Social marketing has become an important aspect of general web promotion activities and the first question most people ask is ‘where do I start’. The answer is easier said than done.
Research is the key to any social marketing campaign. You need to spend time visiting the various social sites in an attempt to determine where your potential customers/readers/visitors hang out. Once you identify those sites and the areas within those sites, then you can start to target your efforts.
Bloggers are particularly bad in this respect. They tend to hit as many sites as possible and often take a scattergun approach – if I spray enough about, I am bound to hit some targets. The scattergun approach is often caused by time, if you are targeting six or seven sites, you simply do not have the time required to network effectively within each one. Unfortunately that approach can lead to some negative aspects for social marketing.
You do need to target more than one site, however if you can identify where your ‘market crowd’ is then you can avoid the scattergun approach and spend quality time developing your image within that site. Social marketing is after all dependent on developing a good reputation.
Social marketing is about finding your target audience and wooing them. This takes time and patience however the rewards can be very satisfying. Your target group will not come to you unless you can get to them and that is what social marketing is all about.
