Positive Real Estate Professionals

This is part three in the Marketing Your Business Online series of posts. In this installment we will look at the sometimes controversial world of social media marketing (SMM). Social Media is the medium through which social media marketing is conducted. Do these terms seem foreign to you? I would venture to guess that most people who are reading this post are actually participating in some social media already.

Some of the most commonly used and generally most social of the social medias are , , and .These are used for both personal and business. Some people maintain separate accounts on these social media networks to keep the two separated. Be warned, if you do take on the task of maintaining separate accounts on these social media networks you are in for a lot more work. Facebook offers a great way to resolve the dilemma of separating your business life from your personal life through their FREE business pages.

Using Twitter and Facebook Business Pages as Marketing Tools

is more specifically a professional network. It is a great place to network with other professionals in your industry and other industries. On this type of network there is generally less game playing, idle chatter, and other social diversions that seem to populate MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

Are you treating LinkedIn like a red headed stepchild?

Another type of social media is characterized by less extensive profiles than those mentioned above. , , and among many others are social media networks that are are centered around the sharing of web pages with their friends who have common interests. These webpages also get indexed in a system whereby the general community has the opportunity to view them. A distinct feature of these social media networks is that members can help to promote or bury particular web pages. This allows for things like Digg’s front page where the most popular articles appear. Stumble Upon and Reddit both have something similar to Digg’s front page. These ‘front page’ type setups are important because they can bring thousands of visitors to a particular article. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t actually have to make it to the ‘front page’ to attract thousands of visitors to a post using these social media tools. Another important aspect of these types of social medias is the ability to integrate a system specific toolbar with your browser. This type of toolbar allows for quick and easy participation in these social medias.

Social Media – Do You Digg?

And finally there are the social media bookmarking sites like , , , , , and . These social medias generally allow for varying levels of personal profiles. They are useful is because they allow you to bookmark sites you like in either a public or private forum. These bookmarks can then be shared with your friends in an effort to drive traffic.

Social Bookmarking – Today’s Rolodex

All four of these are types of social media. They are all characterized by some level of social interaction, personal profile, circles of friends, and the ability to be able to share what you feel is important on the internet. With that said most users of these networks use them to discover interesting posts on the internet while building friends. It must always be remembered that these are social networks first and foremost.

These social networks are the wellspring of social media marketing. Social media marketing is exactly what you would guess; the use of various social media to market something. This is also where the controversy comes into play. Many users of social media, especially the ‘purists’ feel that social media is being destroyed or loosing its true social value because of this type of marketing. Some people view any type of social media marketing as spam and those who engage in it as spammers. Let me say that the term spam is liberally applied (and mis-applied) to a wide range of individuals. In fact labeling someone as a spammer, or some site as a spam site can be like the kiss of death. Most of the social networks have systems in place to try to identify obvious spammers and remove/ban them from the network.

So what is the difference between social media marketing and spamming? The answer to this is quite subjective and depends on your particular perspective. From my point of view a spammer is someone who bombards you with unwanted advertisements for products. In the past I have received catalog pages and offers for Acai berry products and almost every other product imaginable. Generally these shared web pages or obvious advertising blog posts are quite blatant in their attempt to get you to buy whatever they happen to be selling. They usually offer little in the way of new or innovative information on whatever they are pushing. These are all red flags to me that indicate spam.

On the other hand social media marketing done in a professional manner often presents information in a non-sales pitch way. If you are pitching something you will eventually be classified as a spammer and may be banned from a particular social network. Non-spammy marketing posts often provide a wealth of information. The purpose of these informative posts is generally to raise the interest of readers and get visitors to a particular website. Once at a particular website then the building of a relationship can occur, if it hasn’t already. Remember people are much more likely to become a client or referral source if they feel they know you. In reality we all have our own definition of what constitutes spam; and spam is not social media marketing.

Below are some excellent articles from PREP’s archives that discuss various aspects of social media and social media marketing.

Do you need to use Social Media outlets?

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

Embracing Technology

Is Your Web Presence Staged Forward?

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.