What Is Social Marketing?

What is social marketing?  According to Wikipedia it’s something along the lines of “Social advertising and marketing is the systematic application of promoting, as well as other ideas and strategies, to realize distinct behavioral goals for the…”  My reply to that is WHAT?  Wow…  a systematic application?  Really?  Interesting…

The first answer that pops into my mind concerning the question what is social marketing is the “the ability to connect people.”  To me it’s pretty much identical to network marketing.  The only real difference is the medium.  So, social marketing, then, is network marketing conducted via the social media.  It’s any effort that you put forth to connect people with people.

There are numerous strategies being put into play right now, in the social media, one of my favorites being shared syndication… the art of utilizing the social media and the people participating for the purpose of helping one another market and develop their brand.

By definition the word marketing, by itself, means “the process by which companies determine which products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.”  That sounds like TESTING to me, yes?  Product sampling, surveys, etc… marketing.  Advertising by definition, according to Wikipedia “is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services.”

Based on these definitions we COULD easily come to the conclusion that social marketing is nothing more than setting up a sample stand on Facebook, kind of like the sample stations you see at the local grocery store… a method of test advertising, perhaps?

If you plan to use the social media to build a TEAM and organization in an MLM based business opportunity then the key is understanding how to market the BEST resource, in your opportunity, before anything else.  That resource is YOU!  They easiest way to put yourself in a position to connect the right people to the right people is to let people take YOU for a test drive.  This requires some method of belly to belly communication.  Even if it’s only a phone call, connecting with people gives you the opportunity share your skills, attitude and personality with potential team members.

If being social is, by definition, communication… and marketing, by definition, is a form of test advertising, then the answer to the question of what is social marketing would be “the art of connecting with people for the purposes of giving them an opportunity to TRY you.”  Share your knowledge, your skills and your expertise.  This will attract like minded individuals to you.  Use chat resources like Skype, Facebook chat and telephone to make that connection personal.  You will find that the majority of the people you talk to in the social media (even if they want to you believe that they do) don’ t know everything.  This is why you always put yourself in a position to answer questions and solve problems.  Once you have reached the place where they have asked a question or mentioned a problem, this let’s you market your SKILLS.  It also is the key that opens the door to third party validation or connecting the right people with the right people.

Cheers!

Rex

what is social marketing

what is social marketing

what is social marketing

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