Welcome to Marketing on social media!
The aim of this book is to provide a clear, oriented introduction to social media marketing - for employees who may be employed in a corporate or non-profit organization, for university students, or self-styled learners. The approach I've taken in most of the books I've written is the same, which is conversational, polite, with an attempt at making things enjoyable.
The plan is about finding a way to help people get involved with social media marketing in a way that's enjoyable and helps develop skills- maybe through internship, paid work, volunteer work, freelance work, or some other kind of work.
So the emphasis is on skills and strategies that can be instantly useful to a company or a non-profit. I won't try to cover anything but just about the stuff I think are the most important.
The other goal is to help you get away from any coercion you have in the dust. I used to be bullied by ads, and look at me now. I am a business consultant and adjunct communications professor! Yet I remember the abuse, and part of my strategy is trying to reassure any reader who may feel nervous about the area.
The fact is, social media marketing has many options, and has developed rapidly, particularly in the "tools" field. Which means there is a lot of stuff out there. This can be very daunting! But when you leave fear in the dust, take baby measures, try things out and develop trust, it can also be really financially feasible.
It can be tricky to select the appropriate platforms when constructing a social media presence for your business. Even for those used to dealing with technology on a daily basis, the sheer number of social media choices can be overwhelming and they can all be difficult to juggle with. That's where this book helps. Social Media aims to help readers sift through the most prominent social media outlets to build a platform from which they can shine through their newly emerging business. You'll read about how to find your target audience, which website is best for some businesses, which platforms will simultaneously contribute to marketing and sales, and how to set up accounts for each of the major social media platforms. So sit back and relax, because it just got a lot easier to spread the word about your company and win clients.
The emergence of social media started in the early days of the Internet when people began to share information and communicate with one another. It was just that the previous systems were more "technologically"-strenuous, demanding specific skills to use and, thus, limited the number of users using these services. Platforms were developed over some time as the technologies progressed, so regular users, without any technical context, could also use the platforms not only for communications but also to sell their products/services. This was a turning point in internet history, rendering the internet technology all accessible, where people were no longer silent bystanders to the content that they were dished out. You can now make your content, sharing it with others, respond to people, work with people, and more. This user engagement is what has brought momentum to social media marketing development as we know it today.
Unfortunately, people tend to participate in the most popular websites and expect them to meet all their needs, rather than settle for a service that best serves their needs.
