The abbreviation of the English expression "social media marketing" – SMM – in Russian means sales in a socially oriented Internet environment. In fact , SMM promotion is a tool for direct attraction of users to an optimized resource without the use of search engines (as in SEO).
A Brief History of SMM
The history of SMM promotion is so short that even search engine optimization turned out to be much older than it. This branch, aimed at social networks, appeared at one time as a kind of SEO optimization. And promotion turned into an effective SMM tool only after the emergence of large social networks (Facebook, VKontakte, etc.). After the Internet became available to ordinary citizens around the world, at the very end of the last century, the first social networks appeared. The boom in their development occurred in the first decade of the 21st century, and then SMM optimization became relevant.
The purpose of SMM optimization
It remains the same as traditional SEO promotion, but if the latter is tailored to work with a search engine, then SMM promotion is focused on people, so it should take into account their mood, psychology, interests, habits. The features of the social network in which you need to advance are very important, because they have a different audience and rules of conduct.
SMM promotion platforms
In Runet, SMM specialists work on the following services:
- social networks (Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, My World, Facebook, Google+);
- professional social networks (Professionals.ru, Moi Krug, Linked In, Viadeo, etc.);
- blogosphere (LJ, Twitter, Ya.ru);
- photo and video blogs (You Tube, Instagram, Yandex.Video, Pinterest).
Video about SMM promotion
Distinctive features of SMM promotion
In SMM, the main emphasis is on the creation of materials that will be distributed on the social network by the people themselves without the participation of the organizer. It has been noted that messages distributed through social networks are in great demand among potential consumers. This is explained by the recommendatory distribution scheme due to social ties between contactees, which form the basis of interaction.
An SMM agency engaged in promotion in social networks seeks to influence the target audience pointwise, choosing those sites where this audience is most represented. She is looking for the best ways to communicate with the audience, trying not to affect people who are not interested in such advertising.
SMM is used not only to promote services and products. The same technology is actively used by the media, which create their own accounts on social networks, posting their materials there and thus collecting new subscribers among readers who have become acquainted with them.
- When promoting services in social networks, it is possible to demonstrate the work in front of a permanent and large audience.
- In social networks, you can reach the target audience with greater accuracy than using search engines, since in the first case more guiding parameters are used.
- Brand promotion in social networks is faster than in search engines, as users get information faster.
- In social networks, the SMM promotion strategy allows you to track opinions and reviews about the product and company and maintain feedback with customers, i.e. successfully manage your social media reputation.
- The company’s activity in the social network, regular updates of texts in the communities fuel interest in it.
- Thanks to the close relationship of users who are friends in social networks, their own information reaches them faster and constantly, as well as in the opposite direction. SMM promotion in social networks resembles the principle of viral marketing, only here useful and entertainingly designed information is distributed by the users themselves.
- Thanks to effective promotion in social networks, the company’s rating is also growing in search results. Often, communities on social networks are determined by search engines earlier than the company’s own website.
In the shortest possible time, you can attract thousands of visitors to your site due to the viral effect in the transfer of information. After posting interesting material, he can attract a dozen users who will share it with their friends, and those with theirs, and so on. In a short time, it will turn out that several thousand people have familiarized themselves with the material. On a non-promoted site, such a result is very difficult to achieve using SEO, and the use of contextual advertising will cost many times more.
SMM strategy
The term "SMM strategy" refers to a plan to achieve the company’s goals using communication tools in social networks. That is, a strategy means a plan to enter the social media market by introducing and applying certain tools and methods of promotion within the scheduled time frame.
This strategy includes:
The SMM strategy plan ends with integration. To get a viral effect, the material needs to be optimized and skillfully promoted.