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It takes the right mix of ingredients to make the perfect entrée. If you mix in the wrong ingredients, it just won´t work. That perfect blend is also imperative for any successful social media marketing campaign. Social media marketing requires the right blend of ingredients to work properly for your business.

Social Media has been described differently depending on who you are talking to and the context of the conversation. We describe it as a form of media that is promoted through various interactive Social Networking sites. These days, it is not enough to just provide interesting information. Social network sites are actually engaging the reader with great content while offering the invitation of human interaction and participation.

Content can be posted by Social Marketing participants and the request is made for your feedback or comments. Some sites use a voting process such as the Like or Unlike icons while others use a rating method that allows the highest rated content to get more attention. Since the data comes from a large audience of various opinions, the data is based on what participants really want most.

One example is when you watch TV or listen to the radio, this is one-way communication. You have absolutely no say-so over the subject matter and all you can do is watch, listen, turn the channel or turn it off. Alternatively, with Social Media communications, you can respond and provide feedback and this can provoke viral interaction with a large audience of followers within the industry related to the subject matter.

So now you should be asking the question “What are some of the examples of the Social Media sites” and what is the difference in how visitors can interact with one another through these various sites. We have broken the various Social Media types into categories as follows:

Social Networking: On sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, Registered users login to these types of sites, post activities for their friends to interact and engage in online conversation and public discussion threads. They form groups based on specific interests and post content that pertains only to the followers of the group.
Social Photo Sharing Sites: The photo sharing sites like Flickr allow end users to post and store photos for their friends to view and comment on.
Social Video Sharing Sites: Video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo are sites where end users can easily create and upload videos for the world to view. These videos can be for personal or business purpose. Videos are posted based on a wide variety of interests including raw entertainment to step-by-step How-To videos.
Social Bookmarking: This is the process of browsing through various sites on the internet and tagging specific websites that may be of interest to other groups of people. A couple examples are Delicious and AddThis. They offer browser integration tools that allow you to bookmark the site within seconds during the browsing interaction process. The sites with the most bookmarks seem to bubble to the top and stay in the limelight due to the compelling content the end user fell in love with.
Social Article & Content Sharing Sites: Article sharing sites such as Ezine Articles, Squidoo, HubPages are just a few sites where consumers can post interesting articles and other compelling interactive content for consumers to view and use for informational or education purposes. Another element that would fall into this category is the concept of Wikis, which are articles and content that everybody can build upon and expand. Instead of writing one article and posting it for other to consume, everybody can interact with Wikis and build content based on the entire groups input.
Social News Sites: These are sites such as Digg and Reddit where news articles or event related information is posted. Participants can comment and interact with the communication thread or take the content and post on their own site or blog.

Can Social Media Help Your Business?

While some people join Social Media sites to interact with friends while providing awareness status on what’s going on with their personal life, others join for business purposes in order to make business connections or to promote their products and services to their target audiences. Companies of all sizes are now beginning to require their Marketing and Public Relations departments to leverage Social Media for promoting the company brand. Social Media has become extremely effective to allow companies to rapidly get their message out to large target audience.

Imagine the benefits of being able to get your solid Social Media strategy in front of millions of individuals within hours compared the process taking days or weeks using traditional promotional processes and procedures. A company can release information that consists of audio, images and video that is carefully formatted to highlight key points or messages. The information is immediately picked up by bloggers and other media aggregation sites.

You Are In Control Of Your Own Identity

People make judgments of who we are based on what we say and what others are saying about us. For instance, if all your Social Media posts are negative or you post non-professional or provocative pictures, then your audience will have this perception of you. The picture that is painted of you or your business is that which is seen online and the information posted most often.

Therefore, it is essential to create and control the Social Media posting strategy for personal or business purposes. With proper planning, you can clearly articulate your core values for the world to see. You make the posts to your blog, you release the important press releases of important events and you optimize the articles that are uploaded to social media sites. This way when somebody tried to Google you, they will have visibility to the content, pictures or video you posted specifically for the consumption of the public eye.

You can establish your brand presence on various Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, HubPages, Squidoo, Flickr and YouTube.. You should also consider establishing a Blog and link back to your Blog from these Social Media sites. With the right posting strategy, you remain in control of implementing a consistent brand message from each of the Social Media channels. For example, if you are a Consultant, you can provide value added posts on Twitter then link to your blog for great information. Another example is you could create YouTube videos and drive traffic back to your blog or product page where you sell your products or services. Another element of brand establishment is simply to comment on other peoples blogs and participate in active posts for related industries.

Did you know that by the end of 2011, 2 billion people will be connected to the web?

That could be 2 billion predators or 2 billion initiators, depending upon your perspective. It’s clearly an opportunity for 2 billion connections.

Those 2 billion people are living in a “pull information world,” not a push broadcast interruption world.

The Network Chefs makes Digital and Social Media Marketing simple. You provide the ideas and we do the work providing higher consumer engagement rates, achieving results and making you and your clients happy. From social networking development and integration to blogs and eNewsletter, digital magazine production, website development, SEO, content marketing, digital marketing, you can count on The Network Chefs to deliver success. We manage your digital/social marketing while you manage your business and clients.