Web Design & Development Ireland | Internet Marketing Ireland | Search Engine Optimisation | Web Positioning

Social Media

Social media are primarily mobile and Internet based tools for sharing and discussing information. Social media takes on a host of forms, including blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, and social bookmarking sites. Examples of social media applications are Facebook and Myspace (social networking), Wikipedia (reference), Twitter (social networking and microblogging), Blip.fm and Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (video sharing), Flickr (photo sharing), Delicious and Stumbleupon (social tagging), and Digg and Mixx (social bookmarking), among many others. Many of these services can be integrated using social network aggregators like Mybloglog and Plaxo. In essence, the one thing that they all have in common is that they rely on user participation to generate content, and are centred on user interaction.

Social Media Marketing

The significance of Social Media and how it can help drive interest in products, ideas or people arguably became noticeable in the mainstream for the first time during the election campaign of President Obama. His often mentioned use of Facebook as a communication tool to engage with his growing following showed the impact this relatively new media could have. Like other social networking sites, Facebook allows users to pass information easily – if a user has 500 people in their network, and they post something, then 500 people receive it instantly, allowing interesting posts to spread like wildfire. And Facebook continues to expand it's userbase on a daily basis. Likewise, the microblogging site Twitter has also seen a steady increase in users.

As the number of social media sites increase, and more and more users become regular contributors, it has become an important new tool for marketing in the dissimination of product and service information.

Social Media Optimisation - SMO

Utilising social media for your company has two important aspects. The first, SMO or Social Media Optimisation, refers to on-page tactics through which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media. Such optimization includes adding RSS feeds, adding a "Digg This" button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. The second, Social Media Marketing, is all about developing your brand by encouraging fans of that brand to promote it themselves via multiple online social media venues.

Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Social Media should be used to open a dialogue between you and your clients, by using the power of popular opinion to boost your marketing campaign. Begin by fostering a mutual connection with your clients through the vast selection of online communities that currently abound; for example:
  • Blogging. Create your own blog, and participate in other relevant blogs by commenting on blog entries. Use blog aggregators, and RSS feeds to dissiminate your articles.
  • Create a profile in social media communities like Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, and VIRB.
  • Share digital content through community sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube.
  • Use social tagging and bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, and Reddit to link back to your blog entries or articles.
  • Contribute to forums relevant to your product and service.
At Avatar Web Solutions we can advise on which social media platforms are best for your particular needs, and can create profiles that accurately reflect and enhance your ongoing marketing efforts, tweaking them to match future changes to campaigns. Depending on your product or service, certain niche sites will be a better match than others, and at Avatar we have the experience to ensure you're not targeting the wrong market.