Socially Mobile Media

Social media has officially gone mobile. But before you can begin crafting a social media marketing strategy, you need to first refresh your understanding of what makes something qualify as “social media”. After all, social
media and social networking are much more than just Facebook and Twitter.

According to Merriam-Webster.com, social media is defined as: “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro-blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages and other content (as videos)”. In order for campaigns to be successful, social media has to be at the HEART of social media marketing campaigns. It isn’t enough to merely send out an offer, the goal in social media is to create a user experience. To build a buzz. To get people interactive.

Undoubtedly, social media is HOT! As one person put it, Facebook has been able to accomplish in less than 10 years more than the CIA has been able to do in their entire lifetime. There are billions of conversations going on right now. The trick is to figure out how to get them talking about you and your enterprise. That’s the good news…

The bad news is that social media is a complex matrix, and measuring conversion statistics is tough. Monetizing social media in any way is quite a challenge and certainly isn’t something that happens “by accident”. Whereas the typical eCommerce site, complete with a hard-hitting, high-converting landing page is an example of direct response marketing , social media is a lot more like public relations. It often proves to be a much more effective communication tool than a direct conversion tool. While there are examples of mobile-inspired social media campaigns that translate into sales (think Groupon announcements, and lowest gas price apps), if you are content to kick-start a lead generation initiative or are merely looking for a way to build buzz or increase traffic, success doesn’t have to be measured in dollars.