Social Media Marketing Basics

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing, or SMM, is the practice of using social networking websites to promote products, services, and brand awareness.

Who uses Social Media Marketing?

Businesses that want to expand their online customer base use Social Media Marketing.

Why use Social Media Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which uses Search Engine Optimization (SEO), attracts the attention of Internet search engines. People who don't know about your business can find it. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (SMM) attracts the attention of human beings. People who know about your business will tell other people about it. And those people will tell other people. SMM is the Internet's version of word-of-mouth marketing and the Internet is huge. Use SMM well and potential customers will reach out to you before they use a search engine.

How to use Social Media Marketing

SMM is an investment. It is based on building relationships with potential customers. Plan and budget your company's social networking activities. Identify measurable goals. Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want to address customer complaints quickly and efficiently? Choose one goal and focus your efforts. Add new goals later.

Where to use Social Media Marketing

SMM can be time-consuming. Identify your target market. Be specific. Do research. Where do large groups of these people meet on the Internet? Are they in a hurry? Do they like photos? Are they professionals? Use the social networking websites where your potential customers gather.

When to use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Marketing

Use SMM consistently. Schedule updates as much as possible. People want to know when they can hear from you. Company blog posts, on sites such as WordPress, can be made once a day, once a week, or once a month. Maintenance is key. If you stop updating, people with assume you don't care.

Only reach out when you have something valuable to offer. Do not add clutter to customer timelines and feeds. You will lose followers. "Something valuable" does not mean a well-priced product. Social networking is about engagement. Ask questions. Give advice. Be clever. Then offer your well-priced product.

Social Media Marketing Tips

Be human. Social networking is people talking to people. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Marketing relies on social networking. Your business needs to care about the people it networks with. It also needs to show that it cares.

Experiment. Track your results (if possible). Social Media Marketing is not an exact science. Learn how much overt advertising your target audience can accept as part of your SMM campaign. What works for your competitor may not work for you.

Evaluate. Reevaluate. Then adapt. The Internet is always changing. If an SMM strategy is no longer working for you, try something new.

New “Tracking Specs” Allow Facebook Advertisers To Track Specs Without Optimising Them

Facebook has introduced tracking specs on the ads API, a new tool which allows Facebook Advertisers to track specs without having to optimise them as well.

Before, only conversion specs were available to advertisers on the ads API. Conversion specs allow advertisers to detail and track their ads, but also automatically optimises ads for actions such as page likes and click-throughs based on the engagement they receive and the ads settings.
By using Optimized CPM, advertisers ensure that Facebook automatically targets users who are more likely to engage with their ads in the way defined in the conversion specs. However, advertisers wanted to be able to track their ads without having to optimise them.

According to the description on the Facebook developers pages:

Tracking specs allow you to track what actions are taken by users interacting with your ad. Tracking specs will only track, it will not optimize for that action nor does it charge based on that action. Please see conversion spec to learn how to create ads that optimize for a specific action.

Now, both conversion specs and tracking specs are available to advertisers using Facebook’s ads API. “Advertisers can define conversion specs to optimize for, then use tracking specs to measure results”, suggests Inside Facebook. Like conversion specs, tracking specs can be used to measure the effect of any Facebook ad type.

What do you think of the new tracking specs?

Facebook Finally Adds 'Reply' Option to Comments

Facebook announced on Monday it is rolling out a new feature so users can reply directly to comments left on their page. Finally.
Followings months of testing, the social network aims to make navigating through conversation threads easier with the new Replies feature. This means that, instead of having to leave a response to a friend's comment way after new ones have been added, you will be able to address each individual comment. Responses will be posted under the original comment too. 

The site is also prioritizing comments based on engagement — the most active and popular ones will surface to the top of your posts. This will be especially helpful for pages with thousands of followers.

"You and your readers will have the ability to reply directly to comments left on your Page content and start conversation threads, which will make it easier for you to interact directly with individual readers and keep relevant conversations connected," said Vadim Lavrusik, Facebook's journalism program manager, in an official blog post. "Also, the most active and engaging conversations among your readers will be surfaced at the top of your posts ensuring that people who visit your Page will see the best conversations."

For now, threaded replies will be automatically applied to profiles with more than 10,000 followers and opt in for brand Pages until July 10, 2013. To opt in, visit the Replies option through the Page admin panel.

"At launch, this feature will only be available on desktop and we plan to make it available in the Graph API and mobile in the future," Lavrusik added.

Mashable composite, Images via iStockphoto, crossroadscreative, and logo courtesy of Facebook