Approach to Learning about Social Web for Marketing Professionals

If internet has affected the lives of millions of people across the world and brought them together through social media networks, the same technology and tools have reinvented the marketing and media campaign strategies for the marketing companies too.

No big time business can ignore the social web today. By virtue of the fact that the individuals present and participating in the social web are talking about the product or services relevant to each one’s business, the companies have got to be present to be able to address the prospective buyers who are also present and are listening to the reviews, comments, ratings and feedback of those who have purchased and use the products.

Every Marketing professional would need to include the social media into his marketing campaign and integrate the same with the rest of the media channels that he is currently using. The starting point of this journey would be to understand the technology, the platform, the various channels and all about how social web works. Secondly one needs to understand and watch what happens on the social web when individuals and groups are talking to one another across the network.

Understanding of the behavior of the participants across the social web channels is very important for it is this audience that the marketing companies are concerned about and it is this group of people that consist of the existing customers and would be customers of the company.

Social media has been used effectively by all kinds of businesses including the Hollywood movies for their premier releases to the Home Store Depots.

Social web channels like SMS, Youtube and Facebook etc have been harnessed effectively for building instant awareness about the product or service.

Thus marketers have realized the huge potential that exists in being able to reach out to a large customer base at negligible cost. Understanding of this aspect of the consumer behavior on the social web is a must for any marketing professional wishing to design social media campaign for his company. The awareness factor can be positive or result in negative publicity too.

Therefore one needs to be able to influence if not directly control the audience reaction through well designed and orchestrated participation in the events and discussions on the web.

One other factor that stands out amongst the users and participants of social media is the element of trust. Those who are discussing and are participating in the discussions implicitly trust the words of all the others who ever is involved. Therefore when a Company is participating in the discussions and influencing the discussion, it is assumed by one and all that what is being said is true one hundred percent. Therefore it becomes important on the part of the Organization to ensure that what is being said is true and that it delivers what it promises.

One must always remember that the existing customers would make up their mind about the product or service depending upon the extent and level of satisfaction derived out of the product or service in relation to their expectation from such product or service.

Thus it is important for the Marketing professional to first understand how the social web audience’s discussions works as an effective feedback to the prospective customers and builds their awareness as well as influences their decision to purchase.

Secondly there is a need to be able to synchronize the media campaign on the social web with the operations so that whatever is committed is delivered.