Social Media Marketing has been a personal interest of mine since 2004. We did not refer to it as social media marketing at that time but there were the same strategies that current processes shadow as well as a series of personal Internet events that are vivid to me:
- Website .WS / Global Domain International business became popular on the Internet. Their presentation was innovative and vibrant. Their video marketing, flash ads, live broadcasts and automation that is still effective to date.
- Microblogging became more popular amoung household users and marketers. With AOL’s Weblogs and Wordpress as part of the scene, people that could not design websites or preferred the social advantages of blogging were becoming more creative with their automation, monetization and search engine optimization.
- Youtube hit the Internet scene with video uploads. Of course, this was not the Youtube video sharing that we know today, but it was a cool concept that launched at that time.
I remember this as if it were yesterday. Just as I remember relaunching this Pittsburgh SEO Lady blog last year and refocusing it for Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing in January 2009. At the beginning of the year, there was very little talk of Social Media Optimization in Pittsburgh search engine results. As watched over the month, it picked up nicely. I have a series of snap shots that you can review to see the Google trends over the 2009 months. As you can see from the search engine snap shots, it was just Pittsburgh SEO Lady and Clicks To my Site holding firm at the beginning of the year. It was not long after – April of 2009 – that Chris Hornak of Eyeflow followed our lead in the Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing scene and the again around September of 2009 to shadow Pittsburgh Organic SEO terms (kudos fellas, one would only expect the best from you). April SEO was holding for the term in the month of April 2009 (ironic though name relative of course) as well. She hit the scene a while back with PPC and YouTube videos. YouTube provides phenomenal social media marketing advantages which I will break down in another blog post. Regardless, there you have the list of local Search Engine Optimization leaders also specializing in “Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing”.
It makes me smile as I watch Pittsburgh SEO and Internet Marketing Companies getting ” jiggy with it” over the past few months. I am sure that we all watch one another and this contributes to inspiring marketing campaigns. My pattern is to step back and then switch the strategies a bit. This is what I did with this blog after I flew through testing YouTube and Twitter SEO markting strategies. It wasn’t until I was launching my 5th Twitter that I was followed by the progressive and SUPER talented SMM, Blackball Online. This guy has been “niching it up” with his blacklist SEO concept since hitting the search engines for social media marketing around July 2009. Looks like he’s having a lot of fun and making tracks fast. This man deserves a gold star for sure!
THE POINT IS THAT PITTSBURGH SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS FUN BUSINESS!!!
Between 2008 and 2009, I stepped back from SEO projects for an entire year in order to develop social media optimization (SMO) strategies. It became another passion of mine (second to organic seo) because SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS FUN. Don’t get me wrong, it is also extremely competitive and with constant innovations. These make SMM it interesting at all times. As an Organic SEO, Internet Marketer, Social Media Marketer, e-Business Strategist, Marketing Assistant, Virtual Assistant … or whatever your title is in your company … loosen up your shirt collar and pay attention to what I am explaining here.
I want to make sure that every single Pittsburgh Businesses knows WHY “Social Media Marketing”, “Social Media Optimization” (which some are now calling “social networking optimization”) AND this long Web 2.0 / Web 3.0 generation overlap has ROCKED THE INTERNET in just about every single industry to date … It is fun, effective and profitable. Although SMM is still always progressing as new technological toys hit the scene. For example, microblogging platform Twitter and the “social status messages” you use on Facebook, Myspace, etc. There are also widgets, social networking games (such as Mafia Wars), virtual worlds, video bookmarking sites, innovative social media platforms such as The Payer Player and even the new Google Wave is going to knock the socks off of social marketers in the name of “fun” and Google innovation.
Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing is not only effective for your business, but also more FUN and PROFITABLE than you can imagine … The sky is always the limit!
I would say that this is especially true from an organic SEO and / or Blogger’s perspective. The sky is the limit with social media marketing in terms of the exposure, quality connections and lead generation. You can “divide and conquer” or go niche by niche. Viral attraction marketing strategies pretty much funnel prospective markets that you would like to serve in your business. Even if we analyze just the one facet – social networking – you have to admit that SMM / SMO is just a phenomenial way to do business on the Internet because … it’s fun & it works.
There are some social media marketing shortfalls to keep in mind as well. I do not want to damper the enthusiasm of this blog post, but you can read up on the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing. Regardless, if you want to increase local exposure for your Pittsburgh Business or compete on a much LARGER scale (nationally / internationally), then you need to understand the overall potential of combining social media marketing (SMM) and organic seo strategies to apply social media optimization (SMO) to your online marketing.
Twitter is always a good start!
Learn why I emphasize Twitter Marketing first:
“Pittsburgh Business Owners, Are You Using Twitter?“.
Want to try your hand at Twitter marketing?
Well, as I previous stated, I like to pop back into this Pittsburgh SEO Lady blog as I see the need to share marketing info and stur up the Pittsburgh SEO rankings. Check back in the 2010 New year … social media marketing concepts will transition to educating on the Web 3.0 / Web 4.0 overlap as well as more aggressive attraction marketing concepts.
