Social media

 A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposite to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media. Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or ‘updates’ with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities.


Companies are now using social networking sites, such as Facebook, to enhance their brand communication and to promote and publish their product information among consumers. Such brands as Coca-Cola, Converse, and Starbucks reach millions of people through their social media communication. However, companies do not have complete control over this phenomenon. Consumers actively ‘like’ brands, comment on posts, share information and share their opinions with other people on the Internet.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected to the technique of viral marketing or viral seeding where word of mouth is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. An effective SMO campaign can harness the power of viral marketing, for example, 80% of activity on interest is generated through ‘repining.’ Furthermore, by following social trends and utilizing alternative social networks, websites can retain existing followers while also attracting new ones. This allows businesses to build an online following and presence, all linking back to the company’s website for increased traffic. For example, with an effective social bookmarking campaign, not only can website traffic be increased, but a site’s rankings can also be increased. In a similar way, the engagement with blogs creates a similar result by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines. As mobile platforms become increasingly popular, location-based social media such as foursquare is becoming an even more important part of a company’s social media strategy.