Alternatives There are ranges of alternative online social media sites that can be used for online marketing. Below I have highlighted a few of these and their main uses. Facebook is the world’s largest Social Networking site with over 1 Billion monthly active Users. (Facebook, 2012) It allows you to publish a range of media and build an expansive network of friends. For businesses it allows targeted marketing with a range of demographic categories and the ability to build Apps for use within and outside of Facebook. There is a belief that Facebook is for building much more personal networks, however there is still a heavy presence of businesses advertising on Facebook. Facebook is extremely suited to B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing. MySpace is a much older networking site, which was originally tailored around the world of music. At the moment however even after a recent re-‐launch it is still seen as dated and thus has much smaller user rates then that of Facebook and Twitter. Linkedin is a networking site designed for professionals to network. It is much more formal then Facebook, allowing you to upload curriculum vitaes, display your employment history, education and interests. It has limited chat features, and is much more designed for representing professionals and allowing them to establish their professionalism online. The majority of marketing on Linkedin is B2B (Business to Business) marketing. YouTube is a video sharing site where users can upload videos, as well as view other users uploads. It has over 800 million unique users visits each month so is drawing immense traffic. (Youtube, 2012) Although there are options for advertising on YouTube, it is extremely hard to engage the audience as the forms include only web banners and videos. Another alternative is to create your own Website. This is an extremely popular option and allows for you to get established online. It is becoming more and more easy to obtain a website with hundreds of companies being able to create a new site for you for minimal cost. There are also many ready-‐made sites you can purchase where you simply fill in the required sections and choose the colours you want. We must not forget more traditional alternatives to Social Media Marketing such as television ads, billboards, sponsorships and print advertising. However in an every increasing digital age these are rapidly becoming dated and cannot compete with the diversity and user engagement offer by digital social media marketing options. It may need to be considered that the best way of marketing via social media would be to utilise all the above with a proportionate investment into each.
CONNOR RYAN 2813712 – RESEARCH PAPER
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