Why Social Media?

Why Social Media?
1. Social Media is an important marketing tool. Because people are blocking out marketing more and more - using caller ID, spam blockers, and legislation like the national do not call list - engaging your audience using permission based inbound marketing through social media is essential.
2. Social Media should not scare you. Even if you are older and did not grow up with the Internet. Just think of social media as an online business networking cocktail party. The online social media aspect just allows the party to not be limited by time or space, but everything else is really quite similar. You should meet people, add value by answering questions and making honest recommendations, and ask questions yourself.
3. There are three broad types of social media. You should use each one to promote your business - social media can enable you to (1) Publish, (2) Share, or (3) Network.
4. Social Media services that enable you to Publish are like Wikipedia, Forums, YouTube and Blogs. You should think about how to publish more content to the world using tools like these.
5. Social Media services that enable you to Share are like Digg, Mixx, Del.icio.us, Links.HubSpot.com, and StumbleUpon. You should think about how to use these services to promote your content, and also how to create content that will be successfully promoted by others in these services.
6. Social Media services that enable you to Network are like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and many others that enable you to meet others, and promote and share content. Some of these services enable you to publish and share content,
7. All of these services blend together, and they are not easily divided into groups, so remember that each of them has elements of the other types. If you try to help others using these tools, people will repay the favor and help you back. If you try to sell something, you will be shut out.
8. Measuring Social Media for marketing is important. Find metrics that make sense for your business. For most companies, measuring traffic, leads and customers from social media is essential. Other metrics you can look at are subscribers, fans, page views, links and bookmarks.