Social Media | Core » advice http://socialmediacore.com Sharing Top Social Media Content Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:37:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 5 Building Blocks of Social Media Marketing http://socialmediacore.com/5-building-blocks-of-social-media-marketing/ http://socialmediacore.com/5-building-blocks-of-social-media-marketing/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:27:47 +0000 Cosmin Ghiu http://socialmediacore.com/?p=168

There are alot of questions when it comes to social media marketing and what are the best approaches. Some like to dive right in by choosing a technology platform that has some type of measurement capability while others take…

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There are alot of questions when it comes to social media marketing and what are the best approaches. Some like to dive right in by choosing a technology platform that has some type of measurement capability while others take a more conservative approach.

When it comes to strategy in social media marketing I would like to highlight 5 key building blocks to consider.

  1. What is your identity?
  2. Who do you associate with?
  3. User conversation.
  4. Platform conversation.
  5. Face to Face conversation.

1. What is your identity?

First things is first, when you place yourself or your brand online you need to define your identity online. If you are fortunate to not have an online presence you are in a territory to begin the shaping of your identity as you want to communicate it. You can begin by signing up to a few “profile” type websites that allow for personal and business branding. Good examples of this is:

Once you setup your brand profile in these website begin to populate the profile with brand specific content and messaging. A key aspect is to make sure your branding is consistent as possible among all profile sites a key to any marketing initiative.

2. Who do you associate with?

Once you have created your online identity the next steps naturally progress to the aspect of association. Who do you befriend? Who chooses to be friends with you? Are you targeting a specific niche within your interests or industry? Are you going outside of this to reach a different demographic?

From experience I tend to befriend people that I find from within site specific searches that are relative to my industry. For example on Twitter, I choose to search for a specific keyword within Twitter that is relative to my industry and begin to seek out those that I have associations with or would like to have. Then I begin to associate myself with this circle. This will begin to shape itself over time to a specific audience. Some great examples to use are micro-blogging tools such as:

3. User conversation

Next next step is to search out to see the current climate on your brand. What are others talking about your brand. I simple google.com search will typically extract some conversations. Other buzz metrics you can find about from a search on technorati.com from a blogging standpoint.

Ultimately you need to listen to others and enter the conversations to support or argue the positions. This begins to give your brand a voice online and for others to respond to it.

The best places to do this listening is by going to blogs, message boards, forums, and group sites. Some examples of these kinds of sites are:

4. Platform conversation

Another channel to listen to others as they speak about you or your brand is to go directly to the place where user clamor such as large social networking sites that have specific groups within the networks. One aspect to consider is the demographic the social network has when you are listening to it. As some social networks have not only various age groups but also different regions. For example, Facebook is extremely popular in Canada (more so than in the USA). While MySpace is the king in USA, it isnt as influential in South America where sites like Orkut is popular in South America. Bebo and Hi5 are more dominant in Europe and Asia.

Either way, you must tap into the conversation from within these platforms. I have mentioned a few already here is a few more contemporary (as of today) platforms to consider.

5. Face to Face conversation

Social Media Marketing consists of alot of online engagement however at its core as humans we interact on a face to face basis much more effectively than in a virtual enviornment. That is why a major final building block is the actual face to face and networking opportunities that you can position yourself and your brand. Thankfully there are many resources within the social media world that allow you to monitor and choose to host or participate in an event. Some examples are:

Each of these three examples is an excellent place to tap into the opportunity to meet face to face and continue your online brand to the real world. This is a key aspect of social media marketing. The online brand and persona that you choose to create must be transparent enough to leverage in real life situations. This will solidify your brand and persona and allow you to merge social media marketing to its fullest potential.

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