People have socialized together for a very long time. Mostly, we have used telephones and face to face contact to interact with others. Printed media, such as newspapers, as well as radio and television have also been used for information. Now, people are turning towards the internet for business and social purposes through blogs, getting news, and even buying products. Society is becoming increasingly dependent on the computer as our way to interact with other human beings, as well as gathering information and advertising.

Internet users love the freedome of speech, information and expression they get from the internet and specifcally social media. Businesses are recognizing that social media and social media marketing offer unique and exciting opportunities to engage users. Social media sites like Digg allow users to broadcast and syndicate content from blogs or websites throughout the world. One of biggest differences between traditional media and online media is the speed at which information can be posted and made available. Another key difference is that once content is published, it is immediately available for comment and feedback, something that was difficult and time consuming to do with traditional media. Social media makes it easy for interesting articles to be shared and rated, thus effectivly voting on the content. The more interest, the more traffic generated.

With this type of system, the idea is that the best content will then appear at the top of the page. This gives users the some assurance that social media marketers are not manipulating the number of votes an article receives. Unfortunately, because the stakes are high, sometimes manupulation is attemped and successful before it is caught and banned. For example, Digg brings 200,000 unique visitors a day and can be a target for marketers to attemp to game the system. Other sites such as Slashdot can also make an overnight star out of a website or e-business by bringing in a number of unique visitors.

?Word of mouth? advertising has been around forever, and has always been effective. We simply share our opinions on recent buys with our friends in every day conversation, or through written media. Now, ?word of mouth? advertising is amazingly effective, since information travels lightning quick over the internet, and reaches many more people than a simple conversation would. According to Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing, a staggering 51% of blog content has become a force to sell and advertise products.

Now, major newspapers, television stations, and radio hosts keep and update blogs of their own. This is bringing more interest in online news sources to the mainstream, and people are reaching out for new ways to hear news.

Competition in business is able to tell what their rivals are doing simply by reading blogs on the internet. Even our habits of photo distribution are changing. We don’t need expensive equipment, film, and darkroom knowledge anymore. A cheap inexpensive model, even most phones, will produce good quality images for use online, and distribution of these images happens instantly.

Social marketing is a new thing and an important thing for any business that relies on the web to reach people and engage users. With the next generation fo search and syndication technologies, the role of social media marketing is sure to grow. Many companies are developing social media marketing strategies now so they won’t be left behind.

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Tags: a, adsense, Adwords, affiliate marketing, c, e, ecommerce, f, i, Internet Business, internet marketing, internet;business, m, marketing, n, o, P, pay per click, ppc, s, search engine optimisation, SEO, social media marketing

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