Social media marketing is an important component of organizations’ integrated marketing and communications mix. Organizations target a niche market and use an integrated marketing plan to connect with their market. The plan may include: advertising, public relations, sales promotion, tradeshows, Internet and even broadcast such as TV and radio – and now social media marketing. Today the Internet provides business with dozens of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.

Social media marketing is not just a trend –
The growth of social media marketing has become a major trend impacting businesses. Organizations have recognized and embraced the opportunities and have made social media marketing a core component of their overall Internet marketing plan. If you’re in business and you don’t have social media marketing plan in place – I’d encourage you to do so.
At the core of your social media marketing program is content. Juicy, keyword rich content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A company’s message can be broadcast over many social media networks from user to user and presumably resonates because it comes from a trusted source, as opposed to it coming directly from the brand or the company.

Social media marketing offers trust –
Trust becomes the new currency of business today. Most consumers don’t trust companies and most don’t trust brands. A global study on consumer trust found that people trust friends over businesses.1 Nearly half of the study participants trust suggestions from friends, while only 27 percent believe what’s on a company’s website and a mere 18 percent trust what’s in the company brochure. The social media consumer is more independent than ever today and less likely to be emotionally swayed by a radio or TV ad. However, social media marketing elevates consumer trust and allows the new consumer to make choices on their own, based on their own collected information.

Social media marketing is cost-effective –
Social media marketing is easier to incorporate than ever before. Social media has become the platform that is easily accessible to anyone who has access to the Internet making easy for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media marketing is a relatively inexpensive platform to broadcast their marketing messages with campaigns.