Social Media Marketing: An Easy Guide

While President Obama tweets from the Oval Office and McDonald's documents the very farm that grows its potatoes on YouTube, many small-business owners are still apprehensive about diving into social media. According to a recent survey by Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls and GrowBiz Media, only a third of small-business owners are using social media, while 40 percent plan on tackling it in 2012.

Flowtown, a social media marketing consultation firm, created the following infographic to help small businesses get with the times, with information on the top social media sites, their purpose and their lingo.

Flowtown - Social Media Marketing Application

Comments

[RMDowney]

03:55 PM on 10/24/2012

Very nice infographics. The problem with Social Media Marketing Strategies is that they are usually based on THEORY. You have to hear from Small Business Owners themselves to hear what their trials, tribulations and successes have been. There is a great "Town-Hallish" conversation here:

http://www.hipvine.com/2012/10/10/social-media-marketing-plan/

They go over some real world examples. It's actually a real Chamber of Commerce meeting in Denver, there is just a good vibe to the whole thing.

[rocketmobmedia]

12:18 PM on 02/16/2012

There is a difference between social media marketing and social media management. As with any marketing, it's key to begin with a specific and measurable goal, and then reverse engineer your marketing strategy to accomplish goal. The next step is to learn how to leverage the technology available to create connection among your networks in a scalable manner. Or, hire someone to help do that for you. www.rocketmobmedia.com

[JenniferGeisler]

03:03 PM on 02/08/2012

Alicia, thanks for the intelligent read. It is obvious that social media marketing is a continually growing trend now and for many years to come. While marketing departments know that social media is a cost-effective method to market their product, goods, etc. it may be uncommon to understand and realize that social media is an excellent way to spark engagement and interaction with customer/partners/followers/etc. As the Marketing Director of the Cisco Government Practice, I have found that integrating digital marketing with conferences and events is an innovative way to increase user participation and interest before, during and after events. I believe that businesses of all sizes are capable of incorporating social and digital marketing into their marketing campaign and harnessing the full benefits of what this social media has to offer. I appreciate the informative read, Alicia, I hope to see businesses use the plethora of information available to them to fully implement an integrated and strong marketing campaign.

[emily00011]

03:24 AM on 01/31/2012

marketing and promotion is the only reason to join these "social" sites. FB not searchable via google, major, major negative. That's why you MUST join g+ for marketing. Don't delay any longer.

For every one else, if you really want to be social, pick up the phone or leave your computer for a face-to-face.

[MiMi LLawsonn]

08:18 PM on 01/30/2012

Social Media is GREAT....a person can KEEP up with EVERYTHING that is going on....sometimes you have actually "see and hear" more than you can possibly care to....sometimes a person can "get wrapped up in things".....something that I did last year....http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-736024.....this is an interesting link....and YOU WILL BE SHOCKED...if you view it...

[StinkyMoBub]

07:10 PM on 01/30/2012

The new social media - put down your phone and talk to your neighbor.