Perhaps the biggest growth area on the Internet over the last two years has been the explosive development of Social Media use, and on the back of that the exponential growth of Social Media Marketing.

Social Media moves us into a completely new paradigm of marketing, where rather than the old "Top Down" style of advertising, (where you pay a million pounds for a television advertisement at prime time - so that everyone can go and make a cup of coffee) there now exists a new style of engagement, where you as a business can get involved in direct conversations with large numbers of potential and current customers.

Marketing using Social Media is particularly interesting, because a large proportion of people still seem to consider it a complete waste of time.  And very often that are right.

For many Social Media is just a place to go and waste some time, do some socialising, and for the de-motivated worker, to while away some time before leaving work on a Friday.  Yet its massive growth indicates that there have to be some opportunities somewhere, hence the large number of people now practicing "Social Media marketing"

So lets have a very quick look at some of the Networks:

Network	People	Use	Logo	Tips
Facebook	350 million active users (50% log in every day) Alexa Rank: 2	Very good at inviting its users back, and drawing them in. Mainly limited to closer friends and family.		Send "feeds" here with content from your blog, or Twitter. Set up a free "Business Page", then look for "fans".
MySpace	Alexa Rank: 12	Share pictures and music with Friends. A highly personalised page. Widely used by musicians and bands.		Customise your page. Define "Who you'd like to meet" Build a company profile.
Twitter	55 million monthly visits Monthly growth 1,300% - Feb 2009 Alexa Rank: 14	Gives you real time access to anyone on Twitter. Often the most up-to-date source of information in the world.		Search for relevant users and "Follow" them. Customise your Twitter Page Manage the stream of Tweets with "Tweet Deck".
Linked-In	Over 50 million users worldwide, of which 11 million are in Europe Alexa Rank: 42	keeping in touch with business contacts, and making new ones.		Join our Cornwall Business Networking Group Ask and answer questions.
Friendfeed	Alexa Rank: 695	Combines content from all your friends and other sources you like.		Feed your Twitter updates into Friendfeed
Plaxo	User numbers not certain. Alexa Rank: 1523	An on-line address book. Starting to look more like Twitter.		Feed your Twitter updates into Plaxo
E-cademy	Business users - 33% from the UK Alexa Rank: 6012	Business networking is also encouraged here, but there is quite a lot of unsolicited (SPAM) in my view.		Join the "Cornwall" and "South West" Groups Post what you do in the Forums.

So what to do with all these networks?

1. Pick a few that you like.  (We tend to focus on Linked-In and Twitter for business.)
2. Have a plan - what are you trying to achieve?
3. Build numbers of followers or friends - there's no point talking to nobody.
4. Remember its more about sharing than selling - who wants a sales pitch?
5. Ask and answer questions - an opportunity to engage.
6. Build links back to your site while you are there.
7. Feed the data into one place, and let it go to all the other networks automatically. Why write the same thing several times?
8. Be consistent, you'll achieve nothing by giving up.
9. Invite people to follow or friend you on your web site.
10. Give it time to build up relationships.
    

So does Social Media Marketing actually work?

Well for a long time we were involved with Social Media - because we were. However initially the rewards were minimal.  The focus was more on understanding the medium and how it could later be utilised.

But then we started getting real contacts via Social Networks, especially via Linked In in our experience.

Now its fair to say that we've had some good work via the Social Networks, and made some invaluable business contacts, so Yes, it has worked.

But it took time and patience, and making the effort to build up relationships on-line much like you do off.

Now each type of business is personal, and ours being very focused and UK based does not necessarily need a large number of clients - just a group of good ones.

However if you have a mass market product or something more scalable, then it is safe to say that the potential benefits would be greater.  If you are building an international brand, can sell products in volume, then the scalability of some of these networks is a great potential asset to your marketing mix.

So it all depends on you:

• the nature of your business
• your budget
• your audience
• And your level of persistence.

But its safe to say that Social Media is one of the fastest growing forms of Marketing at present, and that it is here to stay in one form or another.

If you would like to learn more about making the most of Social Media please feel free to get in touch.

How can we help you?

• Our regular Internet Marketing courses can teach you how to make the most of Social Media.
• Our technical team can help with coaching, set-up, and integrating your Social Media with your other sites.
• Our content and SEO team can help with content generation and scheduling, in order to achieve the consistent results that you are looking for.

Oh - and by the way, do follow up on Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook, et al - we'd love to chat with you!

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