not on the “BlackBerry VIP” list…yet *strut*smug* (invitation code required). For more information, check out the short intro video.

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