Posts Tagged ‘seo company uk’

“Word of mouth” is the strategy behind marketing on social media. 2009 saw much hype over the emergence of this new form of marketing and now that the dust has settled, it is time to come to terms with the challenges of social media marketing. No longer a fringe benefit or additional service, online marketing sees social networking, blogs and bookmarking sites as the latest thing, picking up from search engine optimisation.

Apart from the upswing in popularity that social media has seen, there are advantages that remain untapped by many SEO firms that provide social media marketing services as well.Online communities have had a profound effect on popular culture evident from the widespread use of sites like YouTube, Flickr and other media outlets. Organisations that do not realise the business development potential of this cultural phenomenon will find themselves struggling in the marketing world of 2009.

The recession caused by the meltdown of financial institutions worldwide is now prompting a new wave of media marketing that is driven by smaller staff and tighter budgets. For conformists, holding on to traditional marketing avenues will probably spell PR doom. There is a demand for open, transparent and direct conversation between customer and merchandiser that only the social web can fulfil.

Adapt, evolve or perish has been the principle guiding success within every industry and the marketing world has seen the advent and decline of other media in the past. The first to embrace new forms of marketing have always been most successful and in this transitory period the question of when rather than why is now significant. The advantages of social media marketing are manifold. Enabling your customers to act as spokespersons, targeting relevant bloggers to endorse your services and initiating discussions between employees and customers are some of the many ways in which marketing is revolutionising online business.Very often social media marketing is confused with social media optimisation.

The two terms while similar, have taken a more definitive meaning in this new year. 2008 was the year of SMO – where websites were encouraged to be more social media friendly, add social bookmarking links and create user friendly content. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is an extensive field that finally aims at promoting content via social networking websites. As SMM makes its way to the forefront of online marketing, there is a compelling need to embrace this new medium to survive in the cutthroat world of online retailing.

SMM) and (SMO) are two new catch phrases that have appeared across web marketing sites over the last year. These seemingly interchangeable terms are used to define marketing through social media and social networking sites. However there appears to be much confusion over the precise meaning and as a result, the exact definition of these terms. The problem in making a distinction appears to be a result of confusion with viewing them as two different emerging marketing techniques.Social Media OptimisationSocial media optimisation is the process of refining a website i.e. optimising it, so that brand/site awareness and content are spread with little effort through social media and online communities. Rather than a banner ad or search ranking, users and visitors of the website act as carriers. Optimising can thus include any on-page techniques used such as improvements to the design and usability of the website which would help it become more compelling to users. This makes it more likely for them spread it through social media sites. A simple example of SMO is represented by adding social bookmarking links like “digg this”, “add to delicious” or “stumble upon” that are all over the web today.Social Media MarketingSMM in contrast, is representative of a creative perspective on marketing over social networking websites. It refers to crating and then distributing content and similar messages through the social web network using some form of viral marketing. The “viral marketing” content specified here could be a funny blog post that gets bookmarked and possibly makes its way to digg’s homepage or spreading a viral video by placing it on YouTube and other social media websites. The main difference is that the work here is off-site and involves engaging your potential customer base on territory familiar to them.To a certain extent, the two terms can be contrasted similar to push and pull marketing. With SMM, advertisers push their message out into the social media. However, once out there the message should not require any more pushing. A true viral marketing campaign must generate its own momentum so that it spreads on its own, creates a buzz and people actually want to spread it. Thus with SMM the campaign starts with creation and ends shortly with planting of this campaign. SMO, on the other hand, focuses on pulling people in with an “optimised” site. Visitors are then expected to spread content present with minimal effort on your part. SMO is at some levels a second stage of the SMM process.These two new phenomena cannot be ignored in the web marketing world. SEO firms are now looking to social media with more intensity to provide the added exposure for their marketing campaigns.