May

A Quick Primer On Social Media Networking Versus Social Media Marketing

By Sid

You tweet. You’ve got friends on Facebook. You’ve got a blog and post to it every so often. And you’ve even got a YouTube account where you routinely post your PowerPoint presentations. You’re marketing with Social Media tools…. aren’t you?

Look for my prediction about Twitter at the end of this article…

Not necessarily. More than likely, you’re caught in the act of doing social media networking, and not social media marketing. There’s a distinct difference (for now), and if you think about it, you’ll see the point.

Marketing is about getting leads for your business (today). It serves no other master than lead generation. And while sales and marketing are deeply intertwined (much to the chagrin of both departments), they are still separate beasts. Marketing generates the leads, and sales convert those leads into paying customers.

The distinction between marketing and sales blurs somewhat with online marketing. You’ll have your lead generation systems — advertising, content syndication, joint ventures, etc. These systems drive leads to your online sales team — your landing page, ethical bribes, autoresponder emails, newsletters, etc.

The key difference between traditional marketing/sales boundaries and what happens online is that your sales efforts should also be part of your lead generation system… and this is especially true when it comes to using social media.

Social Media Marketing Versus Networking

You’re beginning to see the distinction, right? Social media marketing is exactly what it says it is – marketing using social media tools and systems. When you think about marketing in terms of lead generation, you can see that certain social media tools were designed as networking tools, and not marketing tools (although this is changing… see below).

It’s the difference between running an advertisement (marketing) and attending a conference with your peers, or even at the local Chamber of Commerce. The goal of the ad is clear – generate leads and make sales. The goal of the networking event is to broaden your base, engage in meaningful conversations with others, and hope that these conversations lead to referrals.

Whenever you engage in any kind of social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or content syndication – take a few minutes to decide if you’re networking or marketing. More than likely what you’re doing is networking; that is, building a referral base. Think about how you can turn this into a marketing effort as well.

While many of the social media tools are intended for networking, social media content syndication is pure marketing. You connect with the interest or desire of your target market, draw them in with valuable content, and lead them to your landing page where you can capture them as a qualified lead.

[Social media content syndication is simply the distribution (syndication) of your valuable content through social media syndication sites, such as Digg, Delicious, and Social Median. This differs from article marketing, in which you distribute your content to article directories like EzineArticles and PitchEngine.]

There IS a time and place for social media networking, even if you’re a good-sized company. Just know the difference between marketing and networking, and use the tools appropriately. When you network, you create relationships that help build your referral base. It gives you a chance to nurture your customer relationships and create new referral partners. When you’re marketing, your aim is to create a qualified lead who eventually becomes a paying customer.

And this leads me to my Twitter prediction…

As I watch the leading Twitter users, I’m seeing them break into two camps:

Business owners or marketers who want to use the system to create leads…
And others who just want to stay in touch.

The marketers and business owners are desperately trying to figure out how to use this system to make sales. Some are blatant about it and are either ignored or “Unfollowed.” Others are using Twitter as a form of social media marketing. That is, most of their Tweets are announcements about a new article on their blog.

If the article is of interest to a follower, he or she will click on the link, read the article, and perhaps download the accompanying special report or sign up for the newsletter. In doing so, they have become a lead for the business. This is an example of marketing. If they then re-tweet the original tweet to their followers the original tweet can become viral. This is an example of social media networking.

I believe that we will continually see more overlap between marketing and networking, especially with things like Twitter that were created solely for networking (creating conversations).

The key to this evolution will be a redefinition of “marketing” to mean “relationship generation” instead of “lead generation.” We’re already seeing this happening, and it is working like gangbusters in the Internet Marketing world. When you focus on creating relationships by providing value to your target market AND their friends and colleagues, you build trust.

And when you build trust, you simultaneously create referrals and leads. Conversations lead to interest, amplify an already existing desire for a solution to a problem, and lead people to trust that you can help. When you DO help, they tell others.

You will see Twitter and Facebook become more about value-creation and less about status updates. Purists will hate it, but savvy marketers will reap the rewards.

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