Is Social Media Marketing A Boon Or The Worst Thing That Could Ever Happen?

As always, Wikipedia is a great disappointment when attempting to explain social media marketing in simple terms. It states, Social media (i.e. blogs, YouTube, etc.)

It is no surprise then that many online marketers are seeking an edge with their social media marketing strategy. Social media websites are growing exponentially each year. The most popular website by far is YouTube, with over one billion users and counting. Every second, a new video is being uploaded to YouTube. This is great news for online marketers who want to leverage this media outlet to their advantage.

In recent social media articles, we saw how Instagram’s engagement strategy could help your business. With almost one billion users, it is easy to see how that could translate into massive exposure. By engaging followers on Instagram, you are telling them that you care about their opinion. And what better way to tell people than by posting a video on your website showcasing your engagement strategy?

Now for the most important part…how can you use Instagram to brand your business? You can post a promotional picture or video of your product/service/website/brand to your account. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can also promote upcoming events, sales, promotions, contests, etc. You can connect your Instagram accounts with your twitter account to create a brand.

If you are looking for an easier way to leverage Instagram for your business account, try creating an app. There are several examples of app creation currently available. For example, Foursquare has created an app that allows users to share pictures and videos from their social network accounts. If you have an existing mobile app, you can easily integrate your Instagram photos and videos into your app to reach an even larger audience.

As an addition to these apps, we found another great way to connect your Instagram stories to your website. With the Instagram API you can connect your blog accounts, Facebook accounts, and even your Twitter accounts to your Instagram pages. By adding the right code to any of your accounts you can automatically post a picture from your Instagram gallery to your account. And the best part is – not only does this work across all social media platforms, it also works with your Google profiles!

So how do you use these apps to drive traffic to your website? The best way is to create an app niche that fits with one of the two major platforms (Instagram or Twitter). These two platforms provide an immediate audience that is highly targeted. If you created an app strictly for Instagram and had a nice gallery showcasing your work, you’d be sure to get a ton of downloads.

Now you can take that same picture and turn it into an Instagram photo booth so your followers can share the image with their friends. The ultimate goal is to use social media as yet another way to build brand awareness. As your audience grows and you gain more followers, you can even share more promotional material with them. It really is a never ending process of brand recognition.