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Social Media Marketing (SMM)

The term "social media" is an umbrella term which refers to new internet multimedia content which is created by individual users. Popular sites such as Facebook or MySpace are classic examples of social media, and while some might not think they are relevant to business, a quick search on one of these sites should change their mind.

Social Media Marketing is a form of internet marketing which uses social media and web 2.0 communication technologies to achieve its marketing goal. SMM is often referred to as "viral marketing", which is a form of word-of-mouth marketing which takes advantage of the power of the internet to get a message out exponentially.

Our Social Media Marketing services can include (but are not limited to):

• Participating in "conversational marketing" in various social media networks such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, Dailymotion, or Hi5.
  
  
• Participating in social web applications (webapps) such as reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Flickr, iLike, Wikipedia, Squidoo, Last.fm, Twitter, Eventful, ePinions and others. We also take the innovative approach of marketing within 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, ActiveWorlds, Moove and There.com.
  
  
• Depending on the nature of the campaign, we can useWeb 2.0 technologies such as instant messaging (MSN messenger, e-messenger, etc.), cell-phone text messaging SMS (Short Message Service) or widgets (interactive online graphical interfaces).
  

You can never over estimate the need to develop a rich and engaging web presence.
SMM marketing is arguably the most effective way to market just about anything. With the constant bombardment of advertisements modern consumers are exposed to, they have learned to tune out the majority of messages they hear. The exception of course is extremely funny or sexy ads, which of course have limits on how far they can go. An endorsement from a "trusted" source, however, such as a friend or a colleague, carries a great deal of weight in today's market, and is generally much more influential than any blindly broadcasted message. Tapping the viral marketing potential of social media sites takes advantage of the strength of these channels.

While this new media can cause a product to succeed very quickly, they can also destroy a brand equally quickly, and of all forms of marketing, SMM leaves the least control in the hands of the marketer. Once a trusted source has condemned a product or service, it can be difficult to control the damage, which can also spread virally.  

Just as is the case for traditional marketing campaigns, the goals of each SMM campaign will differ for every business, although most will involve some form of corporate image building or increasing exposure by telling a product’s "story". SMM may also include online reputation management, which involves the monitoring of user generated content.

The importance of SSM in the age of Web 2.0 can be seen in the rise of investor activism online. Investors have become contributors, endorsing or condemning the action of a company's management online. Before the internet, an investor would read an annual report or a news release, and if they did had anything to say about it, it probably wouldn’t go any further than their circle of friends and business contacts (unless they were a reporter). Now they actively question the actions of management executives, often very loudly, via any and all of the tools Web 2.0 offers. The ongoing saga between Yahoo and Microsoft is just such an example; there are literally thousands of blog entries alone on the subject.

Thus companies no longer have the luxury of deciding if they will participate in the world of social media - the online community is commenting on any publicly traded company, whether they like it or not. All a company can do is choose is to what extent they want to participate in the evolution of their identity in the Web 2.0 universe; whether they want to benefit from, or to ignore, a huge and rapidly growing community.

Social Media Marketing is about building an online presence in a challenging and sometimes hostile environment. It is about building trust, and providing the online community with an honest and consistent message from the management about the direction of the company. The online community will reward an honest and straightforward approach, but will severely punish any lies or deceits. A company who pretends to be a hip teenager and posting veiled advertisements on a social network site, for example, may find their strategy backfires virally.