Viral Marketing – Powerful Results with Little Effort

Competition is so intense today especially on the web. With this level of competition, business owners are trying so hard to stay ahead of the game. But there is one powerful marketing strategy that you can tap in order to create powerful results even with so little effort from your part. This is the concept of viral marketing.

Within the confines of the internet world, viral marketing is one of the biggest concepts that are gaining momentum right now. Like a storm gaining strength, this type of marketing is so effectively ideal for small players who try to gain more sales and more clients but do not have the deep pockets to invest in pay per click or other paid forms of advertising.

The main goal of viral marketing is creating buzz, building this desire among people with common interests. The key here is creating a certain attachment to a particular product or service you are promoting. Thus, you need to let your message come across clearly so that your target understands it perfectly.

When we talk about viral marketing, we instantly think of social media marketing or Facebook. Yes, viral marketing is much practiced in social media sites where we share a website or a post we liked. But this does mean that other forms of promotions cannot take advantage of the concept of viral marketing. Even the old-fashioned article marketers can actually make good use of this powerful form of marketing. How?

Article marketing requires you to submit articles to directories. In return, you are allowed to create your own resource box or signature wherein you can supply your link back to your own site. The great thing here is that these directories let other people republish the unaltered article in their sites and blogs. As time passes along, your articles become viral and you gain more and more traffic because the article you may have written was already published in quite a number of places already. This also allows you to gain more inbound links to help your search engine rankings.

Another way you can take advantage of viral marketing is through twitter. When you tweet your message and this message is something that really sparks the interest of followers, people will start re-tweeting. This is a powerful way to convey a message to your target audience and leverage on their effort to help you spread the word. This is especially effective with events and short-term promotions.

With so little effort from your part, viral marketing can help deliver your message to many people. This is the real power of being viral. You engage people who have common interests and you allow them to willingly share this to their circle when they like what they found. Thus, you reach genuine prospects without spending a fortune in your marketing campaigns. This is word-of-mouth marketing in steroids. If you are not still taking advantage of viral marketing in your business today, what are you waiting for?

If You're Selling Online, You’ll Want to Become a Member of the Hot New Startup Pinterest

With its traffic in the U.S. skyrocketing Pinterest, the new online scrapbook site, is now one of the top 10 social networking and forum sites. According to comScore, the website had over 11 million unique visitors in December, 2011. Time magazine included Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" column. On Pinterest, users create online scrapbooks consisting of images and videos to share projects and coveted products. The images placed on a user's page or board, produce an inspiration or collection of ideas. Pinterest is very popular with women, especially those in their twenties and thirties.

This new site is an elegant easy-to-use way to power social shopping. Businesses are using this new social photo website to promote their products and services, build a community, bring web traffic and drive sales. For now membership to the site is available to only by invitation. Businesses can request an invitation at Printerest.com.

Pinterest Traffic is Strong

According to statistics provide by Shareaholic, a social sharing tools firm, Pinterest is driving almost as much referral traffic as Google and Twitter. In fact, Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+, or Reddit at this time. It's one of the most popular social media portals for consumers to visit before they go to a retailer's website.

Hitwise, a tracking firm, stated Pinterest is one of the Web's top 10 social networks. People who visited the site in January, 2012 spent close to 100 minutes at the site, compared to 19 minutes on the professional social networking site LinkedIn.

It's Easy and Fun to Create Boards

At Pinterest, companies have the opportunity to grab a visitor's attention with images instead of words. The website and apps allow businesses to create image boards showcasing products and/or services. Businesses can upload an image or link to a board, pin links to videos they have at YouTube as well as add images related to the products or services they provide. Many companies are creating unique and interesting photo galleries just for use on Pinterest.

The most important thing on Pinterest is the pin. A pin is simply an image. Once an image is pinned it can be repined by other Pinterest users. Repining is how content spreads virally on this new social platform. Users can even follow other user's boards and repin, comment or place a "like" on a pin. Companies can add a "Pin It" button to their product pages to lets users know they can pin items they find in their online store onto their own Pinterest board.

Businesses shouldn't just place images of items they sell; the interaction on this hot new site about sharing the lifestyle associated with the brand. Pinterest wants businesses to engage in their community. Using pins from other sites on your own company's boards show followers that you are not just using Pinterest to promote your own merchandise and/or service; you are promoting a lifestyle which builds trust and gains more followers.

Companies can also use Pinterest's price display feature. When a Pinterest user pin an item on a board for their followers to see, the image of that item automatically includes the item's title and a banner showing the price.

Pinterest is Driving Targeted Traffic That Is Buying Merchandise

Traffic to a company's website coming form Pinterest has been highly targeted from the onset and is more likely to produce a purchase. Many businesses have found the traffic more targeted than Facebook or Twitter. Typically traffic from a person's Facebook and Twitter pages consist of people who are interested in that particular person, what she did last night what she had for dinner and whether or not she is in a relationship but traffic from that same person's Favorite Dress board at Pinterest consists of people who are interested in dresses. For example, a user finds a fabulous dress on a retailer's board, using the "Pin It" bookmark in her web browser, provided by Pinterest, she pins the dress to her Favorite Dress board. This visual pin also serves as a direct link to the product page where other consumers can purchase the same dress from the originator's online store.

Google Analytics Tie-in

Google Analytics keep tracks of all pins on an individual basis. The information lets businesses keep track of popular items being shared by users and conversions which may result from the pin. Business can see every pin which has been pinned from their domain. This information helps a marketing team to identify sales and viewing trends on the most pinned items.

Some Ways You Can Use Pinterest

You may want to consider creating a contest on Pinterest where customers create boards and pin their favorite merchandise from your online store. The additional sales and brand awareness that is generated can easily outweigh the cost of providing a prize to the winner of the contest.

Companies are also using their Facebook pages to advertise their Pinterest boards. You can also encourage your Facebook and Twitter followers to pin your products on their Facebook and Twitter page. Innovative companies are also sending emails inviting people to see what they're doing at Pinterest or have recently pinned.

Pinterest provides a new way for companies to build a valuable connection between their ecommerce platforms and consumers that are collecting and sharing content. It's a great tool for small, medium and large businesses.

Social Media Marketing in 2012

Social media marketing is such a broad term that many people who are looking to boost the image of their company ask "What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing defined as the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites such as facebook, Twitter, youtube, etc.

Doing business today is very different & challenging from the days of old, What worked earlier that doesn't necessarily ensure success today, nor can you get by just with extensive knowledge in one particular arena. Today is about keeping your eyes and ears open and bringing value to others in new ways.

Today is about re-inventing and expanding and building relationships across a wide open sea of Social Media. It requires a passion for learning new technologies, a willingness to immerse yourself in uncharted waters and a genuine capacity for generosity.

People are engaging in conversations. Conversation is the new marketing. Tapping into these conversations shows where your audience is spending time online, and what subjects and issues are of interest to them. To reach your consumers successfully, you need to move your marketing activity from the traditional "push" method, where you broadcast your messages to thousands via the media, to a "pull" strategy, where you make it easy for people to find your information, whenever and wherever they want it.

"If searching for the news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing the news may be among the most important developments of the next."

Therefore it is very important to have a presence on social networking sites. Social networks not only give the marketer a place to express themselves but it also provides with a unique platform to interact with their customers and help them serve better. And ultimately fulfilling the sole cause of the business i.e. Customer Satisfaction.
This can also be a great starting point for the marketing to go viral and pick up a grassroots effort.
Marketing of social media through various social media platform

Twitter
Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on followers home page. Messages can link to the product's website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.

Facebook
Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.

As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads continue to an uptick in spend across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually.

These platforms are not only used for marketing social media but also help in social media monitoring.

for more information visit our website-: http://www.socialmedia18.com

About the Author

Social Media 18 is a Social Media & Search Marketing agency, we are group of young, talented & passionate people and we love "Socializing", we help brands in developing better strategy for Social Media & Search Marketing.

We strongly believe that from earlier days of one way communication, now it's time to understand that relationships are more powerful than marketing. If marketers look at Social Media as another channel for advertisement, it won't help. Social Media is not about one more bill board it's about conversation & engagement with your consumers.

-: http://www.socialmedia18.com

What Do ALL Internet Marketing Success Stories Have In Common?

Some people are destined for success as an entrepreneur. They’re born leaders and they have the drive and ambition to succeed. Some people dream of wealth and success but don’t have the initiative to make it happen. Do you fall under one of these categories? Which one?

Success in an area such as internet marketing is possible for anyone. There’s enough room and growth opportunities for everyone with the ever-expanding online land of plenty But most people don’t just stumble into instant success. They work for it. Unless you have a rich relative who’s bequeathing you a vast fortune, you’ll have to work hard to be successful. (And even if you have that rich Uncle, you’ll have to work hard not to just squander it all away on bad decisions and as a result of laziness!)

Hard work doesn’t have to be painful. You can put your entrepreneurial dreams to good use and get successful without a treacherous and long hard road of failures and lessons.

How? Find a mentor and learn from them.

Benefits of Getting Coached:

-Your coach will give you a success roadmap. This will help you avoid the pitfalls and help you find the detours that can make the journey a little bit shorter and as enlightening as possible!

-Your coach will help you with step by step instructions. No guesswork involved. You’ll still work but you’ll work with purpose.

-If you make mistakes or need help, a coach can assist with this. No need to wallow in your misery if you’re frustrated or confused. A coach or mentor means you’re not alone.

How do you find an entrepreneurism / internet marketing mentor? There are opportunities for coaching and mentoring programs for entrepreneurs who want to develop online businesses. You can learn from experts what to do and what not to do. Yes, you’ll have to work hard but if you’re a true entrepreneur, you’ll enjoy the learning process because it’s all part of the process of building your own empire. Check out the sidebar for information on how to get started with the 4 FREE ebooks.