The Social Media Marketing process
Not surprisingly there a number of different ways to harness the power of social media for your marketing campaigns. In the business world, paid-for Social Media is a popular option as it guarantees visibility in the newsfeeds of users of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Paid social media advertising is achieved via sponsored posts, display ads and in the case of LinkedIn, InMail. Paying for social media advertising allows you to intelligently target key audiences with the cost determined by the numbers of clicks or impressions the advertising achieves.
Owned Social Media is another powerful marketing tool. The term is used to describe the communities or forums you create on your website as well as Facebook pages and Twitter profiles through which you can promote your brand to customers, local businesses, suppliers, charities and industry related bodies. You, or your Social Media Agency, control the content and how frequently you post and engage with your online community. On your own website you can control the moderation but on external channels such as Facebook and Twitter there are certain restrictions.
Finally you have Earned Social Media. Every brand loves positively earned social media. From communities set up to talk about their love of your brand to customer ratings and reviews, Earned Social Media are communities set up to talk about your brand, service or product in a channel outside your Owned Social Media.