Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Social media is one of the best ways to promote your online business, gain website traffic and marketing business.

How To Use Social Media For Online Business

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become a popular alternative for online business branding. Companies no longer think of social sites as “Web sites for kids”. They are valuable Internet marketing and networking resources for business.

Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and much more, are transforming businesses by providing amazing exposure, tons of traffic, partnership opportunities and quality leads.

Facebook – Start your own community, group, or fan page. Doing so allows you to share your information with those that are interested in your product or service.

YouTube – Turn your articles into videos. Videos are very popular now. Turning your articles into short videos is an effective way to reach your video market.

Commenting – Comment on other peoples blogs. Commenting on other people’s blog, or articles links back to you and your website. If you leave good comments that will benefit the blogger or the reader they will click on your name to find out more about you.

How To Use Social Media For Marketing

Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, Orkut, YouTube, and many more.

Consider these useful points when integrating social media into marketing plans:

• Think carefully about the audience, the message that will be conveyed, and the results expected. Place an expert in charge of social media marketing plans (perhaps someone in PR, or communications, or social media research). Then, plot the strategy before implementation.
• Create a topical conversation about the brand, then “listen” to the responses. Learn from these posts to develop a clearer understanding of what people are interested in, what is relevant to them, and what motivates them to gravitate towards particular products and services.
• Engage the audience in an honest discussion about what they need and how the brand fulfills that need. Instead of pushing (incenting customers to buy), try pulling (create a dialogue so they seek out the product). Pull is an effective means of audience-centered, participatory marketing.
• Provide real-time information and efforts will be rewarded. Tell a relevant story that is happening now. Inform and educate the audience. Encourage them to add commentary to the narrative. Respond in a timely manner. Embrace user generated content and customers will embrace the brand

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I really hope this topic has help you to see the importance of Social Media for online businesses. As you can see using social media to drive target traffic to your articles can be easy with a little effort. Using social media not only brings in traffic but it also increases your online visibility for search engines.

Group Discussion

Are you using social media to market your business? Have you found this type of marketing strategy to work for you? If you have not tried social media marketing, What are you waiting on? 🙂

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