There are so many terms related to marketing these days, that it can be hard to keep on top of them all, particularly as technology is constantly being upgraded and trends are always changing. In today’s world of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn – to name but a few – social media marketing has become an easily accessible platform to any individual with access to the internet.

Social media marketing is the process whereby website traffic (the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a website) or attention is gained through social media sites, such as the ones mentioned above.

What do social media marketing programs usually centre on?

They usually centre on efforts to attract the attention of site users with creative content, in the hope of encouraging them to go and share what they’re read with others in their social networks. Corporate messages can easily be shared in this manner, and as they are coming from a third party source, instead of the brand or company itself, they tend to resonate more with the user and are considered to be more reliable or trustworthy.

This is often referred to as eWoM or electronic word of mouth, and includes any statement consumers may share via the internet about an event, product, brand or service. The end result of this type of marketing is earned media as opposed to paid media.

What are some of the key components of social media marketing?

SMO or social media optimization is one of the key components of social media marketing and is a way of attracting new visitors to a website. This can be done with the use of RSS feeds and sharing buttons, or by actively promoting something with regular status updates, blog posts or tweets.

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

The more a company or organisation communicates with its customers, the more their brand is actively promoted; this usually results in an increase in their customer base due to the ability to share information via social media sites, and can often improve the overall service that a customer receives.

Not only that, but using social media as an advertising and promotional platform is a cost effective way of getting your message to many millions of potential customers.

Social networking sites also allow companies to keep in touch with their customers or followers; this kind of personal interaction creates a unique relationship between company and customer and often encourages a sense of loyalty.