Mark Zuckerberg and his “super-talented” team have successfully created ripples in the social media circuit that we see as of now. They created Facebook. We all have an account there and we know its advantages. Viral marketing mashed with the help of an open Platform has never been so stunningly successful in the history of social media. Twitter the free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables you to send text messages to anyone who’s on your list was another revolution in terms of expanding your social networking. Well, when exactly was the last time that you sent 200 of your friends an invitation to your birthday bash while your parents were out, for FREE! The times have changed and so has the technology. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are setting the world afire for social networking has never been so simpler, easier and faster.
Marketing with Facebook
- Social Ads: There is nothing cooler than posting an ad on Facebook and customizing it according to people’s preferences. You have the option to limit who sees your ad by sex, age, location, keywords, education etc. The best part is that you don’t have to befriend an advertiser and get triggered as and when you take an action. Eg: Renting a DVD. Advertisers have the facility to include a button. The users who click on the button can share the information with their friends on Facebook. Placements in the news feed are also available which often give good results.
- Polls: Every marketer realizes the importance of conducting a market research before developing or launching a product. Facebook offers Polls: an amazing service of conducting research within their target audience. One can get hundreds of responses within no time and the results of that can be streamed according to marketer’s preferences like age, sex, gender etc.
- Application Sponsorships: Marketers can get in touch with application developers directly and offer sponsorships to them. For eg- Cigarette companies like Marlboro have tied up with “smoking and gifting cigarettes” applications.
- Facebook Events: This is a free application for Facebook users which allows members to send an invitation of various events to people of the same group or to their friends. One can promote events like product launches and transactions with Facebook Events. It includes a whole webpage dedicated to that event with its own wall, list of members attending or not attending, discussion, photos and even videos. This makes it one of the coolest ways to promote an event or a product by way of helping build a community around the same.
- Facebook Marketplace: Marketplace is Facebook’s own classifieds service. If you want to sell a product or buy a product, Marketplace is perfect for finding the right customers. You can post your ad for free and if you want to post one in multiple networks, the charges are as low as 1$. Another cool way to market your stuff.
People are using it on the airports, on meetings and even in their kitchens. This is already being called “THE IM FOR GROWN UPS”. What is it? Say Hello to Twitter! Internet communication has never been this good. Odeo developers have come up with a new and exciting way to keep in touch with your friends and to discuss with them your thoughts. You can even receive and send messages to cell phones and share with people your lives and environment around. This application has set a benchmark in internet communication.
Marketing Tips for Twitter:
It is a work and play tool for people as well as a tool for building credible reputation in the public. You can point out anything cool or interesting you find on the web and then discuss with general public. Something like an instant forum. From the perspective of personal brand building, do not look at the individual posts. Think of the overall image and credibility you can build by staying in touch with people over a long period of time. Twitter has broken all barriers in the micro-blogging world, it’s more like a cross between an IM and a Blog.
How will it benefit in marketing?
- Personal Branding: Build your personal brand.
- Get Feedback: Ask people directly of what they feel about your product/service.
- Hire People: Twitter helps you in finding all sorts of people you need or want to recruit. Programmers, animators, musicians etc.
- Direct Traffic: Attracting traffic by asking your friends to visit your website or blog can do wonders for it.
- Make new friends: Like all other social networks, Twitter allows you to make friends and keep track of their messages.
This pretty much sums up why you need the above mentioned tools. So just in case, you don’t have an account on Facebook or Twitter, I strongly recommend that you make one as soon as possible before you miss out on the next generation marketing gateways. If you have more suggestions, please feel free to comment.
Great article! This will help explain to my friends what Twitter is about.