Social Media Management (SMM) is a growing trend in marketing and promoting an organization’s product and service using the Internet. Social Media Management tools include websites such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs, and discussion groups. Social Media Management also refers to the broader discipline of creating, launching, managing and profiting from social media activities. Social Media Management tools are advancing in their ability to categorize, store, manage, and distribute user information across the Internet. Social Media Management tools are also learning how to read user information from these new off shoot applications. The resulting impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results, can be profound.
The goal of every social media manager is to get his or her brand’s message out to as many followers as possible. The first goal is to get followers who will actually benefit the brand. The second goal is to increase the overall visibility of the brand through social media channels. A social media manager’s third goal is to help his or her followers to navigate the changing landscape of the Internet and use it to promote their business.
One reason for having a social media manager is to help craft an effective branding strategy. Branding is an ever-changing discipline, dependent upon society and product acceptance. Social Media Management tools must keep pace with this dynamic, as well as the evolution of search engines, readership and Internet usage. Having a good understanding of Social Media Marketing and its role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical to a successful advertising strategy. Social Media Management tools should be able to adapt and keep up with the latest SEO trends and changes.
Social Media Managers needs to be knowledgeable about various platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Etsy, Yelp and others. They should be able to effectively promote brands and products to these platforms as well as understand their target audience. Social Media Management applications or platforms should provide the ability to post articles, podcasts and videos. Some platforms such as Google+ can also help users create visual content. An effective social media management strategy will have one or more of these four components.
A social media manager should also understand demographics. Demographics are the basic information about people. Using demographic information, the social media manager should be able to understand the interests of the audience of a brand. This allows them to create content that is appealing to the audience and increases the likelihood of the audience purchasing the product or service.
Social Media Management applications or platforms should provide easy access to content by browsing. If a user goes to a site and clicks on a thumbnail picture of a video, they would want to be able to quickly go to the source video. In order to do this, platforms such as YouTube should allow users to browse through videos according to categories. If there are currently no videos posted according to a category, then the platform should be able to suggest relevant videos based on user preferences. For example, if there are several cooking shows on YouTube, a social media management platform could suggest cooking related videos based on the user’s connection to a cooking network.
Social Media Management platforms should also allow users to share their stories with a variety of audiences. When sharing content, the platform should allow multiple times, at which the story can be shared to multiple audiences. The platform should allow users to learn more about the different ways that they can reach their target audience. By learning more about the target audience, the social media manager will be able to create unique promotional campaigns that appeal to specific demographics.
Social Media Management is an important part of the branding process. Social Media Marketing managers can take their companies’ online presence to the next level by learning more about how their company’s brand can reach its fullest potential. By implementing these strategies, social media specialists can take their companies’ brands to new heights. By combining the power of social media management with effective brand communication, the businesses that make the effort will see greater success in the future.