Everyone is talking about ‘Social Media’ these days. SMM is the buzzword in the town. Media is riding on the ‘Social Media’ boom to catch the eyeballs. Yet, most of us are grappling to leverage the ‘true’ value of Social Media Marketing. Isn’t that expected? Today, SMM is going through the journey, which SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) travelled a decade ago.

‘Timing’ in my view is the real opportunity behind SMM. Sooner or later, most of the mysteries (including measurability) around Social Media Marketing are going to be solved – many through tools and others through knowledge sharing. Don’t you want to turn this ‘timing’ (unfair – the way many who’ll be left behind will describe it later) advantage on your side? ‘Yes’ is the obvious answer but do you have the wherewithal to create Social Media success for your business? More importantly, do you have the patience and willingness to learn & experiment with this amazing medium?

Over the last couple of months, after working (and still a long way to go) with various customers (thanks to them for trusting us) across different verticals, we’ve gained (and still learning) some meaningful insights, which today gives us the confidence to evaluate, strategise, plan and execute Social Media Marketing success for us and our esteemed customers.

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time. The current era of marketing is being the evidence of a more convincing and powerful way of marketing. That is none other than Social Media Marketing.

With the emergence of the digital era, the term Social Media Marketing got an existence. Cyber Space has given the people an opportunity to go online and have an undying connectivity with their counterparts staying in any nook or corner of the world. The flow of information has acquired an immeasurable momentum through digital world. They are no more to rely upon the messages coming from the one way source of communication. They are conversing, ommunicating and interacting with one another and then coming on a decisive point.

Buyers and sellers, both have Social Media Marketing as a strong platform to inform, reinform and conform. Consumers are no more passive as they are in a position to give their feedback. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and many other social networking websites offer this platform to the huge cyber generation. All these websites have different options to make the products of marketers visible to their buyers or prospective buyers. Like, wall posts, and fan size, tweets & blog posts, rating and ranking videos facilities, Music posts option.
For the better promotion of their products and service, they use these Social Media Marketing services as promotional tools. They make direct response to customer complaints by using these services as customer service tool. Social Media Marketing helps building an outstanding goodwill of the organisation and a strong public relation by making appear the ins and outs of the organisation on the WWW. Everyone whether an organisation or a consumer is getting benefitted through this pattern of communication.

Social media marketing programmes 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 is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access, opening doors for organisations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organisations to implement marketing campaigns. Organisations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targetted markets.

How does social media work? We’ve always heard that the best advertising is word of mouth. The best explanation for social media is that it’s word of mouth on steroids, and people are sharing more than words. They also share ideas, pictures, video, and audio: Content. Then other users share that content — in turn, through personal connections — at an unprecedented rate.

Some content spreads like wildfire, and some makes the tiniest of ripples, but each choice is made by an Intelligent User.
Old Techniques, New Delivery

We can clear up Kavanagh’s misconception by explaining how social media actually works.

The “phenomenon” is not new. It’s not even a phenomenon. Social media works similarly to how word of mouth worked before the Internet, only now it’s amplified and recorded by technology.

Kavanagh was right about one thing. Word seems
to spread “instantly” online. The infrastructure of social media is built for millions of immediate minute interactions.

You can literally watch it happen on a website like Twitter. Not only can interested parties follow the conversation, they can measure, assess and even, as Kavanagh suggests, influence its direction.

The Implications

To recap, Social Media is not digital paper. It is not just a bunch of noise. It is a multi-functional two-way communication system made up of millions of Smart Users.

So what does this mean for you?

To the Smart Users

You’re not just a statistic. Here are some things you can do to humanise your experience.

1. It’s an investment. The more you put into social media sites, the more you get back. Your experience is based on your willingness to experience. So put something in. Who knows what you’ll get in return?
2. Interact – Don’t be afraid of change. Go with your first instincts when using new products. Try it for yourself before you pass judgment.

3. Give feedback whenever developers ask! In fact, give it when no one asks. Positive feedback is always welcome, but don’t be afraid to give constructive criticism, too. It could make the product, perhaps even the whole industry, better.

To Developers

You are the innovators. But don’t forget that you’re making a product for the users.

1. Listen to your users. Your users don’t know as much as you do, but their feedback is important, especially the negative feedback. Be patient. Remember that you’re there to help them, not scare them off with your intimidating technological prowess.

2. Try new things. New ideas brought us here, and new ideas will lead us to the future. Although you must be attentive to your users, don’t be afraid when they protest new ideas. People are naturally averse to change. Facebook users protested the changes many times, but Facebook kept moving forward, and overall their changes have been an improvement on the experience.

3. Don’t be afraid of failure and most importantly, learn to recognise it. Remember, it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, what counts is how many times you get back up.

Two of the examples of successful implementations of the discussed Social Media Marketing framework – Commonwealth Games 2010 community and Cricket World Cup 2011 Community on Facebook.

Finally, “Give & Take” is the ultimate reality in social media.