Social Media Marketing

Traditional print and broadcast marketing are no longer the number one ways in which a company can acquire or reach their target audience. According to many, social media marketing is the new fad. I have just finished reading a very simple, easy-to-read book called "Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow your Business" by Steve Holzner. The book describes how traditional marketing methods will not work in this cyberspace social world, and there are a complete set of new rules that do not apply to the old way of doing business. Actually, if you think about it, Facebook is like the new student in school that quickly becomes popular, and just like high school, one slight mistake can cost them their popularity. If something new comes to Facebook people feel it out. The cooler it is, the more it gets passed on to friends. If its not cool, forget it, they are doomed from Facebook.
One of the main components of doing well in the Facebook marketing plan is to create a good profile page. Establishing a proper page will do half the work for you, it will get you into the Facebook world, and once in, Holzner provides you with the crucial do's and don'ts of this popularity game. One of the best tactics of Facebook, as Holzner explains, is the ability to create an "event" and invite friends to it. Invitations are a quick click away, and they can be easily passed to friends of friends of friends. Companies can gather "friends", then create an event that invites these "friends" to it. Facebook provides an already-made guest list, and the company doesn't have to go through the hassel of finding people to come to their event. Even better is the way events can be passed on in the cyber world. Sharing information is quick and easy and extends across the globe!
However, as companies get more into social marketing sites, those who use them are becoming more weary. This video was passed to me through Facebook, and in turn I sent it to many of my friends. Groups have also been created in retaliation to what this video claims, but as a savvy Facebook users soon find out, groups will rarely kick up much dust. This is something else worth exploring, and one that Holzner did not bring up, but groups are an almost guaranteed waste of time.



Who knows if any of this is true, but I know when I watch this, all I want to do is get off Facebook, because it seems companies have figured out a way of retrieving, controlling and even monitoring their target audience. The smart companies are miles ahead in the game, and this is due to the readiness that every social networking member easily gives up their basic and sometimes very detailed information on the net.