Social media marketing is the new frontier in marketing for many businesses, large or small. There has never been a better way to reach a mass audience, already engaged and ready to receive information.
The larger social media sites—MySpace or Facebook—are primarily populated by younger people with a bit more disposable income to spend on various products or services. However, in addition to these social media powerhouses, there are a number of smaller sites out there, catering to this same audience. Many businesses are taking advantage of the unfettered access to this audience by taking on a new form of advertising.
Social media marketing throws out the old rules of marketing in the forms of print advertising or billboards and instead, utilizes the Web to reach an audience. Think of it like this, for the more traditional forms of advertising, media outlets and cable channels displayed adverts that were not interactive during news programming or other shows similar to a news format. The major difference in social media marketing is that the user controls it. And it targets the people looking for your product or service and avoids those who are not.
Blogs have also become more popular in the social media marketing realm because they often develop a dedicate readership and you can often integrate advertising content into the general topic of the blog, getting your message out on a subconscious level. Blogs allow you to reach a segmented audience who is already interested in your topic; it’s simply up to you to tout your service or product to close the deal.
Social media marketing allows businesses to think outside the box when it comes to reaching their customers. Taking advantage of these online options can not only enhance your existing business, but also allow you an opportunity to reach a new audience you may not have otherwise had access to without the benefits of social media marketing.
