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Social Network Marketing – Promoting by Virtual “Word of Mouth”

Guest post by: Liam McCauley

Article Overview: Social network marketing, though still in its infancy, is gaining acceptance by more and more companies. At one time, social media and marketing was considered only appropriate for those organizations targeting the Internet generation. However, in the last year, there has been an increase in the age range of those using this platform. As a result it has become feasible for a wide variety of businesses to adopt this into their marketing plan. It has always been important to properly target your audience, but on the web, a campaign that targets the wrong audience will adversely affect your bottom line.

Social Network Marketing – Promoting by Virtual “Word of Mouth”

Social network marketing, though still in its infancy, is gaining acceptance by more and more companies. At one time, social media and marketing was considered only appropriate for those organizations targeting the Internet generation. However, in the last year, there has been an increase in the age range of those using this platform. As a result it has become feasible for a wide variety of businesses to adopt this into their marketing plan. It has always been important to properly target your audience, but on the web, a campaign that targets the wrong audience will adversely affect your bottom line.

It will not simply be ineffective. In social network marketing, people “talk”. They talk to you about how they feel about your product, ask questions and offer feedback. They also talk to each other. If you have gained the consumers trust and are targeting the right market and focusing on building relationships, rather than selling your products, your sales can soar. Successfully incorporating this type of marketing campaign requires that you communicate effectively and consistently. Generally speaking, consumers distrust businesses. It is often recommended that social network marketing campaigns be conducted as a person, rather than a business.

Building trust and creating relationships for a successful social network marketing campaign can be time consuming. But when done correctly, it can also be rewarding. If you enjoy getting to know your customers and are truly interested in what they have to say, this can be a fun, inexpensive way to increase exposure and build excitement about your business. One of the advantages to this kind of marketing is that it is immediate. Updates are often read shortly after a post has been made. This is particularly useful if you have a special purchase incentive you would like to promote, or when announcing a new product release.

Using social network marketing allows you to reach a larger customer base than you ever could by using a web site alone. It can attract attention and increase traffic on your website. Before beginning, there is one thing you need to consider. As previously mentioned, this type of marketing, though inexpensive is time consuming. Think about how much time you will be able to devote to these sites. Attention needs to be consistent, and if you are signed up with several, you could be spending a good portion of each day communicating and sending updates rather than focusing on other aspects of your business that also need attention.

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Article Tags: marketing campaign, marketing plan, social network marketing, social networking
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Measuring Word of mouth - [quote="jvprosperity":2l2ujat4]I couldn't find the Part 1 Doctrine on the site but I believe from reading the blog posts it had to do with the distractions entrepreneurs and their customers face daily. He may have also talked about Word of Mouth and the true way of measuring it.[/quote:2l2ujat4] Hi Andy, So how can one measure "Word of Mouth" marketing then?
Why should I hire a virtual assistant for SEO purposes? - Do you find it hard to find time for rest because of promoting your business or your website all by yourself? Well, perhaps it is the right time for you to hire the services of an SEO virtual assistant. Virtual assistants for SEO services will help you on the process of improving your rankings within search engine results to achieve an increase in natural traffic. The higher your site in the search engine results page, the more traffic and sales conversions you will obtain. Using the services of virtual assistants (VAs) certainly is the best method to move in order immediate results and in reduced operational charges. This provides a great answer especially for a small business owner whoever company is actually considerably expanding, and the jobs have normally doubled. Here are some of the services that a virtual assistant can do for you: • Traffic Geyser • Main Street Marketing • Data Entry • Web Research • Market Samurai • Managing Facebook • Managing Twitter • SEO • Local Business Listing Robot • Traffic Revolution • Infusionsoft • Senuke • Angela’s Banklink • Linkjuicer • Blogging • SMM • Virtual Assistant • Personal Assistant • Article Writing • Spinning Article • Press release • Email Response Handling • Online Order Processing • Word Processing • Forum/Comment Posting • Social Bookmarking • Video Editor • Internet Marketing • Email Marketing • Link Building • Powerpoint Presentations • Web Development • Other Administrative Support
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report - [quote="Alan Mater":3vkduro4]Hi Terri, Interesting report. The stats are intriguing. Social media has come a long way, and it's almost essential these days to help build your brand. I would say Facebook and Twitter are my top two. MMO Social Network is starting to pique my curiosity, and it seems I can get some nice exposure to blog posts. It's important to find sites that work for you personally and then build up a profile on those sites. I believe it's here to stay and should be a regular part of our marketing efforts.[/quote:3vkduro4] I totally agree -- it's essential, and you need to figure out which network(s) work for you and focus on them. I'm curious...what is MMO Social Network? I did a quickie google search but only came up with Massive Multiplayer Online games...
Re: Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Kevin, Like GT suggested, I also think you can add Internet Marketing as a sub category in the Marketing section and also a Social marketing as subcategory. Online marketing/internet marketing/online promotion are the same, and it will be best to use the common term - Internet marketing. I can't think about someone to moderate a Social Marketing category. We all use it, we all know how to make it work and we all have our own different experience with it.


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