Social media is such a broad term, and covers many different concepts, but when we talk of social media we usually mean the online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterst, Google Plus and similar.
But we forget that Radio, Television, News papers, magazines and the like are also social media, and we generally neglect their impact on the online environment.
We will be discussing this question from a marketing perspective, and show how valuable social media actually is within the online marketing arena, and include the value of news papers, magazines, Radio TV and others.
I blog about a marketing philosophy called FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media on the 4u brand blog (4ubrand.blogspot.com) and will be using many of the principles of FUFISM in my explanation of the purpose of social media within the online marketing arena
Before we go any further we need to understand some of the issues that impact on the online marketing environment, and the most important one, in my personal opinion , is the visibility that your online content gets with the SERP's or Search Engine Results Pages..
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the art of ensuring that your online content is discoverer, consumed and causes some re-action by your intended target market audience. Hopefully the reaction by your intended target market audience is that they click on, activate and follow through with your desired CTA (Call To Action) within your online content.
The social media is basically a supplemental marketing platform which adds value to your web site and blog through a number of different avenues where link-building is the main SEO element, but not the only SEO element that is connected to your social media.
The social media is used for a very diverse range of marketing related tactics, and one does need to understand that many of these tactics have an independent SEO value , which is often hidden within the practical aspects of these tactics. The STFSEOVI or Semantic Trust Factor Search Engine Optimization Value indicators associated with these different tactics also needs to be considered and worked into your approach when using these different social media tactics.
The value of SEO from a Public relations perspective is huge, and Public relations has an impact on the trust that your online audience have for your web site and blog. This trust is used as part of your STFSEOVI and is important from an SEO perspective.
The social media is used extensively for content marketing, and the SEO value of this is huge. part and parcel of content marketing is the link building aspect, which we have already mentioned. Content marketing also adds to the intent of your online content, which we have also mentioned above.,
Thinking about these issues one can the see clearly that the social media is a means to promote your web site and your blog from an SEO perspective, as well as to induce your online audience to follow the links that lead to direct traffic for both your blog and your web pages. Keeping this line of thinking one can now see that the purpose of your social media is to promote your business, with a focus on using your web site and your blog as corner stones of communication, which will expand the topic of specific social media posts further.
Your social media activity serves many other purposes, such as but not limited to:
This means that you should be integrating your many different marketing efforts across platforms and across media into one single well managed holistic marketing plan. This is not so difficult to achieve once you set the stage, and force all your marketing departments to use a common set of research tools, and store the different marketing insights of each marketing platform in a common information retrieval system that can be accessed by every [person in your organization.
Demanding that the SEO and Social media teams comment on the success or failure of each marketing campaign, and give reasons for the out come of each marketing campaign, which is made available to all persons working on any part of your marketing or sales campaigns also helps to inform marketers and management to understand the value of integrating your marketing so that marketing efforts can be supported and expanded on across platforms and across different media.
It can thus be said that the social media should be serving many different purposes, with the primary purpose being a tool to integrate all your marketing efforts into one single well organized holistic marketing plan, with the primary focus being on the promotion of your other online resources such as your web site and your blog among many others.
Thinking about these issues one can the see clearly that the social media is a means to promote your web site and your blog from an SEO perspective, as well as to induce your online audience to follow the links that lead to direct traffic for both your blog and your web pages. Keeping this line of thinking one can now see that the purpose of your social media is to promote your business, with a focus on using your web site and your blog as corner stones of communication, which will expand the topic of specific social media posts further.
Your social media activity serves many other purposes, such as but not limited to:
- public relations, .
- network building
- general social networking,
- content marketing
- business promotion
- general market and advertising
- general social engagement
This means that you should be integrating your many different marketing efforts across platforms and across media into one single well managed holistic marketing plan. This is not so difficult to achieve once you set the stage, and force all your marketing departments to use a common set of research tools, and store the different marketing insights of each marketing platform in a common information retrieval system that can be accessed by every [person in your organization.
Demanding that the SEO and Social media teams comment on the success or failure of each marketing campaign, and give reasons for the out come of each marketing campaign, which is made available to all persons working on any part of your marketing or sales campaigns also helps to inform marketers and management to understand the value of integrating your marketing so that marketing efforts can be supported and expanded on across platforms and across different media.
It can thus be said that the social media should be serving many different purposes, with the primary purpose being a tool to integrate all your marketing efforts into one single well organized holistic marketing plan, with the primary focus being on the promotion of your other online resources such as your web site and your blog among many others.
