Where Social Media Fits
There are varying opinions on where social media fits into an overall Internet strategy. For me, it should be a part of the bigger picture of what your full online strategy is all about.
When I’m working with someone on their Internet presence, one of the places I start is looking at how the following three categories are going to be filled:
- The technology that will be used
- The design that will be used
- The marketing that will be used
This list isn’t comprehensive and it doesn’t include audience analysis, goals, etc. But the bottom line is that once there is a heading, these three items have to be addressed.
Within Internet marketing, I group it into pretty much three disciplines:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay-per-Click (PPC)
- Social Media
Each of those need their own strategy – and there are other factors also not included (like offline marketing!).
Then when you look at social media, there are 5 ways to look at how you’ll publish content:
- text
- audio
- video
- photo
- sharing/bookmarking/voting
For a better understanding of the basics of social media, I recommend you download my free eBook called “Getting Started with Social Media”.
The decisions of what tools you’ll use to be effective online all goes back to the overall strategy. Otherwise you might be spending resources in ineffective places.
