About Social Media marketing

[cross-check]

Hi,

I am trying to learn about social media marketing, but not getting exactly how I can get any benefit through it. Till now I have just read about big brands been discussed on the social networking websites. And the same is what discussed by SMM professionals in their articles.

Can anyone tell me if there is an opportunity for a new business to do marketing through this channel.

And one more question, "is forum participation a part of SMM".

Thanks

[iamlijo]

check out

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-can-you-use-social-media-as-marketing-channels

[PR Wales]

The big clue to using social networking is in the name social networking.

I found out the hard way that simply jumping into Digg, Reddit or more recently Twitter, dropping a link and waiting for the traffic blizzard to land is a recipe for frustration and lots of time wasted.

Without a doubt every single network is just that. A network of social contacts, and it can take a bit of time and effort to build up your own 'cell' of contacts.

The real gains are made when you have made some new contacts, and your cell crosses over into theirs and vice versa, (think of the mobile phone network - and how cells have to cross over each other so as to offer the phone service user continuity as he or she travels up and down the country).

Spend a bit of time dropping some interesting news links and people will inevitably end up adding you to their contact lists. On Facebook for instance, this opens up your wall posts to their contact base.

From this point forth you can start to expose your new-found contacts to some material centred on yourself or your brand/business, in amongst the news links you drop.

It does work and can work well. It just takes some setting up initially.

Good luck. :)

Ian

[mjroche]

Social media is not just for multinational brands. Small business can adapt social media to fulfill their own business needs. The main aim of social media is to create strong consumer relations through engaging with your target audience in an open and honest way.

I would recommend reading popular social media websites such as Mashable who often provide articles such as this discussing how new technology can be adopted by small business.

Hope it helps,

Matthew
agency:2 Social Media Agency