Are the concepts of “social media” and “marketing” compatible?
Absolutely, the concepts of social media and marketing go hand in hand. The brilliance of social media is that it is permission based. We have the ability to "delete" friends that turn into spammers. We choose how and when we are "marketed" to by voting with the delete button. Smart marketing professionals have learned to provide quality useful information to their followers.
Celebrities have found a gold-mine of good PR on Twitter and Facebook, Telecom companies have raised their reputations from the sewers and smart Pizza Chains have found thousands of new customers signing up to their Facebook pages.
As the leading social media site, Facebook has lead the way by adding separate profiles for personal pages and business/marketing fan pages. It’s easy to keep your personal news stream free of spam, while still being able to follow your favorite "fan" pages.
Content driven sites like Squidoo and Hub Pages provide solid information to readers, while also providing a plethora of opportunities for marketers.
As more major companies jump on the social media bandwagon, smaller companies and mom and pop shops will follow. Unfortunately, the spammers will continue to attempt to pollute the stream but the very nature of social media will keep them in check.
Yes, but only if you do so in a genuine fashion. If you’re going to jump into the world of social media without considering the “social” and you plan to simply push content into someone’s face with “marketing” in mind, the compatibility is naturally lacking. It is important to put the community first at all times. At the end of the day, it’s about you providing to the community and you finding what works for them and responding to their feedback. You cannot really treat social media marketing without the social. It’s very important to acknowledge this fact. All online communities are different. You’ll need to understand the communities you “pitch” to. Not every approach can and sholuld be the same, and every social being is different. Will social media marketing, or social media relations, become as de facto to online business as SEO is? I honestly think we’re already there. I think “social media consultants” and “social media experts” are running rampant on the web. I’m not entirely s
