The social media umbrella is a large one. It encompasses all the web sites or web applications that allow your audience to interact with your website as well as each other. The popularity of social media has exploded in the past couple of years. So much so that eMarketer states that over 52% of all internet users are active on Facebook. That’s a huge number and is one that can’t be ignored. Social media marketing needs to be a part of your overall marketing plan.
Be sure to watch for my other articles on Social Media here at BIMRG.com
The Seven Categories Of Social Media
| Social Media Type | Description | Examples |
| Blogs | Allow you to write journal style and invite comments from your reader | WordPress, Blogger |
| Social Networks | Where people can interact and connect online | Facebook, MySpace |
| Bookmarking Sites | Allow you to save bookmarks as you would in your browser, but on a site you can access from any computer | Delicious StumbleUpon |
| Microblogging Sites | Allow you to blog one or two sentences at a time | Twitter, Plurk |
| Media Sharing Sites | Allow you to upload and share video, audio and photographs | YouTube, Flikr |
| Popularity Sites | Where you can collect bookmarks and then let visitors vote on them | Digg, Reddit |
| Aggregators | Help the truly social and connected keep up with everything | FriendFeed |
All seven of these social media categories are important for you to explore because they are all interconnected in some fashion. A YouTube account holder will likely also have a Facebook or Twitter account. If someone forwards a funny YouTube video to someone’s Facebook account, that person can then watch it on YouTube. If they like it, they may tell their Facebook friends and send a Tweet out about it.
Social media has the potential to send out your message far and fast!
Now that you know the seven categories of social media, you will also need to know what sites are the hot spots, along with the site’s specialties are so that you can successfully use social media to spread the word about your products and services online.
One thing that you do not want to do when it comes to social media marketing is to jump on to a social media network such as Facebook and make friends with hundreds of thousands of people with the intent of sending them coupons or other offers. Do this and you’ll likely be banned from the network. Spam has no place in any kind of marketing you do online for two reasons. First, people don’t like the intrusion. Second, most people are programmed to ignore and delete spam as quick as they get it. Marketing on a social media site is much like going to a party. Take the time to introduce yourself. Chat a bit. Don’t make a sales pitch until someone asks about a product or service you provide. Become part of the community before you start selling. Sure, it’ll take a bit longer to see results, but you’ll find that you will have far more success with your social media marketing in the long run.
