It is a popular misconception, particularly among younger generations, that social networking sites like Facebook are the preserve of school and university students.
It is in fact the case that these sorts of web sites are becoming a progressively more useful tool for business as a technique of effective internet marketing.
It may have come to the attention of some that an increasing number of ad campaigns on television feature the small Facebook symbol at the bottom of the screen in order to encourage people to go to their webpage on Facebook after viewing the advertisement.
This gives credence to the idea that social networking sites are a critical component in a business's marketing strategy and for their brand image.
It is for this reason that an industry has developed in which companies offering social media marketing advice and services is growing at a speedy pace.
This article studies what social media marketing entails and how a few of the more well-known websites can be used to help.
How does it work? The premise behind social media marketing is that it improves your brand image and can get people to take a look at your web-site who might go on then to contact you and give you their business.
This is accomplished by making use of websites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging to publish written content promoting your brand and marketing your products.
By submitting content and links on these web sites and other people's profiles and accounts you can quickly increase exposure to your site.
As well as the increased contact from third parties you'll experience, search engines such as Bing use posts about businesses on social networking sites to help them determine the rankings in popular searches.
As a result the more out there your brand is in relation to social media, the more valuable it's going to be for your search engine rankings.
Twitter Twitter is one of the key sites businesses are increasingly making use of as part of their social media marketing campaigns.
Using short message updates of only a handful of words firms have the ability to post realtime updates regarding their products, their company and their industry in general.
People who like these posts or find them interesting can 'follow' that business and then read subsequent posts.
Posts may draw viewers into proceeding on to look up their website on-line, or perhaps the post itself may contain a hyperlink to the site being promoted.
It can therefore help set up new client relationships and develop pre-existing ones due to the 'conversional' nature of the medium.
Identifying the suitable post content and guaranteeing posts are sent frequently is something a social media marketing agency can help with.
With an estimated 200 million users Twitter is a fantastic website to use for marketing.
Facebook Facebook, in contrast to Twitter will allow companies to put more information regarding their company online, together with allowing comprehensive product descriptions, photos and video clips to be uploaded too.
If people 'like' your page then they will get updates whenever you upload new information, whether it is a completely new product launch or a special offer, and in this way offers a good way to stay in touch with potential customers.
Furthermore, if any person 'likes' your site then the online friends of the other Facebook user will have exposure to your business too! As a Facebook user you are also able to post on other users pages which again can contain appropriate product or service details or a hyperlink to your own web page.
With over 750m active users it is an even more popular social media site than Twitter and just as before, through the help of a social media marketing firm, could be the key to your company's success.
LinkedIn In contrast to Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn doesn't concentrate on the mass market and is much more helpful for developing business relationships and promoting your brand to a very precise but no less important target market.
With about 120 million users world-wide this social media community presents a good opportunity to take advantage of using social media marketing, although just as before it's always best to work with a social media marketing firm or agency to obtain the very best results possible.
Overall therefore social media marketing companies can help you take advantage of the gigantic potential you can find out of social media.
From helping you crafting content to serving as a advisor as to where and when to post material, social media marketing agencies and firms really could be a wonderful addition to a comprehensive marketing strategy.
This really is the cutting edge of marketing and advertising; make sure your company doesn't get left behind!