Finding Purpose Beyond the Hysteria of Social Media Marketing ...

Companies looking to build their brands and generate leads are turning to social media marketing at a remarkable rate. Everybody, and every company, seems to have a Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn account, and a blog. They pay an employee or outsource to some self-proclaimed ?Social Media Guru,? and they post weekly, daily, and in some cases every few hours in the desperate attempt to find Fans and Followers. And at the end of the day, with posts in the thousands, and followers in the teens and twenties, these misguided companies find themselves shouting to an empty and uninvolved audience: generating few quality leads and failing to significantly expand their online visibility.

Don?t get me wrong, social media definitely has its place in the online marketing landscape. It is a powerful tool that, when appropriately applied, has an unbridled ability to build communication between businesses and their clients, customers, and consumers. There are many restaurants out there that happily ? and successfully ? promote their nightly specials in these online social forums, and there are many social service providers whose coffers (and communities) benefit greatly from an aware audience.

But when venturing out into the wild and over-competitive world of Likes, Tweets, +s, Connects, Follows, Reads, Shares, and whatever onomatopoeia or verb comes next, companies should first, limit their over-night expectations, and then follow a bottom-up, researched, and comprehensive online marketing model.

The social media market?s primary benefit to companies just joining the party is its SEO opportunities. Google, Yahoo, and the major search engines out there currently consider back links from popular social media sites as important as back links from more traditional online media venues. Developing optimized content for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs can markedly help your business? website climb up the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

The next benefit afforded by social media marketing is its ability to market directly to targeted and active audiences. Unless a company already enjoys a large and engaged Likes list on Facebook, their posts on important company news will not likely develop many quality leads. By bringing this same information to another venue, a popular blog in their niche, for instance, the company can generate significantly more quality leads, drive more traffic to their site, and build their social media audience. Finding the right blog to share in requires research and dedication, not fortune.

Simply creating and populating a social media page and building its presence does not necessarily build its effectiveness. Your business? social media strategy should be consistent with an overall internet marketing effort based upon thoroughly researched keyword strategies, website optimization, email campaigns and the like. Without these dedicated efforts, your posts might be plenty, but their power to build your business will likely remain flat.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/finding-purpose-beyond-the-hysteria-of-social-media-marketing-0154656

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