Technology not only makes our lives easier but it also connects us to the entire world. We can communicate with everyone from Rihanna to Barack Obama to Bono to Tony Blair via word of mouth marketing, also coined social media marketing. Everyone is doing it! – from Ford Motor Cars to Demi Moore to Keo Frazier.
Social media marketing allows us to merge our personal friendships with our business colleagues via the instantaneous actions of internet postings. We can tweet, FB, Myspace, and get Linkedin – we can also review our actions from the previous day on Youtube. With all of that exposure it is important to be mindful and manage our personal and business brand via these internet social channels.
Managing your brand through word of mouth social media marketing is an important career move given that these avenues allow instant access to and instant forwarding of any information about you and your daily movements. Managing your brand will allow you to not only market your individual self but it also allows you to market your business!
Managing your brand does not mean that you cannot be as open as you want to be with your friends and as formal as you want to be with your business colleagues. It does mean that you must manage your level of communication with each. You can begin by setting your own privacy criteria on all of your social media marketing accounts via privacy or account settings. This allows you to control what your networks see about you and what is between you and your friends on your network. You can continue by being mindful of these settings and communicate privately with friends when appropriate such as via your Myspace email instead of publically such as on your Facebook wall. And, lastly, be contentious about photos you are tagged in, the groups you choose to be a member of, and the friends you choose to accept. When in doubt do without!
Word of mouth social media marketing is a useful tool to connect us with close friends, connect us with distant acquaintances, and connect us with successful business endeavors. Below are two quotes from my network about how social media marketing has helped them in their branding endeavors.
“As a freelance media professional constantly looking for that next gig, I have found Facebook to be an invaluable networking tool. It’s fun, it’s informative and by simply updating my personal headline, I can reach out to all of my professional connections in one fell swoop. Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have made traditional email not only archaic, but flat-out defunct.” — Laney McVicker, Nine Lives Productions
“Our Facebook profile has helped us reach and interact with a much broader audience than we have in the past. We are creating dialogs about news articles on Downtown, posting pictures of events and special places, inviting people to events and letting people share their Downtown Denver experiences with us and each other.” — Sarah Neumann, Downtown Denver Partnership
For more tips on Social Media Marketing go to these websites: