Using social media for marketing is good, but having a marketing tool with a strong viral nature like Twitter is awesome indeed. Since micro-blogging has reinvented the way marketing strategies are now implemented in businesses big and small, many have turned to Twitter for marketing solutions. It is more of a tool of [...]]]>

Using social media for marketing is good, but having a marketing tool with a strong viral nature like Twitter is awesome indeed. Since micro-blogging has reinvented the way marketing strategies are now implemented in businesses big and small, many have turned to Twitter for marketing solutions. It is more of a tool of engagement rather than a mass media tool. Its viral nature is evident in its ‘re-broadcast’ feature, more popularly known as ‘re-tweeting’. You can re-broadcast information from others to your followers simply at the click of the mouse. This will allow you to gain more exposure to your target market.

The cost of Pay Per Click or PPC advertising has increased over the last couple of years, while Twitter offers a wider and inexpensive platform to reach out to a larger audience. As far as viral marketing goes, there are a number of tools to help you get started on your marketing quest with Twitter. For starters, you need to open a Twitter account and create a following. The idea is to gather friends and get them to influence others too. You need to send your message or ‘tweet’ within 140 characters so you do it within that limit. If you don’t post something of value to other tweeters, chances are you won’t gather a following at all. A good suggestion would be to find tweets from other tweeters and retweet them. You can send your own message with Please Rtweet for other followers to follow suit.

Followers won’t retweet just for the sake of it. They would want you to reciprocate in the same way, or else they won’t retweet for you. That is the whole purpose of viral marketing anyway. Your tweets need to contain unique and interesting content so you ought to find what people like before you start tweeting. One of the secrets of viral marketing is interaction. When you interact with your followers, you build up a relationship with them. Get involved in conversations and make sure you address any customer complaints. Once you do this, you will notice your retweets growing rapidly.

Using tools such as Twubble, Tweetdeck, Who Should I Follow? and TwitterLocal will help you get started. Twubble is a tool that helps you to develop your Twitter friends. The tool locates followers that are common to your friends but whom you are not following. With TwitterLocal, you can locate people based on various geographical locations and follow their posts. Who Should I Follow? is a great tool to use as a novice. It recommends whom you should follow. Tweetdeck keeps you updated on what’s happening, and you can follow people you need to listen too. It helps you connect with your contacts on other social media sites including Facebook as well.

Once you are well entrenched, you may be ready for some ‘marketing mix’. Some Twitter users have thousands of followers who obviously have a greater exposure in the market. You can join in their network to expand your mailing list too. The other option is to sign up with viral marketing websites that are designed for increasing your Twitter followers.

The term Social Media Optimization was coined by Rohit Bhargava. It denotes various means of generating public opinion through use of social media like online communities, websites and various other medium of communication over internet. This process is similar to Search Engine Optimization. SMO is similar to viral marketing in technique and results.

SMO is useful to drive people to a website and can make or mar an idea. Popularity over internet is very crucial for any venture on internet and SMO just like SEO helps gain top positions. As indicated by Rohit, there are six primary rules to generate SMO buzz. They are:

• Increase your link ability
• Make tagging and bookmaking easy
• Reward inbound links
• Help your content travel
• Encourage the mash up
• Get communities connected

Small businesses also need SMO as it helps in managing knowledge. Various applications of social Media Optimization are

• New product and service development,
• Recruiting of new  bright employees,
• Existing employee engagement,
• Brand building over internet,
• Customer Relation and Management ,
• Sales and business development

In each of these areas Social Media Optimization plays an important role. Websites like Facebook, Wiki, Digg fit this bill. They all prove immensely helpful in increasing social awareness about various websites, people and business ideas. One can find professionals who specialize in this area and can turn any website in a winner suing various techniques. Social Media Optimization works on Pull Marketing Principles. There can be no Push Marketing Strategies. Social Media works when owners and users both participate in it. It can’t be one way street. Business owners need to know the target population very well. All social media can not be deployed on all populations. Each segment favors a particular media.

Social Media Optimization favors originality and will find out fake ideas and people very fast. It is not a good idea to employ SMO if the baseline idea is not solid. Social Media Optimization is a new marketing idea. It can be termed part of Marketing 2.0.