Bojtsov Articles NewsArticles Blog

What Social Media Can & Can t Do:

Social media can engage your audience, encourage online conversations that are user-generated, increase your web presence, expand brand awareness, generate publicity (both good & bad) and provide SEO benefits. It doesn t convert.

For most marketers, social media has no ROI but is great for:

• Brand building;
• Relationship management;
• Product development;
• Reputation management;
• Customer feedback;
• Customer;
• Community building;
• Defensive Search Engines Optimization in practice.

In some cases, social media can convert - usually if you own the community, and have the power to strategically capture leads. But that s like being the D&D Dungeon Master.

6 rules of a Media Marketing

There s a lot that goes into a successful social media campaign, much more than just creating great content or asking some friends for votes. Here s a look at 6 different factors that will influence your success.

• The Purpose
  In order to run a successful social media campaign you have to have a clear understanding of what your purpose is, for example, back links, gain subscribers, etc. Without specific goals you won t be able to measure your accomplishments.
• A Multi-Part Plan
  You need to have a plan to go about accomplishing your purpose. If you re hoping to draw inbound links, part of the plan will involve developing an idea of something that others will want to link to. Another part of the plan will involve how you will go about getting your content popular with social media.
• Studying of Targeted Networks
  Each social media site has its own users with different preferences. An article may do very well on one social media site and not on another. An effective campaign will involve studying the sites that you want to use to see what types of content do well. Obviously, you can then use this knowledge to your advantage by creating something that users are likely to appreciate.
• Leveraging of Existing Strengths
  Do you already have a significant number of readers or strong contacts with other bloggers and social media users? If so, take advantage of them by encouraging them to vote for your submissions.
• Relevant and fresh Content
  You may be able to get your submission to the front page based on a strong profile or a lot of connections, but what will ultimately determine your level of success is the content itself.
  Some may tag original, fresh content as the most important aspect of being productive with social media. Despite whether the cliche phrase Content is King is true, fresh content creates a community around relevant information and establishes credibility.
  In order to create the strongest long-term results your content that is created for social media should be as relevant to your site as possible.
• Be authentic
  If a social media campaign isn t genuine, authentic, or natural, prepare for an onslaught of negative feedback. Being transparent about your identity and the nature of your message will enhance all other online marketing tactics by showing your consumers the respect they deserve. Deceptive practices may be tempting, and may even show quick results, but it will hinder any opportunity to create a relationship with users. Jeremiah Owyang has compiled a list of companies and individuals that tried to take shortcuts with social media only to see their efforts backfire. The last thing you want for your campaign is to expend resources and time, only to see yourself added to this list.

10 Ways to Incorporate Social Media Marketing

• Create profiles on social networking sites;
• Create your own social networking site;
• Send updates via Twitter;
• Create a YouTube channel;
• Participate in online forums;
• Submit your news to social news sites;
• Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog;
• Create podcasts;
• Syndicate all your web content;
• Send social media press releases.