Social Media Crash Course (Part 1)

Previous articles examined customer engagement and handling the negative comments in social media, but not everyone is aware of the full scope and totality of social media, or best practices in use. Here we provide an introductory overview to social media services.

Then and Now

Many sites have covered histories of the web in various degrees of detail and scale, so we won't tread water. As a substitute for delineated chronicles of the internets, the obligatory history blurb will provide a reference for the context.

Currently taken as commonplace aspects and features—content sharing, social networking, instant messaging, collaboration, and a host of user-generated content, wasn’t originally on the radar of the majority of internet users. Computers served a different purpose, one that lacked a social nature. Then the internet wasn’t dominated by facebook and twitter; at the most basic form the internet’s function was to publish information for others to find, or find information published by others. The boundaries were clear and well defined.

Now with millions of bloggers, dynamically customizable websites, tools to create personal social networks and mashups, the internets spectrum of uses (and users) has shifted in a rather short time span.

Three-Letter Services

Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, in the same manner that 'Three-Letter Agencies' (NSA, CIA, FBI) are household names, what we will hence forth refer to as 'Three-Letter Online Services' also appear to have become just as trite. Being aware of the lexicon translates at some level to being familiar with some most often used abbreviations. This allows for a foundation in understanding when talking about offering professional and personal online service.

SMM - Social Media Monitoring / Social Media Marketing

"Our bread and butter.” Social Media, in the literal sense, refers to any medium, physical or virtual that promotes social interaction. Colloquially, Social Media refers to rather specific sets of tools and sites as social networks, blogs, and Twitter just to name a few (we’ll cover these in more detail with upcoming articles).

More often than not Social Media Monitoring and Social Media Marketing occur simultaneously although interdependently.

Social Media Monitoring is best described as the strategies that track and analyze social media in order to better understand what is being said about you and your company (where and how often it’s being said, who is saying it, and the overall impression).

This information is used to develop the Social Media Marketing strategies that either promote and or respond to a situation (good or bad) discovered through the Monitoring process. In general, these actions aim to expand your brand awareness and online reputation.

For best results, Social Media Monitoring must remain a continuous action that consistently feeds into the Social Media Marketing Campaign. The ideal marketing campaign is one that is agile, quickly adapting to the changing environment. With this methodology, the overall effect is a holistic approach to developing your online presence through organic management and steady growth of followers and customers.

ORM - Online Reputation Management

When establishing and working on an online presence you are essentially working on how others will see you. This is your reputation. ORM is implied in just about every other online service that we discuss. Beyond that, however, ORM also carries more specific meaning: reactive and proactive changes in online content and strategies meant to clarify concerns, promote your 'good sides', and correct the 'bad stuff'. We have covered this in some depth in Responding to Negative Comments and Engage, Don't Market.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

The big one. SEO is what you will most likely hear when talking about online services. SEO refers to shaping your online presence in a way that makes you easier to find when searching for specific terms in a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Interestingly, for the purposes of Social Media, SEO is an indirect concern. The reason we mention SEO here is that a certain amount of SEO work is implicit to building an online presence, without it, further efforts are undermined substantially.

PPC - Pay Per Click

Used in the context of advertising campaigns, PPC is paying for the right to have your ad featured on another page. The page could be a page of search engine results, a relatively random site that provides advertising space, or a social media site that provides advertising space. PPC advertising campaigns can be an effective method of driving traffic to your site, but the latter case is where PPC becomes particularly interesting and relevant for this article. By giving users the opportunity to discover your site, company, or product when placing an ad on a social media site or tool, you automatically open the possibility of those same users going on to share what they have found. The "double whammy."

SEM - Search Engine Marketing

SEM is one of those terms that seems to carry a definition unique to every professional in the field. While some regard it as another word for search engine advertising campaigns others understand SEM to be an umbrella term encompassing SEO, PPC, and related areas or services. We subscribe to this second approach, but keep in mind that what some companies may imply when offering SEM services will differ from what other companies may have in mind with the same term. When dealing with Social Media and online services, always be sure about what exact strategies are being used and employed.

Now you have a general starting point for getting acquainted with Social Media and the services offered. Do keep in mind that while we have tried to provide manageable and clearly defined explanations, you will often find that most of these are heavily blended into an overall 'online presence strategy'.

Check back next week for the second part of the Social Media Crash Course where we discuss examples of Social Media in much more detail. If you find what you’ve read interesting at even some level, subscribe to the SocialTrending Blog, its all about RSS!

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