[Admin]

One key factor to remember about social media marketing is that all social media outlets or websites on the Internet are community based, and anyone is allowed to join these communities. All people are equal participants or supposed to be in these types of communities.

I don’t know of any social media website that makes members pay unless it is by special invitation to a private membership. If you go to any of the major or more prominent social media websites, you will see they are all free for use.

It used to be that businesses relied on 3 primary medias before the Internet came about, and every one of them cost an arm and leg to advertise on. These medias were television, newspapers and magazines otherwise known as telecom and press. But since we now have a totally different vehicle to broadcast messages, a big power shift happened — consumers, businesses or regular people can now have the same branding power as any corporation does.

The messages are no longer purchasable, and therefore no longer controlled by the “institution”. Social media marketing pretty much put the consumer on an equal playing field as far as branding goes, or at least helped consumers gain the opportunity to brand themselves like the bigger places without control.

Businesses changed, and no longer have to depend on a couple of choices or pay the astronomic fees attached to use them to promote their companies either. Any company or person can brand themselves using social media marketing. Their marketing teams simply have to learn how to market online using these communities to help them gain favor with the public.

I’ve seen a good majority of corporations ready and willing to make the move from offline medias to online— matter of fact, they have been moving in this direction for several years now.

Social media marketing makes it not only possible for the bigger companies to gain more presence and prominence, but this is also true for smaller Mom and Pop businesses. Internet entrepreneurs also sprouted up all over the place with their own enterprises. This type of marketing created an economical shift too in that anyone can now market, run and operate an online business, so the money gets spread out more and flows back into the regular economy.

This shift didn’t happen over night or by itself. The main shift came about because of the availability of the personal computer, and the user’s access to the Internet. Once users had this access, they sought to socialize more. Internet marketers also sought to use this type of media to improve their reach to the masses and profit margins, making social media marketing one of the hottest media vehicles since television.

What are your thoughts on the subject of SMM? And how has it helped you as a consumer and business?

[JamesStein]

AOL wants to sell bebo because it is not happy with it's 12.8 Million Unique Visitors... They spent $850 million in 2007 for the site and wanted to compete with, guess who ... Facebook.

Well because facebook has something like 400 million unique visitors the Big AOL wants to sell or shut it down. These companies I swear are so retarded at times.. How many people would love to have 12.8 million unique visitors per month ???

Let's look at some facts here and I know AOL is greedy like most companies and they must meet a certain goal but anywho ...

As we all know not all visitors are going to buy but taking the "Unique Visitors" of 12.8 million and let's just figure 2 million purchase a $15 product from the site. Within one years time we are looking at sales in the $360,000,000 range.

So for one thing the site should have paid for itself by now because I am only taking 10% of the "Unique Visitors" traffic. There is more than likely another 5 million or so repeat and I am only counting a $15 product and I am not even counting what advertisers pay to have their ads on the site.

So I am leaving many factors out here and just looking at the basics. These companies are so retarded, they must make a billion dollars a month to be happy... AOL did eWorld the same way, they did Netscape the same way, and many other companies they took over.

Personally I would love to see 1.2 million unique visitors a month, you think I would want to sell or shut down because I have traffic ... DUH!!!

I know this does not answer your question Mary but I thought it was related ...lol

James

[Admin]

James,

your post is related in that AOL's Bebo is a social media site, and people who do use bebo are using social medi marketing whether they know they are or not. I bet a good portion of those 12.8 visitors were out to brand their name and/or company!

To reitorate your comments, yes, some of the owners of such media sites are retarded because they can't see what they do have nor how to use it to their advantage.

[JamesStein]

Well I used to be a beta tester for AOL 3.0 (I actually started on 2.4 I think it was) and I stayed on AOL for a good 8 or 9 years but I got to say it is one stupid company when it comes to making certain decisions.

I realize they have stock holders and all this junk but man you would think one of them would have a "long term" thinking brain. I would much rather wait 5 years for a return on my investment if what is done is going to keep the company around for 20 or 30 years.

Many times it just seems so childish though "Well, facebook has 400 million and we only have 12 million so I don't want to play this game no more" ... I mean come on.. Grow up and stop crying already.

James

Originally Posted by Admin

James,

your post is related in that AOL's Bebo is a social media site, and people who do use bebo are using social medi marketing whether they know they are or not. I bet a good portion of those 12.8 visitors were out to brand their name and/or company!

To reitorate your comments, yes, some of the owners of such media sites are retarded because they can't see what they do have nor how to use it to their advantage.

[JMPruitt]

I agree with James here.. wish i had 12 m visitors to one of my sites.

as far as branding goes, it isnt just Social media. that is a great place to do it, but the internet as a whole allows branding of your business.
The way i look at it, everything that I do from a comment on a blog, to posting on FB to an article on a directory, or a video on youtube all brand my business. if people would take more pride in the work they do in these places, the net would be a much better place.

[JamesStein]

Wishful thinking ... I just had a fight today with some idiot on BN about SENuke which I know for a fact breaks the TOS of many websites. This idiot, you could not tell anything to...

He thinks he is not junking up the internet and spamming by mass creating profiles and junk with junk software...

James

Originally Posted by JMPruitt

I agree with James here.. wish i had 12 m visitors to one of my sites.

as far as branding goes, it isnt just Social media. that is a great place to do it, but the internet as a whole allows branding of your business.
The way i look at it, everything that I do from a comment on a blog, to posting on FB to an article on a directory, or a video on youtube all brand my business. if people would take more pride in the work they do in these places, the net would be a much better place.

[Admin]

JP,

That's true. There are several tactics people can use to brand themselves online today, but the majority of them are community based. It isn't just the Facebooks, My Spaces, Twitters, etc ... that do the trick. It is a combination of social communities, and your status in those communities.


And James S.

What a nimrod lol. He has no idea does he??