Social Media Marketing Tools (Essay Sample)

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Social Media Marketing Tools
Part 1
The concept of using social media for marketing is gaining popularity. The three most well known social networking sites used for this purpose are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This report analyzes the different marketing tools associated with each of them, and gives an insight into how they can be beneficial for new business ideas.
Facebook (FB)
Ever since its inception in 2004, this social networking service has been evolving continuously in terms of applications and connectivity. Its user base is increasing exponentially; a recent survey shows that more than 90% of entrepreneurs and marketers use Facebook for business development. Four popular tools used by them are as follows:
Pages: From people to movies to hotels, everyone who wants projection can have a page. It is similar to communities that were started by Orkut. However, the main game changing difference is that the updates from pages are instantly advertised. Further, fans themselves become a tool for marketing; when something interesting is posted on a page, a fan can share it on his/her wall. Friends/public users that see this can then share it on their wall. This is a chain reaction that goes on to make unbelievable progress. For example, the pages of online shopping stores come up with latest offers on their page. This news spreads like wildfire within a matter of minutes or even seconds, to thousands of fans who take immediate action. And by the end of the day the company has sold ten times more! So, for any business, this is a great strategy to advertise. The steps involved are simple:
Create page;
Invite users to join;
Post updates;
Ensure sharing.
The results will follow!
Ads: Specific ads can be posted using this feature. The main difference between ads and fan pages is that the former is seen as an ad, and the promotion and reach of ads is a lot more. Hence, if there is uncertainty about the number of fans a company may get, it is easier to just put up ads that will reach a vast number of users.
Website Integration: This is probably the most powerful feature for marketing. Whenever people visit a company’s webpage, they can ‘like’ it. This will be reflected in their FB profile and in the fan page of the company. This automatically creates publicity. It is interesting and important to note that people judge organizations based on the number of likes they get. So if one can ensure the initial likes, it will create a loop where more people will like it and so on.
Apps: Commerce apps like Delta are proving to be the most successful ideas. Easy booking and payment option have attracted more users.
Twitter
From the idea of a ‘tweet’ that initially made it stand apart in 2006, Twitter now has numerous applications including those that aid in marketing, like:
CoTweet: This is a powerful marketing tool for those who want to track, discuss and analyze conversations and feedback about their company/brand. There is a free version of this tool that permits the user to collaborate with multiple other users, schedule tweets, keep track of clicks and limited analytics, etc. The paid version, called the enterprise version, permits the user to integrate with Salesforce, workgroup, full analytics, and other advanced user roles.
Visibili: This is a free service that allows users to create custom sharing bars. These go with any links that are shared through their service. The custom share bar can have the social sharing icons of the user and links to the user’s website. A tweet button that lets the user connect to his/her company’s fan page and recommends the same to be liked by other users, makes it a good advertising tool.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a more formal platform for socializing. It is mainly a professional networking service that has specific marketing tools such as:
Polls: These are online and more efficient version of conventional surveys. All new ideas, promotions, business innovations and so on can be put to public discussion, voting and analysis. The feedback received is not only helpful, but can also be shared through Facebook and Twitter, thus increasing publicity.
Recommendation Ads: These are direct promotion ads that let the user project his or her business to thousands of members. Its work is simple: any user can recommend a particular brand/service/company. When this is done, all members belonging to that user’s network automatically receive the ad along with a notification of the recommendation.
Display Ads: This tool is aimed at targeting a specific audience. The most common filters used are based on geo-location and demographics. The ads put up then r...