Week 2- Introduction to Social Media Marketing

Social media can be overwhelming and difficult to understand. Posts are made on a variety of different channels. Social media does not coincide with one specific platform. This can be demonstrated by a simple google search. If you type Social Media marketing into a google image search you get this:

The search is full of info-graphics showing different platforms linking companies and people through the internet. If you're optimistic, this will lead to increased interaction between businesses and consumers to make revenue.

Revenue is important! The use of social media for it to be beneficial needs to give an ROI, or a return on investment. Return on investment is important because without a return, no money is made, and a social media marketing employer cannot be paid. Also, a misstep in social media usage can lead to people feeling negative towards a company or product and not using it overall.

An important idea to consider is that social media does not just appeal to consumers. I had not really thought about this in too much detail before reading this chapter.  B2B is an acronym used for business to business oriented marketing. It is aimed at selling a product or service to another business. Social media works great for interacting with businesses that you likely wouldn't have even heard of before the internet age.  B2C, or business to consumer is aimed at giving consumers information about a product. Consumers can be every all around the world and can instantly get updates from you on their Facebook feed, twitter page, or many other social media platforms. Engaging the consumer is a very  important part of social media marketing. Businesses wants to  get their audience talking about the product. This does run as a two way street however. Businesses should be listening to the word of mouth (WOM) exchanges between consumers. As mentioned in the previous post, SocialMention.com is a great way to gauge how people feel about a company on  various social media platforms. Knowing how to better cater to your consumer can largely increase your consumer base.

The main idea of social media marketing is to make content catered to your audience and send it out into the world through a variety of channels such as Facebook, YouTube, and twitter. This will then create "buzz" about your company or its product and help your company grow.