There has been a lot of discussion about social marketing. We have seen huge launches costing thousands of dollars and more are in the pipe line to be blasted on all of us.
Amidst this furore we hear a few whispers from users that social marketing is not working for them.
The advocators of social marketing say that Google loves social sites. And your backlinks from social bookmarking sites is worth its weight in gold for search engine optimization.
Google has announced a beta version of Google Friend Connect.
Google Friend Connect Beta
With Google Friend Connect I will be able to have a social networking site on my own site. What this is going to lead to and what kind of courses and training programs are going to be launched based on this remains to be seen. But one thing is certain…
Google is changing tracks…
Instead of me jumping around from one social network to another I may have to make my site so attractive for people to come there and interact on my site.
This will serve Google’s purpose of serving the best search results based on visitor satisfaction.
The future might or might not change the way we promote our sites.
But let us think for a moment and see if social marketing is working for us or not…
Social Marketing Does Not Work
- How many of us bookmark others’ sites or blogs in social bookmarking sites without expecting anything in return?
- How many of us truly interact in social sites without thinking about how much time we are spending on this and what will be the ROI?
- How many of us outsource this “boring job”?
- How many more would like to do outsource it if the service is better and available at a cheaper cost?
Social Marketing Works
- Social networking is useful because we go where people hang around.
- We want to meet the people at places where they love to spend time and make friends.
- We want to be part of the popular hangouts and expand our network of contacts.
- We want to treat others as friends rather than potential customers who fill our pockets.
Ok now for the balance…
I am not criticising social marketing as an outsider. I am very much part of the whole thing and I am going to bookmark this post on my favorite social networking sites.
But looking at these two points of view for myself I have realized…
Three Things I can do to make social marketing work for me
1. I cannot truly interact in 1000 social networking sites. I should choose four or five (or one or two) according to my interests.
I should choose only those sites where I really feel at home and want to be part of. The most important criteria for selection of the social site should be my genuine interest to be part of it. This criteria should override all other criteria.
2. I should be a part of those sites in the true sense of the term.
I should imagine I am the owner of the site and will do nothing to harm me and my interests. There is nothing purely selfless on this earth. What you give is going to return most often with interest.
3. I should genuinely interact with the people there without worrying about whether I get something in return or not.
If I am a true internet marketing wizard good at tracking and testing, it is quite likely I count the number of hours I spend there per week and how many visits or sales I made from that site. Then may be it would be better for me to spend money on Google AdWords rather than spend my time in social networking sites.
More Social Marketing posts for your to read…
Social Media Marketing Part One
If you have no idea that we used to have to practically live in forums to get a few visitors here and there as our only social marketing outlet, you just don’t know how great marketing on the web today is. …
Social Power Linking Case Studies
Social Marketing Basics – Jack Humphrey is an expert in social marketing with over 10 years experience in SEO, link building, and blog marketing. For more information on getting more traffic with social marketing see Social Power …
Google Friend Connect Stranglehold Off To A Precarious Start
Later in the Day Google may start granting access to their service, which past conjectures included the thought that Google’s Friend Connect would revolutionize Social Networking and Social Media Marketing (aka “The Social”), …
August 27th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
You know, I think Google is going to switch things up. Mainly, they would like to be the site people use socially. I think you are right about choosing several social sites and treating them like you own them. I might try that approach.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Is not Friend Connect service based on the concept that many other third part gadgets already doing? You may add a gadget to let friends/followers upload their pics (e.g. mybloglog), you may add a gadget to show comments on smaller left or right areas.
This looks great in that it has many functionality at one stop to add on your blog or web site. Plus the feature of inviting friends from different social networks.
I don’t think its going reduce the importance of existing social networks as you are not going to develop a social site, you are just adding features to let people what you are offering, enhancing your viral marketing.
I am exited to see it and applied for the preview release.
thanks for sharing it!
February 17th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Social sites can be great for both exposure and SEO. But you are right it is hard to spend the quality time needed to make it work on hundreds of social sites.