Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Social Media Marketing Jobs: The Face of Your Prosperous Future!

This article explores the new wave of job opportunities made available by social media and networking, from what they entail to where to find them.

 Almost louder than the sound of people frantically tapping away at their computers telling their friends, family and colleagues about their lives on their Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts is the buzz that social media marketing jobs have generated in recent years. The explosion of social media and networking sites on the Internet has taken the world by storm and in a sphere one wouldn’t quite expect, considering these sites are dedicated to the realm of social interaction and communication… business! That’s right! Businesses are generating themselves renewed interest and greater followings by using social media as a powerful marketing and advertising tool. So much so, that if your company doesn’t have a regularly updated account with sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, MySpace (and the 400+ other social media and networking sites out there), you could be falling behind your competitors in the race for your target market’s business! What this is spelling out for the generations of people that are exiting education and looking for employment is perhaps the coolest occupation on Earth: social media marketing jobs.

Social media marketing jobs

Social Media Marketing Jobs: Businesses Need Your Talent

You’re young, you’re fresh out of school or college and you’re looking for a job. Your skills? Does playing around on Facebook count? Actually, yes, it does! More and more businesses, big and small, are cottoning on to the fact that the realm of social media and networking is a fantastic way to spread the word about the products and services they offer. The only problem is this: the people at the helm of these companies simply don’t have the time to spend all day updating their accounts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. This is where your supreme talents come into the picture. Since these sites are the lifeblood of the younger generation (and tell them everything they need to know about their peers), social media marketing jobs are a fantastic opportunity to earn money, whether it be part or full time! Of course there are social media marketing jobs with varying degrees of responsibility and you wouldn’t want to promise a business top rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN without knowing how to achieve this. But there are plenty of social media marketing jobs that simply require you to update statuses, post information and photos and perhaps jot down a few comments… things you do every day on your own accounts.

Where Can I Find Social Media Marketing Jobs?

Social media marketing
Where would you expect someone offering social media marketing jobs to post them… on the Internet of course! A quick search reveals literally thousands of job offers from companies looking for people to manage their social media and networking accounts. This can be done on a freelance or a full time basis as a regular employee of the company. There are also loads of social media marketing agencies out there looking for people with an education and experience in managing these various accounts. So, if you are a whizz with the computer and love the buzz of social media and networking, perhaps social media marketing jobs are the face of your prosperous future.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Social Media Agencies: For Business Success and Prosperity

This article describes the importance of social media marketing agencies to the modern business through increased exposure, better search engine rankings and the generation of more leads.

Social media agencies are a relatively new development in the sphere of marketing and advertising. Their birth lies in the conception and subsequent immense popularity of social media and networking: the array of Internet-based websites designed to facilitate and promote communication, sharing and interaction between people on all the continents of the globe. Most, if not all of us are well acquainted with social media and networking, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, YouTube, LinkedIn or any of the hundreds of others that have and continue to blossom all over the Internet. In fact, social media has changed the way we fundamentally communicate and interact with each other. The conception of these sites began as a social forum and has since expanded into the commercial and business arenas.

Social Media Agencies and Modern Marketing

Social Media AgenciesSocial media agencies offer an indispensable service to the modern business. Just think about the importance of marketing and advertising as a tool for communicating your brand name and image. If you are a business owner and want your name to be synonymous with the products and services you sell (like Levis are to denim jeans and Coca Cola is to soft drinks), then broadcasting your brand identity is fundamental. This is indisputable and has not changed since the birth of commercialism. What has changed is the way we can best promote our businesses and it’s fundamentally changed with the advent of social media and networking sites. Social media agencies essentially specialize in online advertising and marketing using sites such as Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. to make their clients’ businesses more visible to their target audience. In doing so, social media agencies generate increased interest, more leads and higher profits for their clients.

So how do they do this? How can creating a Facebook profile get your business more customers?

  • Visibility ~ Facebook alone has in the region of 550 million regular subscribers. When you consider that there are 500 other social media and networking sites out there in the virtual ether, the potential exposure is truly staggering! If you create and regularly update an account with one of these sites, by gathering a following of ‘friends’ and sending out information, updates, special offers and invitations, etc. you will effectively be able to advertise your business to an incredible market audience.
  • Target-specific marketing ~ Most of the social networking and media sites contain information about their users that is invaluable to marketing such as age, location, gender, likes, dislikes, etc. So, social media agencies are able to target their client’s specific market audience ensuring more leads and less ‘walk-outs’.
  • Free advertising ~ Subscription to the majority of these sites are completely free, rendering online marketing and advertising incredibly cheap and cost-effective!
  • Higher rankings on global and local search engines ~ Regularly updated accounts and the visibility of links to your business website have an important impact upon your rankings on local and global search engines. Social media agencies have the resources to put your business in the top ten listed results yielded by searches! Don’t forget, 75% of people looking for information turn to the Internet for answers and it could be your business that they find.

The Importance of Social Media Agencies

Social MediaIf selling your products and services is free and easy using social media, then why are social media agencies so important to your business’ success? Quite simply, creating, maintaining and updating three accounts alone can prove to be incredibly taxing, especially if you are a business owner with a full schedule already. Social media agencies can regularly update and maintain up to 500 accounts while creating unique content to post on them. The benefits are increased interest, more leads, better rankings on local and global search engines and of course, business success and prosperity!

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Advice from the Social Media Consultant: The Five Steps to LinkedIn Advertising Success, PART 1


"This six-part article series provides a detailed step-by-step guide to creating successful LinkedIn ads. This article, the first installment, provides an introduction to LinkedIn advertising."

Social Media Consultant: An Introduction to Social Media

The incredible number and variety of social media and networking sites has taken the virtual and real world by storm. Staying in touch with friends, family and colleagues used to involve physical meetings, telephone calls, letters and emails. Nowadays, we just have to log in to our social media accounts in order to keep a finger on the pulse of our friend’s lives, experiences and activities! With the vast success of social media as a tool for communication, interaction and information sharing has flourished an entirely new field of marketing and advertising, says this social media consultant. This branch of marketing focuses upon the use of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Digg to promote the online visibility of the modern business, regardless of size and industry. But this six-part articles series will not be looking at these particular social media sites as a means for advertising. No, this social media consultant will be looking at LinkedIn; a vastly successful platform designed to facilitate networking between business professionals from all four corners of the globe!

Social Media Consultant: What is LinkedIn?

Social media consultant

LinkedIn is a networking site with over 100 million users from all over the world. Its focus is on the promotion of interaction between professionals at all business echelons and industries. LinkedIn, as the name suggests, provides direct links between businesses and business professionals, says the social media consultant. In other words, if you have just graduated with a degree in accounting, public relations, communications, commerce, finance or any field relating to these, then establishing a profile for yourself and posting your résumé on LinkedIn will prove to be invaluable for the development of your career. So how is this all relevant to marketing and advertising? Well, say social media consultants, LinkedIn provides fantastic opportunities for the modern business:
  • LinkedIn advertising has proven to be especially successful in generating leads (potential customers and clients),
  • Because LinkedIn is a professional platform, say social media consultants, its users receive business messages far better and actually give them the consideration they deserve,
  • LinkedIn allows web marketers to directly target users with their advertising campaigns; focusing upon demographics such as industry and/or job title.
Using this professional networking platform, businesses and business professionals can further their interests and put their career success on the fast-track. Having said this, understanding how to create effective LinkedIn ads can represent a hurdle for some people, say social media consultants. Which is why this six-part ‘how-to’ article series will provide the five most important tips for creating ads that have impact and that reap positive results!

Ask the Social Media Consultant: About LinkedIn Ads

Social media

LinkedIn ads are presented in two different locations on the site (see screenshot):
  1. As a text-only ad at the top of the site (depending upon your ad’s performance), and
  2. Along the sidebar together with text and a photo.
Payment for a LinkedIn ad is facilitated by Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM). Building a LinkedIn ad simply requires you to submit a 25-character headline, a 75-character-long description and a photo. But building a successful LinkedIn ad requires a more innovative approach, say social media consultants. In fact, there are five recommended steps to follow…

Social Media Consultant: Stay Tuned

To start reading about the five steps towards building a successful LinkedIn ad, stay tuned for the second article installment of this six-part series, courtesy of this social media consultant.