Social Media Marketing

Companies with a serious web presence need to be aware of the next trend in internet marketing: networking and advertising via social networking sites like FaceBook, MySpace, and YouTube. These sites allow users to create their own web of relationships, providing them with an easy and fun way to publish their own consumer preferences. This can prove invaluable to smart businesses, not only because they can reach potential users of a product or service, but because it allows users’ preferences to drive the marketing strategy itself.

Micro Branding via social networking sites can allow targeted marketing within a small sphere of influence. A real-estate agent, for instance, can create and establish herself as a brand, thereby becoming the go-to person in a geographic or social area arena.

Once a micro-brand identity is established through blog posts, forum posts, and article posts, that person will become the visible expert within the specific market niche. The more times a person or micro-brand is mentioned on the web, the more established and credible the micro-brand will become. This will drive higher search rankings, create more and better hits and linkbacks, further reinforcing the micro-brand identity.

Since communication with the public via the web goes in two-directions, a smart business will use the feedback from prospective customers to adjust their marketing and product offerings. This is called “Participation Marketing.” It allows customers to have a voice in shaping the brand and allows businesses to learn better ways to serve their clientele.

Once the micro-brand identity is created it will outlast the website. By constantly building and reinforcing its online presence, the micro-brand becomes more than just a person posting to a blog; it becomes an online identity that is, in itself, a kinetic marketing entity that can reach into the next project with an established momentum and credibility.