Outsource My Social Media Marketing

“Own your own platform – don’t rely on Facebook being in business in a year.”

I recently watched a webinar hosted by Maddock Douglas on social media strategy, and the above quote in the presentation made me think about the place that social media has within overall business strategy.  I’m relatively new to social media marketing myself, but the above quote reminds me of an article I read (Porter, Michael E., “Strategy and the Internet”, pp 62-78, March 2001, Harvard Business Review) about the role of the internet in business strategy in the mid to late 1990s.  I’ll spare you the experience of reading it by providing a very brief and general summary.  I hope you keep reading my short article; I’m interested in your thoughts.

The internet ushered in a new way of conducting business.  Relationships between buyers and suppliers (B2B) were solidified due to the proprietary nature of e-commerce platforms and database management systems.  They were solidified because of the high switching costs inherent in the technology.  As such it was often predicted at the time that the internet would contribute to sources of competitive advantage, the key component of business strategy.  This did not happen.  As internet applications evolved along with internet technology, and implementation as well as hardware costs dropped significantly, it was quickly seen that internet technology would greatly facilitate business processes and transactions, but not result in competitive advantage for any particular firm or sector, simply because everyone now has access to it, and acquisition and switching costs are often not significant.  In fact, the internet increased competition because it allowed buyers, whether business or consumer, to access information that was previously unavailable to them (competitors, 3rd party reviews, videos, and more), and quickly.  In short, the internet made buyers more savvy.

From a company’s perspective, having access to the internet, as well as a website is seen as a necessity in today’s business environment, as opposed to a competitive advantage, as some predicted a decade and a half ago.  This finally brings me back to social media’s place in business strategy.

Adoption of social media platforms is still not ubiquitous.  This is simply because the concept is still relatively new, and popular in only some industries.  In fact, social media use is also regionalized.  By that I mean that some countries have adopted it much more than others, even though they have considerable access to the internet (something to keep in mind when considering your target market while designing your social media strategy).  And for those reasons there are many companies specializing in social media-related services, and more are coming because it’s still a developing industry, just like the dot-coms were in the late 1990s.  The difference is that the internet was thought to revolutionize the way business is done in general, and many dot-com companies abandoned the fundamentals of business strategy.  Very simplistically, this is in part why the dot-com bubble burst early this decade.  Not that the circumstances will be repeated, but nevertheless a lesson that today’s social media marketers and service providers should keep in mind when strategically planning ahead.  But I’m going off topic.

As industries, companies, and countries adapt and embrace social media, it may also become a necessity, just like the internet did, and not a competitive advantage.  This is already happening.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say that if you don’t use social media in your business you’ll be left behind.  So guess what I did.  I started using social media.  You’re looking at it right now.  Adoption of social media is becoming a necessity rather than a differentiating factor in an already competitive business environment.

Internet based technologies develop and evolve quickly.  Some become business critical, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems (eg. Salesforce.com), and communication tools (email).  I believe that social media (marketing) is not far from becoming critical to business.  All these technologies have something in common: The rate at which they evolve from tools of differentiation to those of necessity in order to compete on level ground.  Business corporate strategy, on the other hand, does not change at this pace.  Much like other internet applications, social media is a tool and should be part of a business strategy, but alone it is insufficient to be the business strategy.  To be successful, a company’s social media strategy should reflect its foundation, which is the corporate or business strategy.

To me, the quote at the beginning mirrors the rapidly changing nature of technological tools, and the need to ground them in solid business strategy.

deminghill.com Social Media, could it be the biggest game changer for your business or company you have ever seen? Sources www.deminghill.com

Must a Smaller Organization Use Social Media Marketing?
I’ve almost certainly obtained much more queries within the subject of social media marketing these final couple of months than on any other subject. It really is all the buzz. So precisely what do I suggest by Social Media Marketing (SMM)? It’s using resources and methods to far more successfully construct relationships on the internet. It consists of providers such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Yelp!, and blogs, to name a couple of.
Mind Movies bonus

But prior to I dig into on the net social media, look at what is happening with marketing in common. Conventional marketing techniques are waning.
We’ve all been reading through in regards to the plight of printed newspapers. In accordance with Yahoo Finance, 4 out with the five main newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation. A lot of have currently exited the marketplace. Television viewership is slipping, too. So what’s heading on?
We’re seeing a shift. Suggestions by personal acquaintances and customer opinions posted on the web are now the most trusted types of marketing globally. Nielsen has found that 90% of shoppers trust peer suggestions. This really is in comparison to 14% who trust advertisements in traditional media. And also the ad dollars are following the trend – from offline to on the web. Now, examine what is going on on the internet. Twitter and Facebook are growing in leaps and bounds. Visits to networking Internet web sites improved 53% during the initial week of last September year-over-year. Final year the typical teenager sent or acquired more than 35,000 text messages-about a single message each and every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Nielsen)

You probably have someone within your family attempting to coerce the rest with the family into receiving on Facebook. Or you might have a friend or business acquaintance who has suggested which you need to become on Twitter. It is getting an effect. Internet users last August spent 17% of their surfing time on social network websites, practically three times the amount of time invested a yr ago.

A particular group of you reading through that is wondering who inside globe has time for this stuff. And there may be another group which is already hooked. But forget the family and buddies for a moment. The huge question is regardless of whether or not being a modest small business you ought to care.

Nicely, let me break the news for you. You must care. That is simply because there are numerous methods to generate cash making use of SMM. Even so, it’s a matter of how lengthy it’s going to consider and at what price.

For now, take into account this. Inside the world of marketing there’s something known as a product adoption curve. As you might expect, when a new support (or technology) turns into obtainable, the rate at which it really is adopted by men and women follows a bell-shaped curve. That indicates that early on, only the adventurous, early-adopters attempt it. But as time goes on, it turns into much more mainstream plus the vast majority then jumps around the bandwagon. Lastly, you’ll often have laggards who are late to adopt something new. SMM is from the early adopter stage for businesses. The early adopters for this technology are primarily really big firms and choose little entrepreneurs. The large, Fortune 500 firms, for instance, almost all have staff with SMM in their career description and they’ve also adopted formal social media policies for their employees.

The good news is that you’re not late! The great vast majority of persons are using SMM for personal factors and couple of are leveraging it for organization purposes. So I encourage you to get available and begin obtaining acquainted with social media. It’s the way on the long term of marketing!

It’s all the buzz. So exactly what do I mean by Social Media Marketing (SMM)? It’s the use of tools and techniques to more effectively build relationships online. It includes services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Yelp!, and blogs, to name a few.

But before I dig into online social media, consider what’s happening with marketing in general. Traditional marketing methods are waning. We’ve all been reading about the plight of printed newspapers. According to Yahoo Finance, 4 out of the 5 major newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation. Many have already exited the market. Television viewership is slipping, too. So what’s going on?

We’re seeing a shift. Recommendations by personal acquaintances and consumer opinions posted online are now the most trusted forms of advertising globally. Nielsen has found that 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations. This is in comparison to 14% who trust advertisements in traditional media. And the ad dollars are following the trend – from offline to online. Now, look at what’s happening online. Twitter and Facebook are growing in leaps and bounds. Visits to networking Web sites increased 53% during the first week of last September year-over-year. Last year the average teenager sent or received over 35,000 text messages-about one message every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Nielsen)

You probably have someone in your family trying to coerce the rest of the family into getting on Facebook. Or you may have a friend or business acquaintance who has suggested that you need to be on Twitter. It’s having an effect. Internet users last August spent 17% of their surfing time on social network sites, nearly three times the amount of time spent a year ago.

A certain group of you reading this is wondering who in the world has time for this stuff. And there’s another group that’s already hooked. But forget the family and friends for a moment. The big question is whether or not as a small business you should care.

Well, let me break the news to you. You SHOULD care. That’s because there are many ways to make money using SMM. However, it’s a matter of how long it will take and at what cost.

For now, consider this. In the world of marketing there’s something called a product adoption curve. As you might expect, when a new service (or technology) becomes available, the rate at which it’s adopted by people follows a bell-shaped curve. That means that early on, only the adventurous, early-adopters try it. But as time goes on, it becomes more mainstream and the majority then jumps on the bandwagon. Finally, you’ll always have laggards who are late to adopt anything new. SMM is in the early adopter stage for businesses. The early adopters for this technology are primarily very large companies and select small entrepreneurs. The big, Fortune 500 firms, for example, almost all have staff with SMM in their job description and they have also adopted formal social media policies for their employees.

The good news is that you’re not late! The vast majority of people are using SMM for personal reasons and few are leveraging it for business purposes. So I encourage you to get out there and start getting acquainted with social media. It’s the way of the future of marketing!

It’s all the buzz. So exactly what do I mean by Social Media Marketing (SMM)? It’s the use of tools and techniques to more effectively build relationships online. It includes services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Yelp!, and blogs, to name a few.

But before I dig into online social media, consider what’s happening with marketing in general. Traditional marketing methods are waning. We’ve all been reading about the plight of printed newspapers. According to Yahoo Finance, 4 out of the 5 major newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation. Many have already exited the market. Television viewership is slipping, too. So what’s going on?

We’re seeing a shift. Recommendations by personal acquaintances and consumer opinions posted online are now the most trusted forms of advertising globally. Nielsen has found that 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations. This is in comparison to 14% who trust advertisements in traditional media. And the ad dollars are following the trend – from offline to online. Now, look at what’s happening online. Twitter and Facebook are growing in leaps and bounds. Visits to networking Web sites increased 53% during the first week of last September year-over-year. Last year the average teenager sent or received over 35,000 text messages-about one message every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (Nielsen)

You probably have someone in your family trying to coerce the rest of the family into getting on Facebook. Or you may have a friend or business acquaintance who has suggested that you need to be on Twitter. It’s having an effect. Internet users last August spent 17% of their surfing time on social network sites, nearly three times the amount of time spent a year ago.

A certain group of you reading this is wondering who in the world has time for this stuff. And there’s another group that’s already hooked. But forget the family and friends for a moment. The big question is whether or not as a small business you should care.

Well, let me break the news to you. You SHOULD care. That’s because there are many ways to make money using SMM. However, it’s a matter of how long it will take and at what cost.

For now, consider this. In the world of marketing there’s something called a product adoption curve. As you might expect, when a new service (or technology) becomes available, the rate at which it’s adopted by people follows a bell-shaped curve. That means that early on, only the adventurous, early-adopters try it. But as time goes on, it becomes more mainstream and the majority then jumps on the bandwagon. Finally, you’ll always have laggards who are late to adopt anything new. SMM is in the early adopter stage for businesses. The early adopters for this technology are primarily very large companies and select small entrepreneurs. The big, Fortune 500 firms, for example, almost all have staff with SMM in their job description and they have also adopted formal social media policies for their employees.

The good news is that you’re not late! The vast majority of people are using SMM for personal reasons and few are leveraging it for business purposes. So I encourage you to get out there and start getting acquainted with social media. It’s the way of the future of marketing!

If you are considering social media marketing for your business, remember to emphasize the “social” more so than the “marketing.”

Why? Because social media users seek genuine communication, not marketing spin. Nowhere is that more apparent than on social networking sites like Facebook. To make the most out of your efforts to market with social media, you’d do well to get some advice from a marketing firm or, at the very least, read a few tips on how to use these sites.

Using Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites for Marketing

According to O’Reilly Media, Facebook demographics have shifted. Once thought of as an online hangout for high school kids and university students, it is now increasingly the networking site of choice for older groups.

In January, 2009, O’Reilly released its 2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics report. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is users aged 35 to 54. The growth in this demographic is off the charts – 276% in the last 6 months of 2008.

Users aged 55 and over are also discovering Facebook. This demographic jumped by 194% in the same time period. The younger crowd is still there though. The number of 25 to 34-year-olds using Facebook doubles about every six months.

Clearly, there are abundant marketing opportunities here. But you need to know how to approach your audience right.

Social Media Marketing is All About the Soft Sell

To start marketing on Facebook, create page for your business. Once you have established this page, you can build a list of fans. Fans can follow your business and receive updates whenever you add something to your page. The key is to add information of value so people don’t feel they’re being given a hard sell.

Use notes to tell people about upcoming trade shows or conferences you will be attending. Use the mini-feed to keep people connected to your blog. You can talk about new and exciting things in your company, without sounding like you’re selling.

Keep it interesting with photos and video clips. Not only will you promote your company, you will give your business real personality, and allow visitors to see the people behind the company name.

Create a group if you really want to personalize your contact with users. People join groups with specific interests, and moderating a group can help you reach a specific audience. Keep in mind that the group is an entity unto itself, and not a page about your business so it needs to be handled accordingly. Messages sent to the group are delivered directly to member’s Inboxes, so ensure that what you are sharing is of real value to people.

Keeping Up with Social Media Marketing

Herein lies the real challenge with social media marketing – upkeep. You cannot let your page get stale. But between writing blog posts, moderating a group, managing RSS feeds and just keeping up with the communication you generate, social media marketing can be very labour-intensive.

If you need help planning or managing your social media marketing strategy, a training course or online marketing consultant can help.

And remember, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. If you don’t handle your social media marketing right from the beginning, you could end up doing more harm than good. Take the time to learn how to do it right, so you can reap the benefits for a long time to come.

Abstract
 In recent year’s social media, likely more than anything else has significantly impacted most of our daily lives. It is hard to know sometimes how our life has changed until we stop for a moment and look at how different it is from ten or even five years ago. Envisioning the global conversation that has developed over the past few years because of tools like Facebook and Twitter might have been unimaginable for most people at the beginning of this decade. But social media communication tools have profoundly changed our lives and how we interact with one another and the world around us. Even it has an impact on the way we started spending our free time, there is a big influence of technique on our daily life. Social media topic is not for today its for everyday and it is most forward-looking media and surely “the” medium of the future e. With the fact that we are seeing a trend where more and more people are moving away from traditional media, and its creating vital challenge for companies and making them to think twice before dumping the usual amount of cash into traditional media marketing and advertising.

 
The goal in advertising and marketing is to get your message and/or brand in front of as many people that you can, and to engage your audience accordingly. Common sense would tell you to take your message where the majority of the people are gathering and paying attention, which just happens to be Web 2.0(Shift in consumer habits: From expert driven content to User driven content) social mediums. Does it make sense to spend entire advertising dollars in a declining media market? Of course not. That’s why social media marketing is making more sense by the day.
 

Introduction
 The data is growing every single day. The number of connection points to the DATA is becoming increasingly available. Realizing what information is available about the business relationships becomes more critical as dollar value increases. Every dollar and every minute spend on marketing tactics is for one purpose: Business Growth!  Let me share this interesting quote from Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO – “People relate to people, not companies”, Social media provides us an opportunity to humanize the brand and engage the companies with consumers at personal level, which can provide substantial results in long-term like decreased customer support costs, customer feedback management, good PR and marketing channel to engage with target market.  Social Media is for every company that genuinely wants to engage with their customers, it doesn’t matter whether you are fortune brand or Local restaurant. As Sandy Carter, Marketing Head at IBM quoted, “I think the primary difference here is not in big or small company. But the difference is in how close you are to your customers”. I personally find that it is very interesting and exciting “Net Space” to be in and also rewarding if used in the right manner.
 
Social Media is Evolving           
According to “Michael A. Stelzner” –”Social media marketing is an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and sales. It seems that many marketers see the social media frontier as the next marketing gold rush. Given the low cost of entry, many marketing pros are doing more than just dipping their creative toes into this gold-laden water.”
According to me –”Conversation between various people in net space using different internet tools and platforms.” 

Social media contains:    
Is this medium required?-Yes! Why because, this is the place where we can meet real people in real time across the globe. And people are not just demographic anymore to connect with them you need to understand relationships are more powerful than Marketing. Now-a-days If people wants to read news or information then they straight hit internet and they have internet access at home, office, car and even in their pocket. No wonder why Google has 200,000,000 look ups everyday. People are searching product and company information online so if you are not pushing your quality content online then you are missing the great opportunity.  There are sites that can help you to post your content on the internet.  
 
 You cannot make money with Social media for sure but you can make money from people who can trust you. Social media will help you to develop “Trust” and “Build strong relationship” with people. To experience that you need to join the social network website to connect yourself with right people.  Once you find the right people then you need to provide content NOT Commercials. How will you do that? Simple approach would be using content management tools and search engines. For example you can utilize the second most used search engine YouTube –to create video with related content and upload, Or you can post articles for online magazines, Or create your mini website Or Blogs and reviews. You can do things that deliver high quality contents. You can as well provide high ethical information of your email ids and contact info on the pages that you are delivering content and you can as well send newsletters to stay in touch with them.

Right Way to Do Social Media Marketing
Social Media market is just another way of marketing but the difference is that the traditional way of marketing is “Shouting” and Social Media marketing is “Sharing”. It is not a kid game anymore. If you look at the Big Brands and proven track records, “Consumer Brands” have taken the lead in executing “Social Media Strategy”. Many large “B2B companies” have started to explore Social Media opportunities but the question raise in my mind – Are they doing it in Right way?
 
Before defining the right and wrong way of doing Social Media marketing, let’s identify and understand the Social media ROI [Return on Investment] in terms of Qualitative Vs Quantitative advantages. Identifying ROI will allow you understand the opportunities of cost reduction. Quantitative cost measurement, for example you can give trainings /induction programs to your employees by implementing video integration into recruitment process. And also Quantitative would mean the number of activities carried out in various social platforms. When we talk about Qualitative you need to be more innovative to build relationships and grow your market with established industry standards. It also includes the kind of content generated for brand, the quality of response and comments so generated, outreach program carried out for influencers, reviews received from experts etc.

 I will say “Content is Super hero in Social Media”
One life! & One Time! Do things in right way. The fundamental rule is that “people need to understand” that “This is business” and the game is changing everyday. The content is shared everywhere and its reaching people wherever they are.  We all see that the change in the way of consumption of content. You can do market without having a PR or sale person in your team if only your “Quality Content” can talk to people. Content should be more informative and interesting. Your content need to have relevance of your customer need. If your customer find more relevant in your content then you will get business out of it. You can place your content in many interesting format. The most common format is blogging and video streams but I vote for video and moblog to post your content. Creating content and giving format would never end this story of course you need to decide the channel to deliver your content.

There are thousand and above social web sites are available so you need to pick the right channel to deliver your content. You need to get onto the social sites and be a part of the conversations and build followers in social web 2.0 network sites.
Two important things that you need to keep in mind before you connect yourself with Web 2.0 social sites–You should have a strong “Business plan & model” and another one is “Brand acuity”. Brand acuity should start from yourself and once built that, later anything can happen in your business/life. Most of the companies are in cloud of confusion to choose the right Web 2.0 tool – Try to use all kind of User Based tools [anyway you can; everywhere you can;] to connect to people and definitely you will find massive opportunity. In earlier days you need to go under lot of tensions with media streams to create your brand strategy and create sustainable market to see profit but now social media networks, blogs are available for you to carry your ideas, company brands and helps to get good ROI.

Brand Leverage with Social Media:
Branding is nothing but “Name Recognition” of a company along with product & services it sells. It is critical success in ecommerce space; company should develop a branding strategy which allows their name to be associated with quality. Quality and safety of the products and services is an important attribute of branding for a company today because of the global implications of the internet. In present scenario companies are trying to maintain and promote their brand in internet through the following Web 2.0 Tools and Mediums:
:: SEM [Search Engine Marketing tools]:  Blogs, Content development tools, RSS tools, Community building tools, Link development tools. 
:: SEO [Search Engine Optimization]: Social bookmarking tools [such as MySpace, YouTube, Facebook], blogger tools [integrating blogs into marketing campaigns], Website analytical tools [Google analytical tool] 
:: Viral Marketing: Every satisfied customer will tell at least three others about the product or service. This particular marketing relies heavily on social networks and social bookmarks, such as: [YouTube – social network MySpace – social network Facebook – social network Digg – social bookmark Stumbleupon – social bookmark Del.icio.us – social bookmark]

Brand Strategy for Social Media:
A brand has a direct or indirect relationship with  people, and if a company is successful in creating relevant and motivating interactions, “brand love” improves. The game today in social media is about density and leverage. Some people are less involved in brand therefore less likely to jump into conversation so what happen to those who are in discuss, join or lead. For example popular bloggers they have huge followers and as a leader shapes and influence the online conversations. A group of people follow a Leader that makes decisions or taps into the motivation of a purchase in ways that no one else can match. The Leader now has leverage over the brand.  People follow, taking advice or information, and their perception of a brand changes based upon the impressions gleaned from the Leader. Understanding the impact a Leader has on the purchase habits of his or her following places immense value on that Leader. The greater the influence a Leader has over his or her followers, the more valuable that person becomes to a brand.
 
The Super Cool – Mega- Awesome- Dos and Don’ts of Social Media marketing
Social Media is creating such an incredible revolution, in the sense, “Anyone can participate”. In 90′s you need to be a tech guru in order to participate in web space but now anyone can do anything without having tech background. More over its completely free and you can look at internet as your own advertising agency. You can create free video and content for people so that they are seeing your content and Commercials. These contents and commercial suppose to be Value-Driven and it should NOT be a replicated one. When you are doing online marketing then you are branding all about yourself and you are positioning yourself in front of people who you are and attracting people to you. Two key things to keep in mind when you do this 1. Content should be value driven and 2. Brand that should add value. Another main key focus area would be how to generate Traffic to your blogs or videos or to your mini websites.

You should know how to drive people to your site. Say for example you are one of the customer related industry and you find interesting a book on “Creating customer value in Internet Era by Peter Keen” and want to share the same with people who are interested in reading books about customer value. When you share this content you are not pitching your product or services you are providing information, within the content you can include links to your landing page, you can link to your blog, you can link to your marketing page, whatever information, you want to direct people but key here is to actually you want them to read your content and information. Only the way you can do this is providing valuable and relevant information to them.

What NOT to do with Social Media? 
:: Directly selling your product and service your followers/audience: it will create negative effect
:: Self promotion is not good so better learn from your competitors
:: Do not ignore criticism, respond to it and try to tackle it the best way possible and it will  
   turn positive results
:: Do not have too many names and email ids that spoil your reputation and you cannot
   brand yourself.
:: Do not bombard the facts and figures to show that you are savvy. Make sure to discuss,
  comment and ask for options.
:: Do not be fake in any way
:: Do not use irrelevant channels and try to connect with irrelevant audience
:: Do not use only one social network

What To Do with Social Media
:: Listen to your prospects.
:: Listen to your customers.
:: Listen to your competitors.
:: Listen to your critics.
:: Listen to your followers and fans.
:: Listen to your industry leaders.
:: Be responsible and honest what you are writing.
:: Be authenticating.
:: Be friendly with your fans/follower when you are in Social media channels because
   you never know when they will turn to be your prospective customers.
:: Double check before you send or pass information/comments/review.
:: Respect copyrights
:: Need to have clear policy that protects the confidential information
:: Need to bring customer value
:: Need to have mechanism to assess ROI

Data Points that helps us to understand the growth of Social Media
Social media marketing budgets were on the rise. Forrester Research is out with their Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, and estimates social media marketing to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums. Forrester estimates that $716 million will be spent on the medium this year, growing to $3.1. Billion in 2014. At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile, but still just a fraction of the size of search or display advertising ($31.6B and $16.9B, respectively).
:: Facebook has garnered over 350,000,000 active users worldwide,
:: Twitter has attained roughly 45,000,000 users, and
:: 130,000,000 blogs indexed by Technocratic since the year 2002.
:: In 24 hours alone, over 900,000 blog posts are created.
But even with these staggering statistics, there are still those who believe that the social media explosion is a fad, not a paradigm shift. 

  Let’s Landscape the Indian Social Media:
Social media and viral marketing is growing slowly and steadily in India. It is fast becoming the replacement of traditional outbound marketing techniques such as TV adverts and direct mail. This inbound marketing is much cheaper or free and the possible ‘reach’ is huge. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and Bharathstudent are exploded.  Facebook in May and June 2009, doubling from 1.6 million to 3.2 million monthly active users in the country in the last 60 days. Facebook is now available in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. This localization approach could explain the growth of Facebook users in India. Orkut beat Facebook in December 2008 with more than 12.8 million visitors, an increase of 81 percent from the previous year. Local social networking site Bharatstudent.com with 3.3 million visitors (up 88 percent) and hi5.com with 2 million visitors (up 182 percent).Apart from this, Facebook has actively partnered with Indian companies, particularly mobile operators.
The recent milestones include:
:: Feb 2009 -– Partnership with Zoom TV and World TV for the Oscars in India.
:: April 2009-– Facebook goes mobile in India for SMS Alerts with Tata Indicom
::  Facebook promoted in a Zoozoo’s commercial by Vodafone.
::  May 2009: -– Launches Indian language interface
::  Partners with Nautanki.tv for coverage of the Indian Elections
:: Lot of Micro blogging platforms were introduced in past 6 months in [SMSGupShup, Snockles, Vakow, and Kwippy]

Conclusion: 
Social media marketing is a big idea meant to change attitudes or behaviors, such as getting kids to stop smoking, protecting the environment or encouraging condom use.  I see every other year “changes” widening the landscape of digital media.  In 2005 blogs were in thousands and slowly a year late broadened the way to upload video into YouTube, a site that did not exist in 2005. In 2007 all the traditional media had fully embraced these social media channels. Its become more and more dynamic in 2008 to engage and quantify the digital landscape. The future of communications is in the mixing of “Open & Controlled conversation” and “Open & Controlled Collaborations” and understanding how they work together to influence the public.  Welcome to Revolution!

In social media network (SMN) site, you get to know someone you think they will be your business partners. First of all, you profile and experience must be well prepared in SMN site. If you could get the recommendations from your working or business partners, that’s nice. It makes you more positive and let other people feel more confident when communicate with you. Secondly you have to do, searching the keywords, e.g Corporate Gifts, “e-Books”, e-Commerce Development”, and etc. If the location is crucial, you should also input the location name into keyword box.  After obtained the search result, you have 3 methods to link with them:
1.Leave them the message directly and state your reason of contact
2.Get someone you know already in the SMN site who can introduce you to the target
3.List what you are buying or selling on SMN site. Let the other people contact you

Contact and Send the Message
I would suggest first 2 methods because you need to contact the potential clients proactively and show your sincerity of doing business with them. The following example is the message you write to the target:

Dear Mr. ABC,

How are you?

This is Mr. Johnson Harry from ABC<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://company.easytrade.com/kf/home_en.asp?showroomid=1&companyid=1>Crystal Gifts</a> Ptv. Company. I come across your profile in the XXXX.com and would like to build up the business relationship with you. We are a<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://www.crystal88.com/>crystal gift manufacturer</a>based in Hong Kong. We supply the wide range of crystal products to our clients in Europe and United States, e.g. wedding gifts, corporate gifts, desktop items, house decorations, and so on. Currently we are offering the big discount sale on our products. Most items are 50% off at its original price. Please see the our<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://company.easytrade.com/kf/home_en.asp?showroomid=1&companyid=1>online showroom</a> in EasyTrade.com and ask for quote directly their. I will respond you within 24 hours. Thanks for your attention!  

Yours sincerely,

Johnson Harry

Follow Up
Send the message to them and wait for the response. If your target does not respond you within 2 weeks, he might not be interested in your products. However you should make it clear and send another gentle reminder. For example,
 
Dear Mr. ABC,
 
Following up my last message to you, are you interest in our products and big discount offer? If you have any special requirements or need additional services from us, please let me know and I will try my best to meet your requirements. Your early response is appreciate. Thanks!
 
Reegards,
 
John Harry

No matter you send the message to the target directly or post your offer on SMN site, you have to show your products online and the e-Commerce features with online catalog is highly recommended. 

In social media network (SMN) site, you get to know someone you think they will be your business partners. First of all, you profile and experience must be well prepared in SMN site. If you could get the recommendations from your working or business partners, that’s nice. It makes you more positive and let other people feel more confident when communicate with you. Secondly you have to do, searching the keywords, e.g. Corporate Gifts, “e-Books”, e-Commerce Development”, and etc. If the location is crucial, you should also input the location name into keyword box.  After obtained the search result, you have 3 methods to link with them:

Leave them the message directly and state your reason of contact Get someone you know already in the SMN site who can introduce you to the target List what you are buying or selling on SMN site. Let the other people contact you

Contact and Send the Message

I would suggest first 2 methods because you need to contact the potential clients proactively and show your sincerity of doing business with them. The following example is the message you write to the target:

Dear Mr. ABC, 

How are you?

This is Mr. Johnson Harry from ABC  Crystal Gifts Ptv. Company. I come across your profile in the XXXX.com and would like to build up the business relationship with you. We are a crystal gift manufacturer based in Hong Kong. We supply the wide range of crystal products to our clients in Europe and United States, e.g. wedding gifts, corporate gifts, desktop items, house decorations, and so on. Currently we are offering the big discount sale on our products. Most items are 50% off at its original price. Please see the our online showroom in EasyTrade.com and ask for quote directly their. I will respond you within 24 hours. Thanks for your attention!  

Yours sincerely,

 Johnson Harry

Follow Up

Send the message to them and wait for the response. If your target does not respond you within 2 weeks, he might not be interested in your products. However you should make it clear and send another gentle reminder. For example,

Dear Mr. ABC, 

Following up my last message to you, are you interest in our products and big discount offer? If you have any special requirements or need additional services from us, please let me know and I will try my best to meet your requirements. Your early response is appreciate. Thanks!

Reegards,

John Harry

No matter you send the message to the target directly or post your offer on SMN site, you have to show your products online and the e-Commerce features with online catalog is highly recommended.  

To secure new business in a tough economy, your company needs to appear stable and reliable. Social media marketing is one of the best ways to spread good news about your company and build an image of dependability and success.

The Role of Social Media in Enhancing Your Image

As the saying goes, image is everything. That statement is especially true during difficult economic times. As Rich Tehrani of TMCNet states in a recent article, people looking to make purchases want a company they can count on, and outward appearance is the key to creating an image of stability. Is he saying you should lie about the state of your company just to get sales? Absolutely not. What he’s saying is that you should play up the positive news to boost your image:

”… all companies need to over saturate the markets they serve with the best news they can create. This is regardless of how well they are doing. If sales are generally good now, it makes even more sense to focus on putting a halo around your brand to protect it from bad times which may or may not be ahead. Customer wins, new product launches, a new green data center, a widget that does something useful – if you have any of these, issue a release and try to get some positive media coverage.”

In addition to press releases, Tehrani suggests that companies continue marketing through a variety of means, including social media.

A Social Media Marketing Firm Can Build a Positive Profile for You

Social media sites present one of the greatest marketing opportunities for businesses that are interested in establishing a real relationship with their customers. That last phrase is of great importance – social media marketing will not work if you don’t get involved in a real and meaningful way.

What does that mean? You can’t just create a Facebook page and leave it at that. You need to become a part of the community that exists on the social media site, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

You need to analyze which sites are best for your type of business, and determine what kind of content will register with the people in these various online communities.

You also need regular communication so you can participate fully in the “social” aspect of these sites.

Marketing with social media is labour-intensive, but it is worth it. Fortunately, you don’t need to do all the work yourself. Online marketing firms that specialize in social media marketing can do all the legwork for you.

What a Social Media Marketing Firm Will Do

Your social media marketing partner will conduct the research you need to get started on the most widely used social media sites. The company will prepare content for you and make sure your pages are updated regularly. Their efforts will result in an authentic and positive online profile for your company.

Social media marketing is the next wave of online marketing. Catch the wave now and you’ll be able to ride out the recession and be in a stronger position when good times return.