Social Media Marketing - What the Heck Does that Mean?

I'm doing several interviews this week and they all focus in one way or another on online marketing: blogs for business, creating online visibility and social media marketing.

That got me thinking...social media marketing is a relatively new way of talking about marketing online. But what does it mean? I think it could be interpreted many ways.

What is Social Media Marketing?

I could easily spout off what I think it means, but I'm more interested in how you interpret it. What comes to mind for you when you hear the phrase "social media marketing"? How would you define it?

This blog has extensive reach so I'm curious to get your input. Share your comments here, on Twitter, on Facebook. I'll compile the answers and add my thoughts as readers comment.

Go ahead, dive in...what the heck is social media marketing?

Comments

[LouiseBJ]

My interpretation of social media marketing is that it is the utilisation of different online platforms to facilitate a two-way dialogue between business and consumer.

[Autom]

Social Media Marketing: a form of online marketing that leverages off social networking platforms primarily through the enhanced facility and immediacy of interactive information exchange. The remarkably fast, steady and broad penetration of social networking tools in various online cultures, establishments and industries attest to how critical this phenomenon is beginning to influence and shape not only the way people interact with each other, but also how they do business.

[Melissa Riley]

It's contrary to traditional marketing where a message is being pushed out (or upon) a consumer. It's a using social networking sites/blogs/wikis as a means of getting a message out by engaging your potential consumer, including collecting feedback and actually doing something with it. It's engaging, collaborative and participatory and how consumers what to purchase services and products. It capitalizes on the fact that consumers also want to hear from other consumers before making decisions.

[rickey]

I've been defining it as marketing that utilizes social media and social networking. When I talk to clients about social media marketing campaigns, I'm including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp!, Delicious, Digg, client website and any organizations or associations relevant to the client's business.

[Catherine Novak]

To me, it means a shift in how businesses interact and connect with their customers and potential customers. It's not enough to treat the Web as "print in pixels". There are all these means to engage in two-way conversation... to listen as well as to speak. Given that at the beginning of a business relationship the customer should do about 70% of the talking, social media is an essential tool for determining customer needs, and then delivering on them.

[Charles Brown]

Social media marketing is a community in which the market does the marketing. Rather than pushing out a message, social marketing inspires an audience of evangelists to go forth and spread the word, hopefully creating more evangelists. This, of course, is a two-edged sword that can backfire if your "product" is inferior.

[kevin]

social media marketing is like the best traditional "real world" marketing: it's marketing based on relationships and attraction. the best marketers offline are those who are most adept at building relationships and attracting people to them ("pull" marketing as opposed to "push" marketing); the social media landscape is now allowing that to happen online for the first time.

mike filsaime's original buterfly marketing was an example of "old-school" "push" marketing, while the new version, "buterfly marketing 2.0" is an example of "pull" marketing: he's giving away the course (you only pay shipping and handling) to attract new subscribers for his newsletter. this was a very successful approach for frank kern a couple of months ago with his "mass control 2.0" course.

there's a cleverly-disguised link behind my name up there where you can find out more. :)