Media has always been very powerful in promoting business. The art of advertising is most important to the success of the business. Internet, and of late the trend of social networking have dynamically changed the concepts of advertising and marketing. Internet tool like social media as a means of marketing is becoming powerful day by day as it helps to give a boost to many companies who actively participate in social networking. Social media is an interactive platform for people, in this case between consumers and producers or interested parties. Through social media people share news, information, views and read and comment on them. It`s a kind of conversation happening all the time over the internet and the tone is informal. twitter.com/softxml" style="text-decoration:underline;">Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Digg etc. and other blogging, video sharing, messaging and mailing sites can be included in social media.

When you are using social media for business you have to promote your site so that you get attention in the form of traffic and links. This is an economical option for promotion which will allow you to interact with many visitors who may become loyal to you over the times. Understanding social media will give you the power to converse with people and give meaningful response. This is very important when you are running a business. It also helps with the idea of how to maintain your company’s reputation with the public.

Interact with big companies

If you are running a small business you can interact with large companies through social media. You can get an insight into what strategies they follow and what their secret to success is. It helps in building brand awareness, information on new product can be marketed, and how feedback from customers can be accepted which will go into improving your business, build a loyal customer base, get new clients and build up your company’s reputation.

Brand building

Once you as a business person get on to social media marketing (SMM) your company will be talked about on the internet. It will get a reputation and lead to brand building. Once you put your message people will read and spread the message further to more people. If your blog is useful in a social network like Twitter you will get followers which will help your company to grow. You can use these mediums to announce your new products, news and information about your company.

Increase in traffic

As your company’s social network grows you will come to the front page of video sites, news and bookmark sites. Featuring in the front page will result into sending large amount of traffic to your site without any delay. Not all traffic will result into conversion but some will and you will be able to earn a decent amount of profit. The rest of the traffic will help to take your business to the right direction. The best part is that all this publicity you are getting from social media networking is either free or spending very little compared to what you are gaining.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine ranking is one of the ways to increase website traffic. Search engine optimization is the key to direct marketing and through social media you can develop strategies for SEO initiatives. Common keywords, tags, links, and ticker symbols add to your search engine ranking. There are other alternatives to search engines through social media which will take your message to many people. While search engines expect you to follow certain guidelines, a compelling blog can get huge traffic when it is published and linked to from reddit or del.icio.us.

SMM and traditional marketing

SMM and traditional marketing can be followed side by side. Traditional marketing include banner ads etc. They are useful to a business as an appealing banner attracts many visitors at a single step. On the other hand you can strengthen your SMM. However, the power of traditional ads is dropping because people are not ready to try out a product just by seeing an ad. They would rather buy following a “twit” recommendation. SMM helps you to reach people who can influence and recommend. As the power of SMM increases you can do without traditional ad to have traffic in your website.

Community building

SMM gives you an advantage of being a part of a community. This is very important to the success of a small and medium business. It helps you to build a powerful network where you meet like minded people with whom you can discuss things of interest pertaining to business or otherwise. This is a great way of gaining knowledge and information.

If your social media campaign is successful it can be a major factor in the growth of your business. With a minimal cost you will get brand publicity and advertisement. Also, your market research and improvement of product can be carried out for free.