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Introduction
Social media has transformed the Internet and society as a whole. It has impacted global revolutions, elections, and the way we communicate on a daily basis. Social media also presents unique marketing opportunities that force marketers to revisit the core guiding principles of marketing while providing new ways to reach social influencers, thereby encouraging people to influence each other and do the marketing for the brand. Social media marketing (SMM) forces companies to rethink how they market online, whom they market to, and how to structure their own organizations to support these new marketing opportunities. For anyone involved with social media marketing — and Internet marketing, more broadly — this is indeed an exciting time.
Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 4th Edition, is written to help you make sense of the madness. Because it’s such a hot topic, the press and the experts alike are quick to frighten marketers like you and introduce new terminology that confuses rather than enlightens. This book cuts through all that noise and simply explains what social media marketing is and how you can harness it to achieve your objectives as a marketer. It also aims to help you prioritize what’s important and what isn’t.
About This Book
The social media marketing space changes rapidly, so by the very definition of social media marketing, this book can’t be completely comprehensive. It does, however, aim to distill the core concepts, trends, tips, and recommendations down to bite-sized, easy-to-digest nuggets. As social media marketing touches all parts of marketing and all parts of the Internet, too (from traditional websites to social platforms to the mobile web), based on your own experiences, you’ll find some sections more valuable than others.
As you read this book, keep in mind that the way people influence each other online and impact purchasing and brand affinity decisions is similar to the way they’ve done for thousands of years in the real world. The technology is finally catching up, and social media marketing is fundamentally about allowing and encouraging that behavior to happen in a brand-positive manner online, too.
This book helps you understand why social media matters to marketers and how you can harness it to directly impact your own marketing efforts in meaningful ways. Targeted at both marketers in large organizations and those of you who work in small businesses or run small businesses, it includes advice for every business scenario.
Foolish Assumptions
In writing this book, we imagined someone pulling a copy off a bookshelf in a Barnes and Noble and scanning it to see whether it’s a valuable guide. And we wondered what that person would need to know to find this book interesting. Here are some of the assumptions we came up with about you:
You have a computer and/or mobile device with Internet access.
You’re using social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
You’re working in marketing or want to join the marketing field.
You have customers or prospective customers who use the web frequently.
You sell a product or service that you can market online.
You’re curious about social media and how it changes marketing.
Icons Used in This Book
In the margins of the book, you’ll find these icons helping you out:
Where to Go from Here
This book is designed so that you can quickly jump to a specific chapter or section that most interests you. You don’t have to start with the first chapter — although if you’re new to social media marketing, we recommend that you do so. Understanding the foundation of social media marketing (which we explain in the early chapters) helps you better apply the techniques that you learn in the later ones to the specifics of your business.
You can also find the cheat sheet, complete with additional nuggets of information, for this book by going to www.dummies.com and searching for “Social Media Marketing For Dummies cheat sheet.”
Part 1
Getting Started with Social Media Marketing
IN THIS PART …
Find out how to begin practicing SMM.
Learn how to find your SMM competitors.
Discover what goes into developing a Social Media Marketing mindset.
Chapter 1
Understanding Social Media Marketing
IN THIS CHAPTER