Social Media Marketing, An Hour a Day: What is Social Media?

Lately, it seems like the world can’t get enough of “social media”. Every time I turn the television on, the news anchors are closing out their day by telling viewers to send them a message on Twitter. Why, just recently, Ashton Kutcher made headlines when he became the first person to surpass 1 million followers on Twitter beating out rival CNN!

Social Media versus Regular Media

Social media has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media sources such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The main difference is that the audience (you) can participate; it’s interactive. If you don’t like what someone has written in a blog post, you can comment on it. If you have something you would like to share with other people in your niche, you can create your own blog to discuss the issue or discuss it on Facebook or in a LinkedIn question.

Social Media and Accuracy

As more businesses are catching on to the social media storm, many wonder whether or not social media is accurate. For instance, when you go to a restaurant, chances are that you look up its ratings on the Internet first. Did other people comment on the service? How accurate are those comments, and how do you know that the comments weren’t all written by one person?

As it turns out, according to Evans, social media use the collective, the wisdom of the crowd. And in more cases than not, it is actually more accurate and therefore constitutes a measurable, trackable feedback point with regard to the acceptance and performance of your product or service. Additionally, social media is used not through command and control; but rather, through participation and influence by the consumer. After all, who best to rate a restaurant or a product than someone who has gone to that restaurant or used a certain product?

Social media, like any other form of expression that takes its roots in word of mouth, cuts both ways. It can boost viewership and purchase by reinforcing the underlying marketing message just as easily as it weakens intent and the likelihhood of successful conversion. -Dave Evans

As marketers, the tools for consumers/everyday people to use social networking and collaborative site building are out there. It seems like everyone has a blog, and everyone has an opinion about something. The job of marketers now is to stay on top of the latest trends and actually pay attention to what the consumers are blogging, tweeting and Digging so that they can find new ways to improve the marketability of their products.

According to Evans:

• Social media is defined as: Participatory online media where news, photos, videos, and podcasts are made public typically accompanied with a voting process to signal items considered “popular”.
• Social media is an effective guidepost. Social media can be used to gather valuable information about how your product, service, and brand are perceived in the marketplace.
• The basic application of social media is as a consideration phase tool that connects post-purchase experiences with potential customers progressing from awareness to purchase.
• Social media is an activity that is based on the notion of influence.
• Planning and implementing channels associated with social media fits well with the concepts of integrated marketing.