Social Media Marketing

Some of the greatest benefits of social media are non-commercial. These include the opportunity for self-expression, greater access to information, and the ability to connect and converse with people all over the world who share one's interests. The communal, non-hierarchical nature of social media is one of its greatest strengths.

Social media networks also provide tremendous opportunities for Internet marketing and customer engagement, but it's essential that companies entering the social media sphere do so with a well-thought-out strategy and with full awareness of how online communities operate. Social media networks are not inherently created to enable companies to sell things to people, but they are ideal for developing relationships with customers, creating brand awareness, and giving a human face to your business.

For example, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh is an active micro-blogger on Twitter, which has helped his company create a corporate personality that is funny, helpful, and interesting. Zappos also has a page that aggregates all of its employees' Twitter streams. The company has a channel on YouTube as well. Hsieh has said that the key to social media marketing success is to be real and to be passionate about what you're doing. Founded in 1999, Zappos sold over one billion dollars in gross merchandise in 2008 and is the largest online shoe store.