Welcome to the Social Marketing Journal! Social marketing has become one of the most important aspects for marketing any online business. Even still in its infancy stage social media marketing has already played a vital role in many growing businesses. Social media marketing is not a straight forward approach. It takes trial and error along with patience and persistence. Social marketing comes in many shapes and sizes so it is important to really continue educating yourself. This social marketing blog offers many different categories and sections so that your approach does not become stale.

Come read through our social media marketing sections and fine tune your social marketing skills:

Facebook – Facebook has become one of the hottest and most important social networking tools that will only grow in strength. Learn the different ways you can approach this communication giant to help grow your business.

MySpace – MySpace is another giant social networking website not so distant from the power of Facebook. Learn different variations of how to use and implement this social networking tool into your daily social marketing.

Reputation Management – Learn how to proactively brand yourself and fight off any negative press you might have generated. Negative online press can quickly put a dent in your customer base.

Social Blogging – Social blogging has become a hot topic that is only going to get hotter. Learn how to effectively incorporate micro blogging platforms into your daily social marketing routine.

Social Bookmarking – Although social bookmarking is not as robust as it once was it still plays a large role in social media marketing. Learn basic and advanced ways to introduce this into your marketing plan.

Social Content – Social content is very important in any social media marketing plan. Learn how to include this into your daily plan.

Social Marketing – Social marketing is a large umbrella that encompasses many different aspects of online communication. Learn the various ways to bring in social media marketing into your daily routine.

Social Marketing Books – At some point you might want to pick up some books and start reading about social media. This section will outline some of the better books you can read.

Social Networking – Social networking is an important approach but requires a certain set of skills to do it right. Learn the ABC’s of online networking.

Video Marketing – Video marketing is a form that has only just begun to evolve. Learn how to effectively market a company video and increase your brand awareness in the online video sharing websites.

Web 2.0 – Web 2.0 is phrase that was coined when internet communication and marketing entered a new phase, a 2.0 phase. Learn what this actually means and how it is incorporated into your overall social marketing goals.

YouTube – Many businesses have been trying to figure out just how to use YouTube in their daily marketing plan. This section covers exactly how to take YouTube and use it to create brand awareness and visitors.

It is no surprise why Facebook has grown so much and is passing by MySpace to quickly become the leader in social networking, it is clean. From day one Facebook has been strict on how people use their social platform. Obvious self promotion is severely frowned upon and could quickly get you banned from their website.

Facebook has very strict guidelines on how they want people to use their social networking tool and they will not hesitate to pull the plug on your profile. Launching a profile under your business name is a huge nono. Many people still try to launch personal profiles under their business name but be warned that you could spend a great deal of time and effort building up that profile only to have it shut down. You will still see friend requests coming from businesses because Facebook has not caught up with those profiles yet but it is only a matter of time before they do. In order for things to work out nicely you must launch a profile from an actual persons name. Then you can reach out to the community and try to express what it is that you offer but you must do it tastefully. Sure it makes it a bit more difficult to send someone a friend request from a person rather than a business but this is how Facebook keeps things as clean as possible in order to receive additional rounds of funding. If you want to target your business on Facebook you must create a business page located in the advertising section. You can then direct traffic to your business page through your personal profile to build awareness around your business.

On June 8th – 9th MarketingProfs is having a business-to-business internet marketing conference aimed at business professionals and entrepreneurs who are looking to sharpen their online marketing skills in all areas of the web including social media marketing. This web marketing conference will be held at at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel and will be filled with keynote speakers, workshops and endless face to face networking opportunities to help beef up your business card collection. With classes on how to seamlessly integrate social media in any marketing mix registrants will walk away feeling confident that they can effectively pull all social media marketing aspects into their online business model. Sandy Carter, VP of IBM will be teaching a workshop on how to pull in all this social media marketing elements like Twitter and YouTube and tie it into your daily marketing routine.

MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 will be offering free bonuses to registrants of the conference. Each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of the latest cutting-edge research report “B2B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending”. Each registrant will also receive access to an unlimited amount of articles, case studies, research reports and seminars for an entire year. Registrants will also be able to schedule one on one time with an expert of their choice to help them with specific situations relating to their business that they would like to talk about. Along with having free meals for the entire conference you will be allowed to instantly network online with attendees on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The MarketingProfs Business to Business Forum 2009 is an ideal conference for those decision makers looking to take their business online to a new level. With keynote speakers like Steven Berlin Johnson and Barry Schwartz you will walk away with the right knowledge that can help you take your business to a whole new online level. Register today because space is filling up quickly!

Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210 USA

Learn More About the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 NOW!

How much time do you spend each day on your social marketing efforts? An hour? 5 hours? all day? How do you know if all the efforts you are putting in each day lurking around on Twitter and Facebook. Are you a Google analytics nuts where you track every visitor to adjust time spent using all the various social platforms? The reality is that is no right or wrong answer when it comes to figuring out if you are spending too much or not enough time trying to communicate and build relationships with others on the various social platforms.

It all depends on what your goals are for trying to communicate online with others. If you are updating your status during dinner you might have a slight problem but if you are a business owner and each potential person you communicate with could lead into a potential client or business relationship than you do what you have to. At some point you might want to ask yourself just how many visitors and sales inquiries you are getting from spending 5 hours on Facebook each day. It is very important as a business owner to be visible on all these sites. Your audience is there, plain and simple so it is important for you to be there also. Even if you think Twitter is just a fad it could be a fad that sticks around for a few years and could potentially generate a great deal of traffic and potential for your growing business. You have to ask yourself how you are using your time. If you are a florist in Boston why are you spending half your day communicating and speaking with people in Alabama> Nothing against Alabama but the chances of a resident there landing in your shop to buy flowers is very slim. You might be able to spend half that time searching for people locally and trying to trigger conversations that way. Just make sure you are corresponding with the right people so you don’t find out down the road that you have been communicating with the wrong people.

Twitter has evolved into a cultural phenomenon very quickly. New social marketing related verbs have spawned just from the name of the website and it is growing in power every single day. Just like the days of MySpace when it first launched everyone wants to be envolved in the Twitter community. If you are still one of those business owners that doesn’t think it is right for your business you are most likely in denial. I drop updates into the Twitter account that we have and it doesn’t necessarily generate a great deal of conversation but when we look at our analytics account we see that we receive generous amounts of traffic to our site. All businesses should be on Twitter in some way. Here are 5 ways Twitter can help grow your online presence.

1. Following People: Research and find your competition on Twitter. Take a look at the type of people that are following them. Chances are it is your audience so start following them. Over time some of these followers will see and and check out your profile. Some will visit your site and some will just click and follow you. You now have the attention of that potential customer or client.

2. Promote Your Blog: Do you have a blog you write in everyday but are not sure exactly how to promote it. Try taking your blog posts and posting them in your Twitter account for everyone to see. This is a sure way to generate new traffic to your blog especially once you have built up a decent amount of qualified followers you will quickly see the amount of traffic to your blog build as well.

3. Twitter Directories: There are many Twitter directories out there since the birth of this giant social platform. Twitter directories are a great way for others to find your Twitter profile. Promotion will be important for others to find.

3. Real Time Search: Are you a service based business? With Twitters real time search ability you can attempt to track down other people talking about what you offer.

4. Conversation: Once you start generating conversations with people their list of followers will see who they are talking to and eventually make it to your profile. Once they are in your profile that could potentially be a new customer or client.

5. Link Building: At the bare minimum the act of building a profile for your business and filling out the profile areas completely is a form of link building for your business, even if you don’t use it that much.

Online social marketing networks have become a mega phone for people who have once been timid to be heard. Those who have had trouble speaking their mind or being vocal now have many social platforms to not only be heard but also seen. This has created a whole new way for businesses large and small to be found and explored. Many have had to learn the hard way though, with these powerful communication devices also comes a price to pay if not used correctly.

Many businesses have learned that word can travel very quickly through sites like Facebook or MySpace. So fast that once something is typed and published it is often to late to pull it back before the harm is done. What you may think is worthy of publishing a large group could tear apart online. If you have any irate customer or client trying to reach out to you on Twitter it is very important to handle it the right way. Remember many many people are going to see your response and they will quickly cast judgment on your business or your brand if not handled correctly. You must think long and hard when crafting together an approach for your business on the social platforms. One wrong step or interaction with a potential client or customer and you can quickly have a reputation management issue on your hands. Sites like Twitter where people can retweet responses things can quickly spread like wild fire. If you are a large or small business just venturing into the social platform space it will be important for you to put together a game plan on how you want to approach your communication. It is ok to take it slow at first and get your feet wet. test out various approaches on the various platforms before you find one that sticks with your business style. it is ok to develop different approaches for different social sites. The approach you take on Twitter will be vastly different than on LinkedIn or MySpace. Over time you will develop the right social marketing approach for you.

Have you ever thought about where we would all be without all the various social marketing and social networking websites in everyone’s lives? How would businesses interact with their community? What would people do most of the day in front of their computers? Do you think quality of life would be different? It would definitely get people out of the house a bit more.

Life would certainly be different with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Social marketing and social networking websites have created a way for businesses and people to meet others much quicker than ever. Face to face networking events are slowly being replaced with these sites. Think about how many companies and organizations have spawned just over the last five years with the emergence of social marketing. It is amazing just how much it has changed life for many people. In the life cycle of this type of communication it is really only a drop in the bucket and there is no telling where it is heading. To be able to react and respond to large groups of people real time from your phone regardless of where you are. You can be on the back of a camel in the desert and let people on Twitter know. The power of communication has really changed. It is important to know that even though these websites are mammoth and worth billions of dollars they are still in their infancy stages. What would happen if Twitter and Facebook just disappeared? Most likely something new would take their place. The connection and desire for random people to let everyone know what they are doing at any given moment of the day is certainly growing. People want more.

The social networking and social marketing landscape has only begun changing the ways we communicate and also what we communicate. Years ago nobody cared what we where doing during every minute of the day. But now it seems important to know what others are during before work, during work and after work with websites like Facebook and Twitter.

People who normally might be timid and quiet all of a sudden want to let the world know they just walked their dog or that they just ate their lunch. Large fortune 500 companies are conducting business and communicating with customers right through sites like Twitter. People would rather find the cable company account on twitter and vent to them than picking up the phone and calling customer service. A customer service call might be between you and that other person but on Twitter the whole world can see your instant complaint. So it is in the best interest of the company representative that is in charge of that Twitter account to resolve that issue as quickly as possible to not tarnish their reputation. Social networks allow news to spread and travel very quickly. Much quicker than prior forms of communication.

Social networking and communication is moving at a speed that is faster than companies can keep up with. People would now rather communicate directly through an online tool than to pick up the phone. We are only seeing the beginning of this cultural phenomenon. A person can fire up a Facebook page and almost instantly be reunited with people they would never even think about communicating with. I had a cousin halfway across the planet send me a message. I haven’t spoken with this person in over fifteen years. The power of social platforms have been immense and are continually changing they way anyone and everyone interact with each other online.

It is no shock that the social media marketing landscape has changed the playing field of business to business and business to consumer. Years ago you had only a few options to get in front of whom ever you needed to get in front of, phone and mail. The choices and possibilities now are endless with the surge of popularity of hiding behind the computer and reaching out to decision makers on social marketing sites like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Are friend requests the new cold calls? are face to face meetings slowly going away? I think a few years down the road we might see this evolve into the new communication way. More and more people contact us directly through a LinkedIn account or even Twitter. Entire conversations about possible new business relationships right through the messaging tool of a social networking website. Finding a decision maker on Facebook or LinkedIn is not difficult, at all. Crafting the right message when you fire off a friend request is important. You usually have only one chance to get this right so it home with it. Sites like LinkedIn offer a templated message that appears by default. I suggest you tweak it out to show your personality. Present yourself like you would in person. Years ago it would take some really interesting perseverance to cold call a company and get the person you actually want to speak with over the phone. Social networking and social marketing has made that step a bit easier but you have to be smart about how you approach it.

as more and more younger generations flood the workforce we will slowly see a stronger shift in the way business relationships are initiated at first. It will still be many years of cold calling and direct mail but someday everything will be digital. We already see the clients that initiate business talks using a social networking site want to continue to communicate through that particular website. Some might shift over to emails but regular face to face meetings and often times phone calls are non existent.

Are you one of those people that use Twitter (or Tweet) in the car? or update your status on Facebook while you are out and about? Your not alone. Thousands of people are addicted to letting people know they are about to make a sandwich or that they just walked out the door. With such important information being presented real time companies and businesses everywhere are trying to capitalize on the ability to be able to connect with people real time.

What is your favorite style of use on the various social media marketing platforms? Do you write in a blog that you like to share or do you just like to interact on a very non-business friendly level and let the audience know every single move your making as you do it. There are many different ways to approach the social marketing landscape. It is important for everyone one and every business to realize that there is no exact science to how you should approach the social landscape. Different things work well for different individuals and organizations. Some principals will always apply, and that is to always take a tasteful approach. Don’t abuse the social platforms or you will be banned. Nobody likes to get spammed. building a business and self promotion is fine, it comes with the territory. It is important to change things up from time to time and try different tactics. Often times you might find something else that works a bit better.

We want to know what is your favorite approach? How do you use the social marketing platforms to stay ahead and be active? What do you dislike that others do?

Recently president of Brick Marketing, Nick Stamoulis wrote and article on Marketing Pilgrim outlining the vast difference of communication efforts between Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y individuals. If you own a business or have worked at a company where these three generations share work space and lines of communication you will know that there are probably many different challenges that occur on any day when it comes to communication. All three generations are slowly starting to overlap the amount of social marketing used for communication but the frequencies and skill levels are still very far apart. Lets take a look and see how the three generations vary.

Baby Boomers have spent a great deal of their life using face to face, mail and telephone communication efforts. This is what they have grown custom to and to adopt vastly new lines of communication is going to be difficult to integrate into their daily lives. Gen X are a bit more savvy when it comes to technology. Gen X is mostly worried about creating a healthy balance in their daily life pattern and tend to use IM, cell phone and email mostly for communication. Gen Y are very much into texting, IM and email for most of their communication efforts. Gen Y are idea factories and just want their ideas to be considered and valued by other employees.

Management at many different sized and shaped companies has been willingly trying to find a happy medium for everyone to be able to communicate efficiently. If a Gen Y’er is trying to IM a Baby Boomer who never has their IM on and check their email just a few times a day the lack of communication can quickly disrupt performance in the office. Once employees start to get frustrated in the workplace it simply just gets worse, especially if management ignores the signs. Is the speed of technology the problem? When the Baby Boomer generation was at the age of a Gen Y’er things where much different and technological advancement did not occur so quickly. When they did everyone had much more time to adapt and apply the new type of communication to their daily lives. Now with social networking websites creating new gathering places and platforms for communication the generation gaps are starting to take a toll.

To read more on this topic please click here and visit Marketing Pilgrim to read the full article about the workplace hurdles in communication.

Yelp is a type of website that can either make or break your business if launched at the wrong time. Social marketing reviews are great and very powerful but if you launch one and your business has a less than stellar reputation you could easily dig yourself a hole that will be difficult to get out of.

Yelp was founded in 2004 and was designed to bring the community together so that they can share voices and opinions on certain local businesses. Yelp is now one of the largest online review websites in the world. If you are performing some link building activities for your business and you finally decide to launch a Yelp profile you must be careful that you do not have angry customers or disgruntled employees. Is your brand followed by many or hated? I know it is difficult to answer this question but if you open the doors for others to write what they want about either yourself or your business then you must be ready to take in the bad and the good. Once someone leaves a negative comment on your profile there is no way to remove it. How ever if you have a business that is flourishing with lots of happy customers than this Yelp profile could help you generate even more business!

Customers are more willing to come visit your store or use as a vendor when they have been able to read what others have said about your business. The more positive information you have the better it looks for your business, obviously. So if you are confident about your business don’t hesitate and sign up for your Yelp business account today.

Social media marketing should not be looked at mystical chanted forest that should not be approached at night or by yourself. Look at it as a giant playground of customers and you can literally walk up to them, introduce yourself and be instantly visible. the longer you wait and procrastinate about your entering this space the more painful it will be down the road to actually catch and gain traction on your competition. Social marketing is a strange place for many businesses large and small, you just have to close your eyes and dive in head first. Here are some tips for when you get there.

1. Develop a thick Skin: one thing you have to realize is that you can never please everyone no matter what you do. You will get some individuals that either just don’t like you or your company and there is nothing you can do about it. Social media marketing allows those to voice their opinions about your organization or yourself. Your goal is not worry about those but get all the people that do enjoy your brand or yourself to over shadow any negativity and bury it.

2. Pick One or Two: Don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of social space online. Pick one or two platforms for now and develop good traction in those. You don’t have to learn every website inside and out by the end of the week. Just get into a few of them and have fun. When done correctly social media marketing can be very enjoyable.

3. Interact: Building a company profile and not using it is better than not building it at all but remember that you need to trigger some sort of interaction between people. Leaning up against the bar and putting out the vibe just isn’t going to cut it. You have to knock on people’s doors and ask them how they are doing.

Social marketing and social media networking is a very strange place for many companies. Many companies still look at it like a deer in headlights. Social media marketing is not clear cut by any means. if you go to a networking event it is a little difficult to gauge anything before you get there. You don’t really know how people will respond to your conversation or you as a person.

Online social media marketing is very similar in the sense that you can’t predict how your interaction will go. You should how ever have some sort of strategy and plan of attack when diving into the social networking landscape. How do you plan on interacting? Are you going to stand behind your company logo? or are you going to use your personal name to interact? Many “experts” have theories on how you should approach this but at the end of the day you really don’t know until you try it. if you are a consultant that it probably wouldn’t make sense to just use your logo. If you are Pepsi than just setting up a profile for the business might be enough.

Either way you want to carve out a strategy. Each social marketing platform is going to require a different approach. Each one takes a certain skill and approach to achieve the desired results you are looking for. The approach you take on Myspace will not work on Facebook and so on. What will work will take some time on your part to test out. Each company is different and will differently.

Social media marketing and social marketing is something that many are still learning and trying to figure out exactly how to apply to their business. There is no outline on how you should do but you should do something on there even if it is just launching a profile online. I have seen the approach of some companies who decide to launch a profile and just spam with business ads in every spot possible.

This is not the way to approach the social marketing sites. Although there are many companies looking for business on all the various social sites there is a much more tasteful approach to tackling these communication giants. You must provide a value to your communication. If you are a consultant on a particular field you can try connecting to companies that might be interested in your services. This doesn’t mean you have to continuously hit that company with advertisements to get their business. trying to reach out to communicates good but this must be done tastefully. The best approach is to be active. You have to look at it as a networking event. The only way you are going to drum up business is by being sociable and interacting with other businesses. If you have strong brand recognition you might be able to channel others through your profile over to your website but you must have a strong brand in order to do this correctly.