Social Media Marketing | Social Media Optimization

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is a relatively new marketing concept which makes use of social networks and social media sites to further online marketing opportunities. It involves publicity, viral marketing and buzz creation. The goal is to create a visitor experience that is unique and generates a desire for guests to:

• Continually revisit the site
• Link to the site
• Virally spread the word about the site

With the development of Web 2.0, the content of a site should create a buzz, be fresh, and be interactive.

What is Social Media Optimization?

Social media optimization makes a site visible within the social media search engines, make content easy to link to and tag, as well as being involved in social media conversations. Once optimized in this way it can bring increased traffic directly from social media search engines. Social media is in a constant state of change. Therefore it is important that developments are constantly observed and incorporated.

Content on the site can include

• Written text
• Photos
• Graphics
• Video
• Podcasts
• Games
• Competitions
• Blogs or Forums

Example of social media platforms include:

• Blogs
• Forums
• Wikis
• Video Casting
• Photo Distribution
• Podcasts
• Social Networking Space
• Social Bookmarking and Tagging Opportunities

The goal is of social media marketing is to publicize all types of web content.

What are the benefits of Social Media Marketing? What can you expect from a social media marketing campaign?

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Understand your Customers
• Generate New Business

Social media marketing and optimization developed from Web 2.0 which refers to a second generation of the web spotlighting online collaboration and sharing among users.

Two concepts which are closely related to social media marketing and optimization are link baiting and RSS feeds.

Link Bait

Links are important for search engine positioning. Great content can be used as ‘link bait.’ This can attract natural links from a variety of sources back to your site. This means that your links come from a diverse range of sites which is viewed as natural by search engines. This is done by publicizing the content and getting people to talk about the content, discussing it on forums and blogs, tagging it on sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Furl etc., emailing the information to others, and linking to it from their own sites.

RSS Feeds (Syndication of Content)

RSS is a XML-based system that allows users to subscribe to their favorite websites. They can use RSS to read the latest news, press, articles, etc. Additionally, many sites and blogs are set up to collect and display the RSS feeds. Therefore, content from your site is positioned on these sites, spreading the reach of your brand.

For business owners social networks bring in traffic as well as giving an opportunity to interact with your audience. What does social media marketing need?

• Creativity
• Marketing
• Personality

Elixir Systems have a wealth of experience with social media marketing strategies and have been using these to further their client’s online business goals.