Social Technology Strategy

What is SMM?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach.

Social media present great marketing opportunities for businesses of all sizes. You can use social media to:

• Promote the name of your brand and business
• Tell customers about your goods and services
• Find out what customers think of your business
• Attract new customers
• Build stronger relationships with existing customers.

Advantages of using social media

Social media marketing is budget friendly and has many advantages that benefit the organization:

• Broad reach – social media can reach millions of people all around the world
• Ability to target particular groups – many forms of social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) allow businesses to target specific groups, often in particular locations
• Free or low-cost – many forms of social media are free for business, and paid options are usually low-cost
• Personal – social media allow you to communicate on a personal basis with individual customers and groups
• Fast – you can quickly distribute information to many people
• Easy – you don’t need high-level skills or computer equipment to participate in social media. The average person with a standard computer should have no difficulty.
• According to Constant Contact’s 2011 Small Business Attitudes & Outlook Survey, small businesses are using social media marketing more than ever before. The survey showed that 73% of small businesses and organizations have started using social media marketing, 61% of those not using it expect to start marketing through social media within the next twelve months, and 65% report that social media marketing works well with other forms of marketing. 

Social media metrics

• If you want to measure awareness, then use metrics like volume, reach, exposure, and amplification. How far is your message spreading?
• If you want to measure engagement, then look for metrics around retweets, comments, replies, and participants. How many people are participating, how often are they participating, and in what forms are they participating?

References 

Constant Contact’s 2011 Small Business Attitudes & Outlook Survey, 2011

Josh M and Jeff M, Chadwick Martin Bailey, Social Sharing Research Report, 2010

Porterfield A (2010) 3 New Studies Prove Social Media Marketing Growth. Social Media Examinor