Free Marketing in Social Media

Chelsea Boomer and Stacia Doss

What is social media?

Yikes!

What is all of this?

-Users create the content for social media

2 definitions mentioned in our textbook: 1)"Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author." (Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis PR Firm) 2)"Social Media. Any communications format where the users publish the content." (Isabella Hillborn, blogger)

Examples There are many forms of social media, to name

a few:

-Blogs--Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger -Social Networking--Favebook, LinkedIn,

Google+ -Events-Meetup.com, Eventful -Video Sharing-Socialcam, YouTube -Photo Sharing-Instagram, Flikr, Photobucket And so much more...

History From research, many argue the existence of the internet as being part of the start of social media , but is this true?

Social Media as Marketing Tool Roles in Marketing: -Branding

o Create and strengthen a relationship between the brand and the consumer--2 way communication

-Website Traffic o Low cost to drive traffic from social media o Study showed greater ROI from social media than Google

AdWords (paid search engine) o Can use ads on some social media, but it costs

-Customer Insights/Feedback o Likes/Dislikes, Comments, etc. o Helps marketers know if they are selling in the correct

distribution channels at the right time, right price

Benefits? -Engagement-85%

o Customer engagement

-Direct consumer communication-65% o Quick consumer/customer preferences in real time

-Low cost-51% o Cheap, but labor intensive

-Brand building-48% -Market research-42%

o Measure and monitor the voice of the consumer

-Reach-37% o Can target consumers who are most important to building

brands

Pros/Cons

Biggest Advantage? Low cost (Or relatively less than other marketing mediums)

Biggest Disadvantage? Hard to Measure.

Something to think about... Brands: Please Stop Trying to Start Conversations On

Twitter (Ad Age article)

Main points: -Social media is dictated entirely by consumers, not brands

-Brands that can enter current news conversations as they're happening are giving consumers what they want and leveraging ongoing momentum

-No point in brands "suggesting hashtags and slapping platform logos on the end of their commercials"

Blogging

What's a blog? Short for "weblog." It's a web-based journal...write what you want!

Why Blog? -Product promotion -Education -News and Information * And adds human interest

So many choices...

tumblr. wordpress weebly

blogger flavors.me

Blog design tools- templates, widgets, html or text editor Promotion/tracking-directories or tracking tools Ease of use-combo of coding and html Technical help/support-tutorials/help topics

Choose a design, start posting and distributing the url amongst different social networks to build an audience.

Marketing on Blogs

-Provide customers information that could be important when researching a product. o Product evaluations o Reviews o Free publicity for the blogger's products

Social Networking Sites

Twitter Facebook Myspace Google+ LinkedIn

Social News Sites

Discover and share content from anywhere online Was virtually ad free until Google AdSense was added Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is most important marketing use

Publishing Platforms & Communities

User-generated, small web pages called lenses Content creators can earn revenue from referral link sites like Amazon.com and Ebay 5% of revenue goes to charities 50% goes to lensmasters 45% goes to Squidoo About half of lensmasters donate their royalties to charities

Squidoo Benefits for Internet Marketers

SEO: More lenses increases search engine rating

Polling: Can provide valuable insight into your niche markets

Hosting: Earn a royalty if someone clicks your Amazon/ eBay/ Youtube link

Testing: Dashboard provides statistics

Content: Can earn money by being a Squidoo content provider

Social Bookmarking Share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web

resources.

Video Sharing YouTube as a Marketing Tool

Accounts for 43% of all videos viewed on the Internet

and 99% of Google's video views

YouTube and Advertisers Cost-effective alternative to commercial television Millions of views on videos means millions of impressions Cascading effect: more views leads to greater popularity which means

it gets closer to the top of the page and the homepage

Increasing Video Audience

Content Sharing Social Activities Update Feeds Effectiveness Feedback

Insight Community Hot Spots

"How Does a Law Firm Grow its YouTube Audience?" from Real Lawyers Have Blogs

Going Viral Make a good, professional video that will engage your target audience

Email the video to your company's list or your site's email list

Post the video on your blog

Post the video on social networking sites

Post the video to relevant message boards on YouTube