Social Media is definintely a buzz word. But is it real? I mean does it work for getting out a marketing message? Can it “explode traffic” to your site?
The answer to all of those questions is both yes and no.
In a sense , social media is the premise the internet was built on. To exchange info and meet others with similar interests. It could be defined that all media that allows collaboration and some level of interactivity is a form of social media.
This would mean that American Idol or Pop Idol (across the pond) is a form of social media, since the audience interacts and ultimately decides the outcome.
But where the buzz comes from is these new sites that are super interactive and let groups form and interact and let users share their favorite websites with others.
Wow. Big dealsky.
Well, the big deal is not the applications themselves, but more the content being put on them.
The beauty of Facebook for example is the ability to target your market in ways only dreamed of before.
For example, I can make a ’social ad’ and target it ONLY towards the 20 people who work at my local advertising agency, or all ad agencies, or entire corporations.
That’s targeted advertising. Or it could be everyone between certain ages at a particular college..or neighboorhood…or well, you get the idea. This is done on either a CPM or PPC basis, and is elegant and much cheaper (at least for now) than many other ppc sources who offer know where near the targeting.
I’m sure more targeting options will be available in the future, such as marketing only to parents, etc. The future is wide, and there has been very little buzz about this aspect of things, which could be a good sign.
As far as social bookmarking sites, video sharing sites, etc. They can be a huge boost in popularity and traffic and bottom line, but the key is to have original relevant content being presented, so it’s just a twist on the same issue since the web was invented, content is still king.
If you have good, original content, then yes you will see a boost, sometimes a huge one. If you have tired content, then there is not a technology that will ever be invented that will work the magic you require.
Nuff said.
