AllanWoodstrom.com

Marketers who explain to other marketers that they specialize in social media marketing are often times met with smirks and rolling eyes. Social media marketing by most marketers is still seen as a waste of time as in most cases the campaigns fail to reach mass audiences.It must be understood that social media marketing is focused on allowing brand evangelists to be the spokespersons for a product in hopes that their enthusiasm will influence others.In order to achieve success social media marketers need to focus on building relationships and starting authentic conversations. The question then becomes where to host these conversations.Ideally the platform would be on a social platform that is all about the brand that the marketer is trying to promote, although utilizing an existing popular social network like Facebook, MySpace or YouTube will allow for greater reach.The key to connecting on an existing social network is bringing something of value to the users and allowing them to easily share it with their friends. This can be done by building a unique and useful application. Unless you are a developer, this should be done by contracting with a digital advertising agency. When contracting out, make sure to see examples of applications they have already built.Facebook Application Information Open Social (Myspace, LinkedIn, Ning, Friendster) Application InformationThe topic of social media marketing is huge. I hoped this helped your basic understanding. Look for more posts about this subject including case studies in the future.