Marketing with Social Media: A High-Level Overview
There’s a new form of marketing in town, and if you’re prepared to do some work, a lot of doors will open for you.
[enter social media marketing stage left]
Wikipedia defines social media in its broadest form as “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.” In essence, social media - or ‘new media,’ as it is often called - encompasses various methods of communication that go beyond the age-old standard of a marketing team talking to potential customers by adding conversation, fluidity, and collaboration into the equation.
Social media is available in many forms, including blogs (Blogger, Wordpress), microblogs (Twitter), photo sharing (Flickr, Photobucket), video sharing (YouTube), RSS, social networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn), wikis (Wikipedia), social bookmarks and commentary (Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit), instant messaging (AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger), podcasts (Podcast Alley, iTunes), webcasts and video blogs (Rocketboom), online communities (MyBlogLog, Plaxo, Google Groups), consumer-owned shopping sites (Zazzle), and even virtual worlds (Second Life). This list does not by any means encompass all social media outlets - and, of course, more are being created and developed every day - but it’s a good start.
“This doesn’t sound like anything I have in my so-called ‘integrated’ marketing campaign. Why would we use any of these strangely-named sites for marketing?”
Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe because over 112 million blogs are already being tracked by Technorati, a number which doesn’t even include those sites not submitted to the leading blog-sharing site. In January of this year, 79 million viewers watched over three billion videos on YouTube. User-generated content attracted 69 million visitors in 2006; that number is expected to jump to over 100 million visitors in 2011, generating $4.6 billion in ad revenue. These are just a sample of some absolutely huge numbers, people. Would it make sense to ignore all of these individuals by disregarding social media, one of the biggest - if not the biggest - consumer influencers? Because let’s be honest: consumers trust other consumers more than they trust any advertisement your creative minds could possibly think of.
HubSpot, now one of the leading internet marketing companies in the country, was a no-name startup just two years ago; it got to where it is now through the use of social media marketing tools like blogs and webcasts that deliver honest and useful information to the masses.
And it’s not just start-ups that benefit from social media marketing. Coca-Cola saw sales of Diet Coke skyrocket after they started creating professional-looking videos on YouTube that demonstrated the wonders of adding Mentos to the popular soft drink (and in case you have no idea what I’m talking about, watch one of the hundreds of videos available).
For further examples, the Internet Advertising Bureau released a study this year on user-generated content and its effects that includes a number of case studies similar to the ones above (and does, in fact, mention the whole Diet-Coke-and-Mentos thing). It’s only about fifteen pages long, and well worth a read.
In short, social media is everything ‘old media’ is not: fluid, transparent, consumer-driven, and open to conversation and collaboration. And by using social media correctly, you are quietly doing some of the key search engine optimization exercises: building links, claiming keywords as your own, and increasing your traffic. Remember: it’s only too late to embrace the ‘new’ when you realize your competitors have run you right out of business by doing it first.
——
Ingrid Catlin is a marketing professional whose specialties include search engine optimization, online and social media marketing, lead generation, and design.
Article Tags: blogging | hubspot | internet marketing | online marketing | social media | social media marketing | social networks | twitter
Filed under: Brand Experience, Business-to-Business Web Marketing, online marketing, social media, web 2.0
Good post.
Hubspot got where it is by offering the popular Website Grader tool, which is cool — it evaluates your website along many different criteria, includig what level of education your web copy is targeted to — and FREE as long as you let them collect your contact info and market their SEO and online marketing services to you.
I think if you give more than you take, everything is cool in social media.
Do we have a cynic on our hands?
In a sense, this trend takes us back to the earliest days of civilization, when trading was commonplace. You give your neighbor something he needs, and he in turn gives you something that you need. In social media marketing, HubSpot gives its visitors the Website Grader, a free tool that allows individuals to gauge how well they’re doing with their SEO and web design, and, in return, the individuals give them what HubSpot needs: contact information. Personally I’m inclined to think that this is more or less an even trade. It’s not like you’re obligated to spend any money with them.
Thanks for the comment!
Great article! We’re glad you (and 400,000 other people) like Website Grader. All we ask for is an emial address, and it’s optional at that. Same thing for our other free tool - http://www.PressReleaseGrader.com and our blog, and our webinars… etc. Publish free, interesting content, promote with social media and SEO,make it easy for people to contact you, listen tofeedback, and repeat the cycle.
Hey — Sorry if I seemed to imply the deal wasn’t fair, or that it’s unusual for social media marketing to encompass trading. Far from it. I just wanted to add a little info about HOW Hubspot became so popular.
First of all, and most importantly, your article is great.
Mike won’t toot his own horn. So, I’ll do it for him. Website Grader, originally created by Dharmesh Shah, cofounder of HubSpot and then later tweaked by many employees at HubSpot is certainly a huge reason why HubSpot achieved early success.
But, like Mike said, providing your email address is optional. There are calls to action in the website grade reports that point people to more free information like webinars, white papers and blog posts where people might share more information with us in order to gain access.
But, it’d be unfair to say that WSG is the only reason for HubSpot’s success. Mike and the marketing team really practice what we preach at HubSpot. They’ve employed free tools, SEO, PPC, email marketing, webinars, blogging, and events to fill our own sales pipeline very fat. Overall marketing excellence is a big reason why HubSpot has been successful. Further, the product we do sell truly delivers value to clients, our sales team performs, our customer support team provides amazing support, training and coaching to clients and our product development team keeps creating new features that set the product apart and make it easier and easier for clients to generate an ROI on the time and money they invest in traffic acquisition and lead capture.
Social media is hott right now. And having covered the space since the term was coined, I’d say that it’ll continue to evolve and be an amazing business tool. But, it’s only a piece of the pie.
This blog Is very informative , I am really pleased to post my comment on this blog . It helped me with ocean of knowledge so I really belive you will do much better in the future . Good job web master .