Become an Online Magnet for People Looking for Your Business
BySubmitting valuable stories and content, and then sharing it in a niche community, is an excellent way to create a positive presence in the world of social media, yet there are some specific steps involved when publishing on the web. SEO-friendly content is not the only way to develop a presence, as there is an element of interacting with community members involved as well.
Yet why is social media so important in your everyday business and marketing efforts? What role does it play in reaching your target market?
These are both questions that many website owners and businesses ask, and determining the effectiveness of social media will be a part of your internet marketing strategy.
Social media offers the latest roundup of online technologies that is based on the concept of community. Sharing opinions, posting comments, participating in discussion boards, and simply exchanging media files are all facets of social media on the web today, and social bookmarking and networking are just a couple of these online activities.
Knowing how to develop your website so that it is conducive to social media applications can help you interact with your customers in a variety of new ways, and ultimately, lead to the traffic levels you desire. Increased traffic is a necessary result of innovation, and attractive websites that encourage user interaction are making the business of marketing much easier.
Collective intelligence is leading the wave of sharing information based on specific keywords and subjects, and can help marketers and business owners in many ways. Today’s social networking sites are incorporating many social bookmarking elements into the platform. This allows users to learn even more about each other, and is engaging people online by building communities, opening up new networking channels, and giving marketers and business owners a chance to track behavior.
Discovering and sharing information with keywords in specific topic is what allows social bookmarking networks to grow; as more information is provided, the categories of interest also develop to provide key information.
In many ways, social bookmarking is considered to be a form of collective intelligence.
Collective intelligence based on a few trends in the marketplace, news, or other information can provide very important data to a third party observer. Filtering data has become even more important today as it provides insights and information on direct experiences with many of the goods and services available in the marketplace.
Social media is quickly becoming one of the web’s fastest growing online activities, a place for customers in a variety of markets and niche communities to learn, educate others, and interact with other buyers. As a result, it is in your best interest to track and gauge different patterns. Consider social media a major channel to accurately gauge your customer’s interests, tastes, and preferences.
Each contributor is essentially volunteering testimonials on products, likes, dislikes, and other information that was once only available from direct market surveys or interviews. Social media platforms offer you some insight on what the customer truly wants at any given time.
Developing your website so that it uses at least two to three of today’s leading social media technologies can help boost traffic with less and less direct marketing efforts.
Building a network of like-minded users and visitors is the basis of Web 2.0 applications on the web today, and social bookmarking is just one element of this growth. Web 2.0 sites are based on a few key principles that encourage interaction and sharing information with ease.
By using tagging and breaking down information into keyword structures, everything is organized in a way that makes it easy to search and find specific information. From blogs to shopping sites, Web 2.0 has allowed new, media-rich applications to serve as platforms for all users. Sites such as Digg.com, StumbleUpon, LinkedIN, ThisNext, and dozens of others are building communities and creating networks.
Web 2.0 is essentially doing what market research departments have been working on for decades; filtering information on consumers, and segmenting the market. Market segmentation is an essential part of consolidating demographic information, and has often been compiled through surveys, focus groups, and other market research initiatives.
Web 2.0 allows many marketers to simply skip these steps; if your consumer market is voluntarily sharing information about their tastes, preferences, and other ideas through social bookmarking channels, it becomes much easier to learn and develop new tactics to keep them engaged.
Many industries can gain significant insights and information from experimenting with social bookmarking and networking tools.
In addition to the marketing and branding benefits of participating in a social bookmarking network, there are other benefits involved. The following metrics can be generated as a result of ongoing participation:
• More Traffic – writings and submissions posted to social bookmarking sites can be tracked easily
• More Profits – customers that are continuously participating in a specific genre or community are more likely to simply buy something through this portal or channel. This gives rise to increased revenue
• Higher Search Engine Rank – determining how well a specific product is doing becomes much easier as it reaches the high ranks of a specific community
• Reduced Costs – social bookmarking and marketing on the web offer the added benefit of reduced costs. Businesses are more likely to reach a wider audience with minimal effort
The old ways of conducting market research and finding out more about target markets and customers are long gone; with today’s web tools and freely distributed information, tracking down the target market and identifying new trends has become much easier.
It’s interesting to compare and contrast the old and new ways of marketing on the web.
When website and internet marketing first became effective, the most common applications included:
• Surveys
• Online newsletters
• Direct e-mail campaigns
• Auto responders
• E-mail collection services
• Visitor feedback through comments
With the surge in Web 2.0, blogging, and a higher level of interaction on the web, the focus has shifted to interaction and community building. As a result, the most common applications for marketers on the web today include:
• Blogging
• Social networking
• Wiki-style site building
• Online chat
• Vlogging
• Online events
• Social bookmarking networks
By seeing exactly what consumers are looking for online, a business or marketing team can even increase their own exposure in the right channels. Branding by increasing exposure is an excellent way to cut costs on marketing budgets; social bookmarking is an inexpensive way to simply ‘insert’ and include a brand in a growing consumer activity.
It’s easy to attract and maintain a steady presence by using the following guidelines when developing a submission:
• Make the content easy to read and understand
• Offer useful tools
• Use keywords
• Make the best use of tagging so users can find information with ease
A business using this will not only position themselves within each of their relevant channels on social bookmarking sites, yet can also work on presenting themselves professionally after learning about their target market.
Tracking the target market has commonly been done with parsing technologies and only possible after collecting large amounts of data based on surveys or other input. Many of these research studies are conducted by costly marketing departments, and can take months and even years to consolidate.
However, tracking down a target market is worth the effort; finding out exactly where potential customers are, learning about their buying habits, and attracting them in new ways of interaction with a company, can help improve brand presence and create a shift in consumer behavior.
With social bookmarking sites, the information about consumer behavior and preferences is readily available. Social bookmarking sites that create a community based on preferences pave the way for reviewing trends, patterns, and basically learn what the market is interested in at any given time.
Reviewing independent profiles and trends on a regular basis can make trend forecasting much easier. It can help with identifying market leaders, and learning first hand from the consumer about feedback on specific products.
What this means is that the marketer or business can create unique valuable content and products to send to various social bookmarking sites. Once they create a valuable presence, it becomes much easier to influence the decision makers in each and every community. This is the essence of social bookmarking and networking at its best; community building can create a network of influence that can now also be enjoyed by marketers and entrepreneurs on the web.
James Tyler
Managing Editor
Online Publishing Group.com
Publishing & Media Professionals
1-800-341-3593
http://Online-Publishing-Group.com/
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