Social Media Marketing is nothing but using Social Media as a platform for your marketing endeavours. It is the new way of marketing that has this unique ability to let consumers market for you, beautifully aligning your offline and online marketing. The industry gurus call it WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing. Social media in its real essence is interactive in nature, so when a company starts interacting directly with their customers, customers / stakeholders fundamentally tend to relate more with the brand and indirectly become brand ambassadors for such companies.

These customers then spread their marketing messages organically. Most successful social media compaigns include consumer engagement, corporate transparency and community building.

So many companies now have blogs, newsletters, accounts in various social networking sites like facebook, twitter, myspace, linkedin etc. this is solely for the purpose of giving their consumers a real time view of what is actually happening within the company. Building trust by engaging in conversations and creating transparent avatar is what these companies are successfully doing in their social media marketing activities.

Companies who restrain from using social media marketing are missing out on the huge coverage social media has to offer which no other traditional marketing tools have to offer. And guess what….it is extremely cost-effective low cost marketing platform with a reach you cannot comprehend, if you have something fresh to voice …it gets heard ! that will help you derive huge consumer following and build your brand credibility that traditional media alone can no-more promise.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam

People by their very nature are social. Companies, businesses thrive on people and their opinions. No surprises then, that Social media has it own reasons to evolve with more and more social networking sites mushrooming every single day. Whether you like it or not, accept it or not, there is so much being said about you- with or without you. If you choose not engage, you are simply giving up the ability to manage and influence what’s being said…

It has become an imperative need to listen to what your stakeholders are saying about you in this social space before planning any marketing strategy. In a recent global CMO survey, over 90% of companies confirm that they are allocating over 25% of their marketing mix budgets to social media / digital marketing initiatives. They are understanding this critical need to participate in continuous consumer interactions that engages users with opportunities to share their opinions.

There are so many online social networking sites from facebook, twitter, orkut, flickr, digg, technorati, myspace, linkedin, picasa and so many more. When you search for Social Media on Google you get 210,000,000 results. Whaoo!! This can be rather intimidating for someone who is just looking at implementing this very popular phenomena people just cant stop talking about in the business context.

@iridiuminter, having the depth and breath of social media for over a decade, @iridiuminter digital strategy team enjoys placing the social footprints for our clients everyday with a robust relevancy and reach that delivers tangible online growth engines for them.So, it is time to question your marketing plans and explore the new dimensions of online growth opportunities right now.

In my bid to share the knowledge and experience on Social Media Marketing and Monitoring, I will take you through these stories in my upcoming series and help you set your fortress of Social media.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.