What is Social Media
What is Social Media
Author: Social Media by Proxy
Just What Is This Social Media Marketing All About?
Hopefully you are asking yourself,
“What is Social Media, Why do I need It and Can it really help my business grow?”
Let’s start out by me asking you a few questions on Social Media.
Ever wish you were a fly on the wall when it comes to your customers and prospective customers?
What if …you could address a complaint in real time, resolve it and not only renew your customers faith in you, but enhance your reputation with thousands of viewers?
What if …you could reach out to thousands of prospective customers in a single text message and convert a slow day into a banner one?
What if … the power of word of mouth advertising was an instant chain reaction creating buzz about your company?
What if…you received a glowing review, recommendation, referral or testimonial that thousands of consumer saw instantly?
What if…you could target an ad to a consumer who needs exactly what you sell at a fraction of the cost of regular advertising?
Who are the Social Media Consumers?
We, are social consumers and savvy. We no longer trust an advertisement as gospel but trust our friends advice, recommendations and experiences about your business, service or product. We expect you to be available where we communicate, online, Facebook, mobile text, smart phones, twitter and more. We’ve gone beyond 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 web marketing. We want instant gratification and instant response. We move in real time, why aren’t you here? Your competitor is.
Social Media Marketing is Word of Mouth Advertising on Steroids.
Social Media Marketing is becoming the most effective way to reach consumers to increase your market share. I could spew out stats about the millions of US consumers who purchase and research before they buy online via the internet and smart phones. The numbers are a staggering magnitude too large to make real meaning out of but I will mention a few. YouTube is the second largest search engine to Google, there are over 200 million US users on Facebook and there were a total of 101 million Smartphone mobile devices distributed in the final quarter of 2010.
You need your business where your customers eyes are, and they are no longer on the yellow pages, newspaper, radio and local television channels.
Using a social media marketing manager to help create and generate buzz is a great way to begin to engage customers. Just having a website isn’t enough anymore and what did work to get you seen online no longer is as effective. Social media marketing helps you increase market share and reach consumers you may not ordinarily. It will drive traffic to your business, provide you with happy, repeat customers and keep the customers you have. How? When Social Media is done right, you’re customers are engaged. The personality of your company shines through and you build a like minded tribe of loyal followers. When using a social media marketing manager, a strategy should be developed that fits your goals and incremental growth. Use of video distribution, Facebook fanpages along with other popular social sites, mobile marketing capability, a website that displays correctly on mobile phones all need to be incorporated in todays advertising strategies and your Social Media Manager should have the ability to provide these services for you. Social Media by Proxy is offering a no cost 1 hour consultation to determine your companies goals and what Social media programs are best to attain them.
Contact us today and let’s start building relationships through social media!
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/what-is-social-media-4326440.html
About the Author
Social Media by Proxy is a Social Media Marketing Management firm for small to mid-size businesses. We help businesses create buzz, build a community and start a conversation online with their customers and prospective customers. By successfully creating a strategy that best fits your business, we drive more traffic, generate repeat customers, build customer loyalty and increase potential sales.
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Categories: Internet Marketing Tags: Social Media
Web Traffic Explained
Web Traffic Explained Volume – Organic Search Traffic – Traffic From Article Directories – Social Media Web Traffic
Author: WebTrafficMachines
You’ve possibly heard the saying that without web traffic you’re nobody online! Unfortunately that saying is true, because online traffic is a euphemism (translates) for visitors. Without visitors to your site you’re never going to make the sale. It is clearly illustrated by this scenario; you may have the world’s best invention or product that could literally turn the world upside down overnight but if nobody knows about it, nobody cares about it! Business folklore is peppered with tales of geniuses who died penniless and in squalor (all the while sitting on a goldmine of an invention) just because they couldn’t get the public interested in their product.
26 tools “Web Traffic Machines” collection.
As an online entrepreneur you are somewhat in the same dilemma, getting people to that great site of yours:
In a nutshell you need web traffic or your online business is as good as dead! Here’s why:
Traffic = Visitors to your site or blog
Visitors = Potential Buyers
Active Buyers = Profit
Profit = Successful Business
The Various Types of Traffic
There’s web traffic and then there’s web traffic!
Social Media Web Traffic
Fortunately recent changes in internet trends have made it a lot easier to get internet traffic. These changes are due to the widely adopted transition to Web 2.0 and the explosion of social media sites. Web traffic from social media sites is far easier to get than internet traffic from the search engines but the downside is that this type of traffic is not as targeted as online traffic that originates from a typed query into a search engine.
So what exactly do I mean when I say that it is not as targeted?
Well if you’re are to consider a prospect who arrives to your website via a particular keyword query typed into one of the search engines such as Google, that particular action means that such a person is actively seeking more information concerning that topic. Such a visitor to your site is in what I consider a proactive mindset related to that keyword! In other words they are prepared to act upon information associated with that keyword.
Curiosity Prospects
In comparison a visitor arriving from your site from a social media website was most likely drawn there by incidental curiosity. What that means is that that particular visitor probably noticed an intriguing article or post title of yours, with an equally intriguing summary which linked to your site. It was curiosity that led them to your site. Such visitors are what I term Curiosity Prospects! Curiosity Prospects land on your website by accident rather than through active query-word engagement on their part. Such a visitor is less likely to purchase whatever you’re selling because they didn’t arrive with that mindset. This explains the strange phenomenon of link bait pieces that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors with very little conversion rates (i.e., few become buyers).
The Numbers Game
The driving force powering social media websites is captivating information! Riveting articles that literally grab people’s attention by the scruff of the neck! Thus getting any meaningful conversion rate from such Curiosity Prospects depends on a massive flow of traffic! The bottom line is that social media web traffic is a numbers game revolving around link bait; an art that some internet marketers have perfected to precision.
There’s a definite science to writing great link bait pieces, however just like any other article, success of that aspiring link bait piece hinges on the title or headline! When one thinks of social media websites the word that immediately springs to mind (or at least it should) is BUZZ!
BUZZ
A great link bait article has to generate a lot of buzz. In order to do that, the article should:
Stir controversy;
Be Breaking News of significance in whatever field;
Be well written;
Be polarizing;
Captivate or educate the reader;
Be witty or funny;
Be shocking (not disgusting mind you, there is a difference):
Be well formatted;
And lastly, the body text of the article should follow through on the premise of its title in a logical easily graspable step-by-step fashion.
Buzz Transferring Positive SEO Influence
So what, if anything are you getting from that Web 2.0 traffic, if those vast numbers of social media Curiosity Prospects don’t convert into purchasers? Well the plain fact is, the sheer volume of traffic flowing to your website is soon going to get noticed by the search engines which in turn will increase your ranking and positioning on those very same search engines. By its very nature that increased positive attention from the search engines is going to get your website much closer to the holy grail of any online business…tons of web traffic from the search engines!
Organic Search Traffic!
From experience and to my manner of thinking, this is hands down the best kind of web traffic but it is also by far the hardest to attain or get. When I say the best I mean as far as conversion rates go! So what exactly is organic internet traffic? This is that online traffic that originates from a search query conducted on the search engines. Say for example you’re a prospect who is looking to start an online home business what online actions could you take to find out such info? Well it is highly likely that the first thing you would do is query the search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask.com) with a keyword term that might be any of the following: internet business; internet marketing, home business or online marketing, etc. The returned results for that query are what we refer to as organic listings;which are the websites listed in the Google Index (and the various other search engines). Obviously the higher the website is listed on the Google Index or SERPs (search engine rank pages) the greater the chances of that website being picked by a searcher for the queried keyword they typed into the search engine.
In reality you’d want your website to be listed on Page 1 or Page 2 of Google (as the largest search engine Google shall be used as the default term for all the search engines). And why would you wish to be on Page 1 or 2 of Google? Well pause a moment and consider how often do you search deeper than the first two pages for any online query. I’m guessing rarely if ever do you go beyond Page 2,that’s why you should aim to get your website listed no deeper than Page 2. Ideally however the best position to have your site listed for any particular keyword is the 1st listing on Google Page 1. However that is in a perfect world; but truth be told, once you are on Page 1 of Google you are made or at least your site/blog is!
Getting organic traffic is priceless because the person who typed in that keyword which ultimately led them to your site (via your listing on Google) is a deadly serious prospect. They are actively searching for whatever subject your website is about. Such a person is the most likely candidate to purchase. An added bonus is that such an individual is quite likely new to that subject matter which led them to your site and they obviously wish to increase their knowledge on that particular topic. This type of prospect is the best kind of visitor to get to your site because there is a very high probability they have not yet been tainted by the profusion of other sites out there covering the same subject matter as yours!
Traffic From Article Directories
Submitting well written articles to article directories is another fantastic way to get web traffic. The upshot to this method, as compared to social media (Web 2.0) website submissions, is that you can avoid the time-consuming hassle of aggregating votes in order to get your articles sufficient exposure on those Web 2.0 sites to draw significant amounts of internet traffic. Not only do consistent article directory submissions build your reputation (assuming your articles are indeed worthy) you can build up quite a following. In fact some online marketing businesses have found remarkable success based solely upon article submissions to article directories! And finally another way of getting online traffic is participating in online forums targeting your intended market.
26 tools “Web Traffic Machines” collection.
Anyone who needs Massive traffic *N.O.W* needs Web Traffic Machines
About the Author
Web Traffic Machines is helping people hammer their websites with massive amounts of traffic .Visit http://seowebtrafficmachine.blogspot.com/ for more web traffic information
Categories: Internet Marketing Tags: Social Media, Traffic, Web Traffic Explained Volume
