Social Media Marketing – Meaning and Key Concepts

Humans are social animals and communication and interaction is vital for the our society. People love to socialize and interact with one another. Internet has changed the way the people communicate. Whereas in old times, one had to write a letter or book a telephone call to speak to a friend or relative living across the country, today technology enables one to be in touch with friends and family across the globe instantaneously.

Look at any individual’s lifestyle today. Most often you will find people spending over two to three hours every evening on the internet chatting with friends and communicating with likeminded people. People of all ages tend to find social networking sites that deal with the subject of their interest and follow the conversations happening there. Internet being a global phenomenon, you will find people from all over the world coming together to talk and share information about their particular topic of interest. It had never been easier that this to make friends and socializing over the internet.

When we talk of social networking we are not just referring to the chatting and other blogs and forums where people discuss certain topics. We seem to be using the social media for sharing videos, movies, music, photos and all of the information that one would want to share. Millions of viewers log into You Tube to view the latest movies, clippings etc. every minute. Similarly millions are logging into face book searching for friends online and sharing information about self with friends all the time. Flickr happens to be the most favorite site for photo sharing.

When you want to know the definition or meaning of a particular word or a topic, what do you do?. It is quite likely that you will check out the Wikipedia or Encyclopedia sites online. If you follow the history of Wikipedia, it best describes the growth and power of social media. Wikipedia is a site that allows anyone and everyone to contribute topics, explanations and definitions at its site. The information so provided can be reviewed by those interested and anybody can comment or provide corrections as well as further explanations. Thus the topics are built, reviewed, changed and reformed through the collective effort of people who are interested in the particular topic. This is perhaps the best example of social media network where people come together to discuss, deliberate, communicate and create content that is useful to one and all.

When you look at the social media marketing websites from the eyes of the marketing companies, one gets to see a huge potential waiting to be explored. Social media networks represent markets and customers who are online and listening. With captive audience being available, marketing companies can reach out to the prospective customers and help build opinion about their products and services as well as initiate discussion about their products with the help of those who are interested as well as those who have been customers of the company. Marketers can learn a lot and get real feedback about their product and experiences from the customers online and besides initiate interest in others who are watching and following the topic.

Social media marketing is a phenomenon and this is a medium that no marketing Organization can afford to ignore or be absent from.