Social Media Marketing For Dummies
Shiv Singh, Stephanie Diamond
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Social Media Marketing For Dummies
Shiv Singh, Stephanie Diamond
About This Book
Make friends and sell things to people through social media
Social media technology is restlessly inventive, providing thousands of awesome ways for you to market your business inexpensively and on a large scaleāoften directly into the pockets of consumers. But in the proliferating, ever-changing world of tweets, influencers, handles, and alerts, it can be hard to know where to begin and then to evaluate what's actually working for you. In the new edition of Social Media Marketing for Dummies, leading SMM voices Shiv Singh and Stephanie Diamond clear away the confusion and show you the smartest, most effective ways to plan, launch, manage, and assess your campaignsāand then iterate and optimize for increased success.
Incorporating the latest trends and presented in a friendly, easily digestible step-by-step style, you'll find the ultimate blueprint for developing your best SMM strategy. In no time, you'll find out how to line up with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google, develop a unique and compelling voice, and influence your key audience all the way to the bank.
- Choose the best SMM combination for you
- Avoid common mistakes and pitfalls
- Track your customers from awareness to retention
- Try out the latest stuff that really works
Whether your organization is large or small, it simply doesn't pay to be shy. Find your voice, get social, and chat your way to attracting and keeping new customers today!
Frequently asked questions
Information
Getting Started with Social Media Marketing
Understanding Social Media Marketing
Defining Social Media Marketing
Learning about the Roles People Play
- Marketers: They publish and share content online to achieve an organizationās marketing and business needs. Todayās marketer looks nothing like the marketers of the twentieth century. Customers now own the brand conversation. The opportunity to interrupt and annoy those customers has dwindled. Customers now meet businesses on their own terms. In the following section, we discuss the new role that marketers have to play.
- Influencers: Several types of influencers contribute to the decisions customers make. They may be everyday people who influence the consumer as he makes a purchasing decision. Depending on the decision, the social influencers may be a wife (or husband), friends, peers at work, or even someone the consumer has never even met in real life. Simply put, the people who influence a brand affinity and purchasing decision are the social influencers. They may exert this influence directly by rating products and commenting or by publishing opinions and participating in conversations across the web. Anyone can be a social influencer, influencing someone elseās brand affinity and purchasing decisions, and you, the reader, are probably one, too, without realizing it. We discuss the specific types of influencers in the section āUnderstanding the role of the influencer.ā
- Platforms: We used to believe that the social media platforms on which marketers, influencers, and consumers published content were neutral technologies without playing a role in whose content got promoted and shared the most. However, in recent years, the actions of the major social media platforms have shown that their leadership has an active role to play in what gets promoted, shared, and inversely censured on a social media marketing platform. If youāre a small company, their influence may not be noticeable but for larger companies who market and sell many products online, understanding how the platforms and their leaders think about content is important.
Changing roles of the social media marketer
- Become the top persuader.When you lead an SMM team, you need to understand that persuasion is your most important tool. You persuade your team that you can help its members achieve success, and you persuade your customer to buy your product. Throughout this book, we discuss the role that influence plays in social media and in the art of persuasion. Before you influence, you need to figure out the persuasive message that will sell. When you do that, you can unleash the groups that influence your customers.
- Use a variety of distribution channels.The key mistake that some new social media marketers make is to focus solely on social media platforms to carry their message. This does half the job. Although it gets peopleās attention, it doesnāt always get them to the sale. For example, imagine that you have just tweeted about a solution for stain removal. Unless you provide a link to your product and a place for discussion and reviews, you have a missed opportunity. Draw a map of all your channels (blog, website, Facebook page, newsletter, and so on), and use it whenever you plan a new campaign. You need a link to all your venues.
- Reinvent your strategy to emphasize value.Value is a secret weapon in this economy. When you boil away all the other ingredients of a product sale, you uncover value. This is a tricky concept because value is in the eye of the beholder. Understanding what imparts that value should underlie your entire marketing strategy. Think about your current SMM campaign. Are you focusing on features and benefits or on how the product makes your customer feel? For example, some companies focus on making people feel smart and sexy when they buy a certain model car. By the same token, others may focus on models that emphasize safety and responsibility. If you understand the value, you can establish a bond with your buyer.
- Market to inspire.The globalization of our world ...