Social Media Marketing

Something my employer at Bizzuka said recently sparked my thinking.

“What you’re doing (in terms of marketing) will not just help us create greater awareness among prospects, but among those considering coming to work for us,” he said.

It caused me to realize that marketing, especially social media marketing, is not just about building a prospect list. Sometimes, whether intentional or not, it’s also about attracting quality talent and/or wealthy investors.

An acquaintance, mortgage broker and blogger Brian Brady, said this about the web: “By using these online tools to connect and generate social capital, we’re leaving little bread crumbs all over the Internet that show our passion and knowledge.”

We’re everywhere

All these various forms of online media – blogs, podcasts, social networks, social bookmarking and sharing sites – create a sense of omnipresence. It seems we’re everywhere, at least so far as Google is concerned. And that bodes well when prospects, job seekers or investors do a search.

Plus, it helps us manage our online reputation. Consistently created content drives down the chance that something critical that’s been said will rank highly. Barring the breakout of a viral storm of criticism, negative content is literally overwhelmed.

I think it’s good for any business to present a 360 degree view of itself. In this day when Google is the new yellow pages, it’s a differentiating factor.

We’ll keep using every form of social media we can think of to build our brand, showcase our people, products and services and create a community of interested followers – whether they are prospective customers, employees or investors. In this era of the Web 2.0, it just makes sense. We’ll do it because we can, and so can you.

Are we making optimum use of all these tools? Probably not, but I’m working on it. Doubtless, there is room for improvement. One thing we try and do is use social media marketing tools to build awareness about other forms of marketing, such as sponsorships, webinars and email. The more we can integrate marketing efforts, the better. Even though we’re attempting to present a circumferential view of our company, we want the message to be consistent.

Here’s a drumroll of social media tools my company is currently using. How does it stack up against yours?

• Bizzuka company blog
• Bizzuka Buzz Radio podcast
• Facebook business page
• YouTube profile
• Flickr profile
• LinkedIn page
• Twitter account