Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
- Social media allow you to create an online community for your brand and its supporters.
- Social media can tie in nicely with any of your other online marketing tactics; a holistic e-
marketing strategy is always the best strategy. - Social media allow you to engage with an online community and allow you to connect your brand
to the appropriate audience. - Social media have created a forum for brand evangelists. Companies should embrace as well as
monitor this, as users with negative opinions of your brand have access to the same forum. - The various platforms allow you to access a community with similar interests to your own, that is,
networking without borders. - The numerous interactions allow you to garner feedback from your communities.
- Feedback from social media sites helps drive both future business as well as marketing strategies.
- The range of media enables you to learn more about your audience’s likes, dislikes, behavior, and
so on. Never before has this much information been available to marketers; market research just
got a whole lot cheaper. - Niche targeting just got a whole lot easier.
There are huge risks as well as opportunities. Social media facilitate a two-way conversation between
customer and company. This necessitates that the company shifts approach from “deploy and watch” to
one of constant involvement with the audience.
Social Media and the Changing Media Landscape
To keep up with their audiences, traditional media have had to adapt. This has changed the way that they
publish, both online and off, as well as how they can sell advertising.
For example, many newspapers now publish their content online as well as in their print publications.
Online, they can allow for instant commentary on their articles. It allows an instant snapshot of what their
readers think, which can then be used to make editorial decisions. Print stories can be supplemented
online with video, and this has been embraced by many news organizations.
Visit http://www.thetimes.co.za to see how one newspaper is using video online.