Understanding Social Media & Viral Marketing

Posted by inetseo on May 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment

What are Social Media & Viral Marketing
Social Media describes the way social interaction and conversations happen between people online – media that is created and freely shared.

To make sense of that, Social Media is a way to get your opinions, news, updates, services, how many kittens your cat has had, what you are having for breakfast, and anything else you wish to share, out to the world at large.

Viral Marketing is a buzzword that describes the way your news or articles are spread through a self-replicating viral process to help you achieve your goals, which might be brand awareness, traffic or sales. Viral Marketing utilizes social networks to propagate your news or articles.

Who reads your Social Messages and why?
There are two ways your news or articles can propagate…

Through your built network
Through search on a social network site or search engine

Your built network refers to followers who either have an interest in what you have to say, or those who you have invited. Your built network will work for you as follows:

Build your following. However, do not be too fussy about who you invite or allow to follow because propagation around other individuals and websites relies on getting as many people as possible to find and re-distribute your article. Remember, that everyone is either a potential customer or might have someone in their network who is.
Keep your network updated – enticing headings will draw a larger crowd
Make it a story – Even if it isn’t… An opinion can quickly be converted to a story by adding some filler content and a few quotes.

How does distribution work
For Social Media to work well, you need to distribute as widely as possible… Below is an example that uses a few platforms.

After you have written your article, start with Google News
Once you are in Google News, link this to Twitter for others to propagate for you through their network
After Twitter, head over to LinkedIn and make sure that the feed has updated in your profile
If you have a blog, write a summary article of the main article with a link through to it. If you have LinkedIn setup correctly, then there is Wordpress integration so you are getting two bites at the cherry and your news will be even more prominent.
Through your blog, you have the ability to create an RSS feed of your articles. There are now RSS aggregators who will re-distribute your articles around their network. Other site owners will pick this news up and display it on their site as content
Digg, Redit & StumbledUpon – Whilst a part of the social media process, these are known as social bookmarking sites. Create an account here and start participating.

Social Bookmarking is a way to share your stories or articles that you ”find” with a group of individuals who will rate it based on how interesting they find it, how news-worthy it is and if they think others will be interested. With many of these sites, the more popular an article is, the more ‘votes’ it will get and the higher up the news ladder it will appear.

Is video viable for social media??
The answer is a resounding yes – but only if you have the means available to put together an interesting clip that you can then upload to YouTube. With 100,000,000 video clips being viewed very day, this is one of the largest viral networks around. Putting it to good use, however, takes time and you must have an ‘angle’.

Social Media is still a scary word for many, filling them with uncertainty and doubt as to which to head in order to get the best from it.

Social media can be highly beneficial for all the users but in differing ways. What social media can do for you can be broadly categorized into personal and professional benefits.

Personal benefits include collaborating in real time with old friends, families, and even to make new friends etc. At a professional level, the impacts are huge because it is one of the best mediums to distribute your profile, web site, and business.

Social Media is here to stay and will only get larger with time – don’t miss the band wagon!