Earned advertising hardest

Most business owners interested in social media ultimately want to figure out how to market themselves effectively.

Marketing is the business objective that can be the most elusive online. Marketing through social media seems straightforward but in reality requires a very clear understanding of the unique ways to participate.

There are really three levels of social media marketing to pursue: owned; purchased and earned. Each level increases the opportunities for marketing success but also increases the level of difficulty.

Owned social media marketing represents any social media profiles that you create, such as your Facebook business page or your LinkedIn profile. You have the ability to make these profiles whatever you want.

With Facebook, you can brand the page, create personalized tabs and post whatever content you like. There’s no guarantee anyone will actually view your Facebook business page, but it’s free and you own it.

Similarly, your LinkedIn profile is free and is owned marketing. You create your own professional headline, outline your summary and specialties, highlight your past and current roles, and can even embed a PowerPoint presentation or a YouTube video. Again, there’s no guarantee anyone will visit your profile, but you can make it whatever you want.

Owned social media marketing seems to be the extent to which most businesses participate. Ask those business owners about their success and invariably they say they’ve achieved no results and have almost given up. Their strategy generally involved setting up a profile then sitting back and waiting for the magic to happen.

In reality, owned social media marketing isn’t likely to generate much in the way of results. You get what you pay for; it’s free.

Purchased social media marketing represents online advertising you participate in through social networking sites and requires an investment of cash. Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads both represent some of the most powerful forms of advertising available to business owners.

Through these platforms you can target an advertisement to the exact type of individual with whom you want to do business. You can indicate you want your ad to be seen only by 37-year-old females living in London who are married and interested in volleyball. Your ad will only be seen by individuals who meet these criteria. Assuming you select “pay per click”, you’ll only pay if people actually interact with your advertisement. Pretty powerful stuff.

Earned social media marketing is the most important level and the most difficult to achieve successfully. Facebook has an algorithm called EdgeRank that is designed to identify the most relevant content that should appear in a user’s newsfeed (the heart of the Facebook experience).

To have your company’s content appear in a user’s newsfeed is not something you can pay for nor is it something you can force. The only way to successfully have your messages appear in a user’s newsfeed is to earn their trust and interest in what you have to say. It all comes down to affinity.

Similarly in LinkedIn, although you may post links and blogs and discussions within a LinkedIn group there’s no guarantee anyone will read your content until you’ve demonstrated your credibility, integrity and genuine interest in the community.

Without question, earned social media marketing is the most difficult level to achieve successfully, but offers the highest dividends.

The founder of Social Media Coach, Geoff Evans of London trains and coaches businesses on the use of social media. www.socialmediacoach.ca

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