There are differences. But in general we prefer scanning our community and social network to understand what and how others are doing things before we make any similar decision in our life. If both the sellers are giving same propositions, we buy from one, who is friendlier. No doubt same is true for business decisions.
Social media marketing strategy is to influence these communities and networks to attract more fresh and repeat attention and businesses. Deep pocket companies with bigger marketing budget do have more options in their hands. But if you are a small enterprise, avoid social networks at your own risk.
There are numerous social networking sites and target audience also varies from site to site. Your social media marketing strategy would depend mostly on whom you cater and what’s your business. However, there are certain basic principles, if followed properly, would definitely attract more traffic to your blog.
Content generation
In social media marketing, content is the major pull. But blunt content generation hardly works. Your content must address requirement of your target audience. And social networking sites and forums are rich sources to understand what your audience is asking for.
Visibility
Search engines are way to increase visibility of your blog. Social media sites do the same thing. You need to post your profile and link with other profiles, who share interests similar to yours. However, be careful of link hunters. They won’t add any value to your effort.
Content promotions
Promoting your content is equally important. Try to find out other established blogs in your domain. Follow their content and leave valuable comment. If they find juice in your remark they would definitely follow you back to your site. And along with them they will bring more traffic. Link from other websites would boost your page rank in search engines. However, stale comments would have exactly opposite effect. So, maintain seriousness when commenting on others’ blogs.
Right Network
Networking, offline or online, is always effective, provided you are in right network. There are sites for teens and there are for aged. If you are selling mobile gaming apps, you won’t make much difference visiting networks with average audience age of over 50.
Never overlook
Hope you have found out a list of social networking sites with similar target audience and interests as yours. Now best way to proceed is to have your profile on all of them. You might be getting best traffic from Myspace, but that doesn’t justify overlooking Biznik. Your simple presences in all other similar platform increase your visibility and trackability. So never miss nurturing your profile in any social networking site if it falls within your domain.
Q&A forums
People visit websites and search engines for information. In Q&A (question and answers) forums you would find many people with real problems. Solve their problem with proper guidance. And also give them link to your site for further and detailed information. If they are satisfied with your answers, they would definitely make repeat visit and bring in more traffic too.