Integrating Social Media into Your Overall Marketing Effort

Social media is only part of your online marketing. Online marketing is only
part of your overall marketing. Don’t mistake the part for the whole.

Consider each foray into social marketing as a strategic choice to supplement
your other online marketing activities, which may include creating or
managing a marketing-effective Web site, content updates, search engine
optimization (SEO), inbound link campaigns, online press releases, event
calendar postings, e-mail newsletters, testimonials and reviews, affiliate or
loyalty programs, online events or promotions, not to mention pay-per-click
ads, banners, or sponsorships.

Social media is neither necessary nor sufficient for all your online marketing.
Use social media strategically to

✦ Meet an otherwise unmet marketing need
✦ Increase access to your target market
✦ Open the door to a new niche market
✦ Move prospects through the conversion funnel
✦ Improve the experience for existing customers

For example, Emerson Salon (http://emersonsalon.com; see Figure 1-9)
developed a social media presence to attract a younger clientele already
actively involved in social networking. For more information on overall
online marketing, You must have a hub site to which Web traffic will be directed, as shown in
Figure 1-10. It can be a full-bore Web site or a blog, as long as the site has
its own domain name. It doesn’t matter where the site is hosted — only
that you own its name, which appears as yourcompany.com, or blog.

yourcompany.com. Though you can link to yourcompany.wordpress.
com, you cannot effectively optimize or search for it. Besides, it doesn’t look
professional.

Consider sketching for your own campaign a block diagram that shows the
relationship between components, the flow of content between outlets, and
perhaps even the criterion for success and how it will be measured.