The Importance of Social Media Marketing - Learn More About It

Marketing is defined as the business of promoting and selling of products or services. Many marketers over the years have come up with many ways to accomplish this such as the use of flyers, newspaper ads and billboards. But today, many marketers are going online and using the internet as a powerful marketing tool. This has given rise to internet marketing and its many forms. Internet marketing can come in the form of affiliate marketing, SEO and Email marketing. But one of its more popular forms is social media marketing.

Social media marketing is defined as the process of gaining traffic or attention through the use of websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These websites have become a very effective marketing tool for businesses because of their popularity and ability to create a fast ripple effect.

Research has shown that people who use these websites log in more frequently than any other website in the world. So this means that people who use these websites use them a lot. Businesses have seen this as a very important marketing strategy because of the availability of people to interact with. This has given rise to social media marketing because of the amount of exposure it gives websites or companies. For example, if they use a social networking site such as Facebook, they can create their own page and load it with the company's information and other data. They can update the company's page with products, services and promos that they might have as well as any upcoming events. They may also use the site as a company page rather than creating their own web page.

Another example would be the use of Twitter. Twitter is a social networking site that is primarily created for people to post their thoughts and ideas on their own page or account within 140 characters or less. This website has also become a very popular social media marketing tool because of its design and functionality. The site is designed to be a website where people can say anything they want and at the same time follow anyone they want. This has provided businesses and companies with a marketing environment where they, like Facebook, create their own Twitter account and post or "tweet" about the latest updates of the company's services, promos, events and products. Many businesses and companies have benefited from these two sites alone because of the number of users that it generates and the number of people that use it every day.

Social media marketing is not limited to just Facebook and Twitter. There are many other sites such as MySpace and LinkedIn, and they all provide businesses with the same type of exposure. Social media marketing boils down to how many people can the business attract and what website has the ability to generate a massive amount of users. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are on the top of any company's list because of the amount of people that are on it every day. Other social media marketing sites such as MySpace and Friendster are still a bit behind because of functionality problems and the limitations of their site. The importance of social media marketing is its ability to appeal to a mass market rather than a constricted one and this has proven to be a valuable asset that companies would put a high value on.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6992916

Twitter Wanted to Buy Instagram

Facebook snapped up photo-sharing app Instagram last week for $1 billion, but the social network wasn’t the only one interested in purchasing the photo-filtering wonder app.

Twitter “expressed interest” in purchasing Instagram just a few months ago, according to the New York Times.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was one of the early backers of Instagram, investing in the service in February 2011. Dorsey was also a part of the beta of Instagram and tweeted pictures using the service before it was available to the public, adding buzz around the app’s release.

While Dorsey has posted quite a few Instagram photos over the past year, his Instagram stream has gone silent since the Facebook acquisition of the service.

Facebook’s purchase of Instagram included not only the app but also the Instagram staff. In the Timeline post announcing the acquisition Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the company plans to continue to develop Instagram as an independent service and will continue to support sharing Instagram photos on other social networks — including Twitter.

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family.” Zuckerberg said in the announcement. “Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

What do you think Facebook has planned for Instagram? Do you think the fate of the photo-sharing service would be better or worse in the hands of Twitter. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Social Marketing: 3 Ways Your Brand Can Benefit From Pinterest

Pinterest is beautiful. That's not a word that typically describes a social media site, but this platform is seriously gorgeous in terms of online presence, web traffic, and interaction. This triple threat has made Pinterest a firm second in terms of referral traffic, and it's about time marketers recognize the boundless benefits the site has to offer. Here are 3 ways your brand can benefit from the growing platform:

Consumer Interest

Pinterest has grown significantly in popularity and versatility among usership since the beginning days of its female-dominant stereotype. The platform now has over 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook-connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users, according to Inside Network's AppData tracking service. Even stronger, as of February 2012, Pinterest is the second social media site under Facebook for increased referral traffic for brands. People love pinning and your brand can only benefit from the heavy weight of consumers that participate on the platform each day.

User-Friendly

There are no bells and whistles with Pinterest; it is simple and hassle-free! It's straightforward with two basic elements: pins and boards. Even more user-friendly is the ability to create traction and interaction with consumers. People "follow" and "repin" brands more readily, as users are engaging with the themes and ideals of your company, rather than your brand as a whole. The platform is also less focused on the "when" of pins, so the pressure to be constantly involved is not currently a "best practice." Creating your account is easy too.

Offline Content Can Now Go Online

Pinterest also creates a venue to house aspects of your brand that may have been left offline. For instance, you can highlight company style, inspirations, or the city your office is in. We took advantage of this aspect of Pinterest by creating boards like, "We Love L.A." and "What's For Lunch," as culture and food are hugely popular on the platform.

Pinterest in a nutshell: Strip away your marketing department, your business initiatives, and salesy content. Think color, tone, design, and themes. Imagining Pinterest as your company's magazine/lookbook/catalog is a strong strategy. Think of your boards as the "hub" for users to peruse and discover aspects of your brand that they find interesting or useful. Successful boards are generally food-related, fashion-forward, innovation-focused, creative and, most importantly, visual.

Find a way to showcase these elements, while emanating your brand's overall tone and mission, and you'll be on your way to become 'pinteresting' in no time.

The floor's all yours: How is your brand using Pinterest?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6970877