Social Media Strategies

As buyers and consumers become more savvy with the internet, we need to be part of the conversation and be there when they are looking to buy. We need a specific strategy to reach buyers as cold-calling and traditional advertising has become less and less effective in the 21st century. We need to be there when someone asks online about our product or industry.

Consumers and companies are more savvy and have become more immune to marketing that does not meet their interests. Granted, there are changes in social consumer behavior and technology that must be accounted for, but an adaptive online marketing strategy accounts for those changes anyway. Focusing solely on social media or as an independent activity is a disadvantage. Companies of the future will need to take a hyper-niche approach to finding leads for their sales team or attracting new customers. Which means companies will need a mix of many Internet marketing technologies: Online community building, social media, SEO, SEM, reputation management and semantic web strategies.

All of us know what social media is. Social Media is simply what you use everyday to communicate with our friends and family. Social Media examples are Facebook, Twitter, Social Blogs, YouTube, etc and every other form of communication that is online. Social Media is one the most important and cost effective marketing tools for a business. Depending on your business situation, one can make the case that social media / social networking strategy could be integrated with strategies in:

HR
R&D
Product development
Brand Experience
Operations / Manufacturing
Communication
Marketing
Pricing
Advertising
Sales
Customer service
Channel management
Web / online
Logistics
Distribution
IT
Legal
Government relations
Finance