Social network marketing is a relatively new field that is becoming more main stream as an increasing number of companies recognize its value. Social media sites allow companies to interact directly with their potential clients and to develop long term relationships. There are many large social networking sites out there and new ones are launched every day. Some of the main social media applications that all companies should consider using are Twitter, Facebook, Digg, YouTube, and some sort of blog.
Twitter allows businesses to directly send and receive short messages between any twitter user in the world. “Tweets” sent out by a company are indexed by search engines and can be seen by anyone searching for a particular item or service. Also, companies can use Twitter to send out real time updates regarding promotions, inventory shipments, new products and much more. There is no cost to use Twitter and the direct feedback that users around the world provide can be priceless to many businesses.
Similarly, Facebook can be used to directly interact with existing and potential customers and could also be used to showcase products, get reviews, and create buzz about a new product launch. Facebook also offers a convenient and effective ad platform that allows for highly targeted delivery.
Digg is a social media site that helps people discover and share content from anywhere on the web, by submitting links/stories, and then voting and commenting on submitted links/stories. It can be a great source of new traffic to your site if your submission is popular among Digg users.
A blog, as well as a YouTube channel, can be very beneficial when trying to create excitement for a new product or service and also to simply bring in more traffic to your site. As long as you create quality content that people want to read or see, they will keep coming back to you page and will surely check out your main site as well (make sure that you post your URL wherever possible).
These are only a few of the many social media avenues out there but represent a massive following. Start with these and then branch out into other, more niche, networks.
