senren
New member
Although social marketing has been around for some years it existed by virtue of the evolution of technology & society and is a by product thereof. Social marketing in a simplistic sense is marketing a product or service by way of telling your 'friends' (i.e. your Facebook, Twitter or MySpace network), initially it was an avenue slightly unorthodox in nature as it would be stereotypical of a 'salesperson' to provide exceptional 'deals' to friends & family opposed to inducing a full price purchase from them.
Now days it is the norm to extend invitations to these networks of extended 'friends' or as they would appear 'business associates' to read a Blog, try a product, basically to check out something new. Ultimately, the aim of these mass communications is to drive traffic into every corner of the web at light speed; by contrast, an 'old school' approach would be to design a large advertising campaign, getting the word out through various mediums at an escalating cost.
It was destined for social marketing to become the initial means to spread word of products and services, the cost is virtually nil and any measurable cost is a 'virtual' one i.e. the time to create and the space it uses up; did you ever think that we would be using 'time & space' to explain a 'virtual' concept when those words engender the theme of the theory of relativity - it's all relative.
Never the less, social marketing has further evolved to be coupled with the old school marketing campaign yet toned down to reduce costs. Where a tweet or comment was once a communication which only value was intrinsic to that of the person initiating the communication it is now a vital first step in the race to drive traffic and induce sales. This is a win-win situation as driving traffic is of great benefit as is any sales; just as evidence of a storm is discernible days after it has passed, the scattered effect of social marketing can be seen all over the web. It's a matter of getting your communication into the information stream, once it's in it can end up anywhere and everywhere.
Now days it is the norm to extend invitations to these networks of extended 'friends' or as they would appear 'business associates' to read a Blog, try a product, basically to check out something new. Ultimately, the aim of these mass communications is to drive traffic into every corner of the web at light speed; by contrast, an 'old school' approach would be to design a large advertising campaign, getting the word out through various mediums at an escalating cost.
It was destined for social marketing to become the initial means to spread word of products and services, the cost is virtually nil and any measurable cost is a 'virtual' one i.e. the time to create and the space it uses up; did you ever think that we would be using 'time & space' to explain a 'virtual' concept when those words engender the theme of the theory of relativity - it's all relative.
Never the less, social marketing has further evolved to be coupled with the old school marketing campaign yet toned down to reduce costs. Where a tweet or comment was once a communication which only value was intrinsic to that of the person initiating the communication it is now a vital first step in the race to drive traffic and induce sales. This is a win-win situation as driving traffic is of great benefit as is any sales; just as evidence of a storm is discernible days after it has passed, the scattered effect of social marketing can be seen all over the web. It's a matter of getting your communication into the information stream, once it's in it can end up anywhere and everywhere.
