Understanding Social Media Holds Key to Building Online Reputation

Difference between Traditional Advertising and Online Advertising on Social Media

When it comes to Advertising in traditional media, the advertisers tend to focus on how to reach the masses at large. However when one looks at the Social Media and plans to design advertising, it becomes important to understand some of the basic differences that make Social Media different from the traditional media.

In the traditional media, the advertisements are largely interruptive. People are used to the commercial breaks and the interruptive advertisements amidst the shows. However when it concerns the social media, the major difference to be noted is that the audience does not appreciate interruptive advertising.

In fact the audiences on the internet have several options of being able to install filters, block senders, use pop up blockers and soft wares that block the advertisements on the browser. What does this mean to the advertisers and marketers. This means that the way to reach out and connect with the internet community has got to be different.

Secondly it also means that the audience does not appreciate being spoken to without permission. There is also the real possibility that in near future one would need to seek similar permission from the prospective customers even to contact them on telephone or through other means of communication.

Therefore it is time for the marketers to sense the changes and anticipate the changing trends that are to come in the near future. As the controls lie with the participants in the social media web, the advertisers and marketers would need to ask for permission to communicate with each prospective audience.

More importantly to be able to participate in the social networks and discussions, one would need to be invited. The marketer or the advertiser does not control the participation or the discussion on the social media.

Participating or absenting from the Social media and networks is not something that can be easily decided by the Marketer.

If the audience is talking about the products or services that the marketer is interested in providing, he has not option but to be present and participate in the online discussions. On the other hand, ignoring and absenting from the online communities can send wrong signals and promote negative sentiments amongst the community.

Building Online Reputation

Understanding the above would help the markers redraw their strategies of using social media for their marketing efforts and build their online reputation. The fact that the audience or the participants control the conversation on the social web also means that the way they perceive your advertising effort would in turn make or break your online reputation.

It does not matter how long you have been in business or your position in the market, in the online world, it is your interactions with the community and their perception that determines your reputation.

Building your online reputation is not simple and cannot be done overnight. It has got to be built with sustained and planned online activity and participation as well as with the clear understanding of the participant communities’ characteristics as well as the trends. Measuring and studying the social media and the communities that are your captive audience helps design an effective strategy for building online reputation.

Social Media marketing agencies offer tailor made as well as custom designed metrics that provide the markets with detailed feedback on the traffic, page views, the dwell in times etc.

Several qualitative measures are also able to provide valuable clue on the content, the reviews, the moods and sentiments of the participants. All these feedbacks enable the advertisers to come up with accurate plan to build sustainable online reputation.

The feedbacks are critical to manage, grow as well as change or tweak the online reputation and manage the trends over a period of time.