Social media or social networks means the gathering of people within a community (whether that's an actual online community or simply a section on a Web site dedicated to giving consumers a voice to actively participate in the creation of new and/or the management of existing content). Users have the ability to post their own photos or videos, rate and review products, create tags for content, write or respond to blogs, or change existing content (like wikis), and more.
Social media has allowed consumers to take charge of their Web experiences and marketing automation programs can take advantage of this new tool to increase sales and build a relationship with consumers.
Here a couple of ideas on how to integrate social media into your email marketing or marketing automation efforts...
- Reviews -- The key with reviews is participation -- the more coverage your products have, the more effective the reviews will be.
- Ratings -- Ratings include stars, thumbs up and down, "paws," and a myriad of other forms. Consumers register their level of approval, and the product's rating becomes based on some form of average of responses. This type of consumer feedback is incredibly useful for optimization because it is easily rankable. Have on-site search? Why not rank results by popularity? This is a fabulous way of providing relevance through ranking.
- Digg -- Social sites provide a clearinghouse for user responses. The most well- known, Digg, allows sites to put up an icon on articles that lets the reader "Digg" the content.
