Social Media Management

What is Social Media?

The term social media means different things to different people as the term media has changed with the times. In this case, media doesn’t
refer to the message, but the methods by which that message is conveyed. For example, old media mainly referred to the newspaper, the television and the radio. Moving forward into New Media, it starts with blogs and podcasts and authorship centered tools like Twitter, YouTube and the other variants of online video and microblogging distribution.

Social Media is a term that encompasses the platforms of New Media, but also implies the inclusion of systems like Facebook, and other things typically thought of as social networking. The idea is that they are media platforms with social components and public communication channels.

For our purpose, The term Social Media refers to a form of communication and interactive conversation using web-based and mobile technologies. It is an internet based application that allows for the creation and exchange of content through social interaction between organizations, communities and individuals.

So for simplicity sake, social media is a communication medium. It’s that simple.

In reality, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”

With that being said, social media comes in many different forms. A few examples would be blogs and micro blogs such as twitter, content communities such as You tube (video), & social networking sites such as Facebook.

These are the better known examples but one can also include internet forums, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking and more. To varying degrees, each focuses it presence on a different set of building blocks including: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. The strength and focus of these building blocks define its social media audience.

Each platform may vary in the building block it uses but by and large, they all contain these three elements:

They are…….

Community Oriented – This is the very reason it is called “social” media; describing such sites as Facebook and Twitter where the primary function is to socialize virtually. The value of this is that if you can directly integrate your message into a social experience, you will have a very engaged audience.
Location-Based – Anywhere, anytime. A priceless proposition for marketers. No matter where your customer is, you can know, follow, and deliver targeted messages because of location-based technology that is integrated into social media.
Interactive – With the dramatically shortened attention span of the average consumer, brands and advertisers are having difficulty keeping their customers engaged. Because social media offers platforms for virtually limitless interactivity, it thereby offers opportunity to get your consumers engaged by your brand again.

People, groups or organizations, using a specific platforms such as face book, twitter, you tube or linkedin will share content and messages with other people, groups or organizations for the purpose of being social, trying to be helpful or to promote a cause, message or product.

Social media has been a player for several years with a tremendous upside for phenomenal growth, in the coming years. Its broader significance lies in where people were once limited to communicating on a local basis, which grew to the ability to effectively communicate on a regional basis, then a national basis, can now communicate globally with people all over the world. Not only can one develop friends on the other side of the world but now one can share their message or sell their product to someone many thousands of miles away in the wink of an eye. On a side note, one ramifications lies in the fact that privacy is pretty much a thing of the past.

___________________________________________________________________

Social Media Marketing, Why you need to use social media for your business…

An important element of Social media to examine is social media marketing which allows individuals or organizations to better connect with their targeted audience.

Social Media is still in its infancy and is just starting to grow exponentially. It has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With emergence of channels like Twitter the barrier to entry in social media is greatly reduced.

Where the original intent of social networking was for the “love of it” what has happened in today’s world is the possibilities and opportunities have developed into opportunities of monetization.

With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media

Here are a few numbers illustrating the powerful potential of social media marketing for businesses.

Facebook has over 500 million users.
If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest country.
An average Facebook user spends about 55 minutes a day on the site.
An average Facebook user spends about 6.50 hours a week on the site.
The average Facebook user spends 1.20 days a month on the site.

YouTube receives over 2 billion viewers each day.
24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube by users every minute.
There were over 50 million tweets in 2010.
The 10 billionth Twitter’s tweet was posted in March 2010.
There are over 110 million users of Twitter currently.
180 million unique users access Twitter each month.
More than 600 million searches happen on Twitter every day.

There are over 60 million users of LinkedIn.
80% companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.
Every second a new member joins LinkedIn.
Almost 12 million unique visitors visit LinkedIn every day.

Impressive!!! But any good marketer knows you don’t just jump in feet first, haphazardly, blundering your way along.

A good business person and marketer knows the importance of planning and preparing.

Here are 4 extremely important steps that must be taken:

Strategize – The first and most important thing you can do before launching a Facebook campaign or a campaign on another platform is to strategize what sort of campaign would be contextually relevant to YOUR demographic. Just because Joe Blow was able to get a million followers on Twitter doesn’t mean that you will. It may actually turn out that most of your demographic doesn’t even use Twitter. In that case, it would be a big waste of money to market on Twitter.
Communicate – Have a strong, authentic message. This seems to be the most overlooked aspect of a successful social marketing campaign. Many people believe that if they create an engaging campaign that it will be successful. Well, just because people engage, doesn’t mean that you will gain their business or loyalty. Message matters.
Engage – Social media is all about engagement. Design an engagement campaign based on knowledge of your demographic that will cater to their interests, and that is relevant to your company.
Develop and build your brand.

It’s important to note that social networking sites like twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the products being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the user’s connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the company.

Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers.

The bottom line is that social media is here to stay, and if you own or run a consumer oriented business, you better jump on the bandwagon or your competitors will have a significant leg up on marketing to your customers.

_________________________________________________________________

Why you need a social media manager…

Social Media is an extremely powerful tool in the marketing arsenal for today’s businesses. It’s is a relatively inexpensive means of advertising, can focus directly on ones target market and is very interactive and personal. By ALL accounts, it is the wave of the future.

Where the difficulty comes in is that in today’s world with everything moving so fast and with so many daily tasks for the business owner to do to keep his business moving smoothly, it has become virtually impossible for one person to handle all the daily activities and tasks necessary to be successful, let alone having to learn new social media skills. This is where the Social Media Manager comes into play and takes an extremely important role in a company’s marketing success. Especially created for busy executives, a social media manager will manage your social profiles & online presence to make sure you get the maximum value from social media without having to spend your time online!

What platform is the best for your marketing and branding efforts – Face book, Twitter, You Tube, LinkedIn or…..? Is one profile enough, a combination there of, or is it best to spend time on all of the various platforms?

Which platform is best used for my target audience?

Techniques, strategies and solutions change routinely, how do I stay on top of the current trends?

Will I have time to provide new content on a daily basis?

Time is money! Where do I best invest my time and efforts?

These are some of the questions a business owner needs to ask while at the same time keeping all the other elements of the business running smoothly and efficiently.

It may be time to consider outsourcing this time consuming but extremely important company function.

But I want someone with experience, talent and definitely someone I can trust. What to do?

Choose a team to partner with that not only has many years of successful experience in the field of Internet Marketing and Social Media but who, as successful Internet Entrepreneurs, not only understands your needs but has always been determined to provide the highest quality services and to deliver excellence in everything they do, especially customer service.

That team is TMGold!

With TMGold, you get two for the price of one. Terry & Michael Goldman have built their businesses, over 12 years, by knowing & understanding their strengths and weaknesses and accentuating their positives and using them wisely and with great success. Terry is the Technical genius, building web sites, using graphics and staying up with the most current cutting edge advances in technology. Michael is the creative one whose strengths lie in planning and preparing, business development, training, researching the market place, along with a love and talent for content writing.

For a sampling of some of their successful sites, visit:

www.tmgoldmarketing.net

www.healthypetnetwork.net

www.healthypetnetwork.org

Face Book

Each business is different, with different needs, different audiences and different skill sets. TMGold Marketing “Social Media Managers” offers different options to fit your needs whether just needing the initial set up and training to get starting then taking it over and doing on your own, to the other end of the coin and needing an experienced full service management service, keenly and caringly guiding your company’s social media marketing campaigns.

Give us a call for a no obligation evaluation.

To Your Success,

Terry & Michael Goldman

TMGold

_____________________________________________________________________

Be Sociable, Share!

TMGold Marketing