Social Media Marketing Part 1: The Landscape

Are you on top of the Social Media (aka Web 2.0) trends that are sweeping North American consumers and businesses?  Do the names Facebook, LikedIn, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube or ZoomInfo mean anything to you?  Have you seen or written a product review on a website like Amazon or given member feedback on Ebay?
Social Media platforms can be great, potentially low cost ways to market to American's.  We'll explore many aspects of this in this multi-part blog from a look at the social marketing landscape to the particulars behind many of the top platforms and how your business can capitalize on them as you roll out your sales and marketing is the USA.

Smart Internet marketers in North America are embracing social media platforms at incredible rates.  Several of Ameristart's clients are either evaluating or implementing strategies to capitalize on the relatively new platform.
SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
The definition of Social Media or Web 2.0 as many call it is fairly simple:  Social media is a combination of technology (the same old Internet platforms we have used for years) combined with some type of social interaction(s) including collaboration, networking and feedback.
HISTORY
Social Media is actually not an entirely new platform in many experts (and your humble narrators) opinion  The idea started many, many years ago.  Has anyone ever heard of GeoCities (no owned and changed by Yahoo)?  Originally, GeoCities was a platform for people to create what were then called "Personal Home Pages" or "PHPs."  Anyone could build a PHP.  They could express their opinions, ideas, dreams, frustrations and more.  The original concept was fairly one sided, meaning that I could build this PHP and then tell all my friends about it, but lets face it after the initial hype, who really cared about PHPs.  You read it and its over.  Why come back?
But that beginning got us going down a path.  While dormant for a while during the "Internet Search" period as I call it, when Google catapulted itself into the main stream and became the juggernaut not only in the US but in many countries spanning the planet, Social Media waited patiently to spring back into the spotlight.
Then something started to happen.  Not only did we start blogging (I believe I am doing that right now), but we began allowing feedback to the blogs.  Then, our PHPs started connecting us together, in a community. 
We American's first started noticing this idea of personal connectivity when MySpace caught our attention.  MySpace essentially capitalized on the simplicity of the PHP and made it powerful by creating the interconnections between friends.  Now we could view each other's profiles, share ideas, pictures and more.  to this day, MySpace reigns as the number one social networking site over its rival (and what I feel is the better platform) Facebook based on unique American visits to the site.  On the flip side, Facebook is number 1 in the global marketplace.
Before we knew it, we were caught up in the YouTube, the Video sensation.  I think more American's were blown away when they heard that YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion USD after only 20 months in business than they were by how fast the adoption rate and video uploads were happening.  Wow, what a sensation.
By the second half of 2008, hundreds of millions of Americans, nearly all Fortune 500 businesses and tens of thousands of other businesses have begun to embrace the new platform. 
Like many American's, I now have a MySpace, LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profile.  Depending on what I'm trying to accomplish, I use different ones for different things. Admittedly, I don't do much with my Twitter, Youtube and Myspace accounts, but hey, I'm there aren't I?
BOTTOM LINE
The Social Marketing landscape is relatively new, yet it is vast in its potential for your business to tap into.  Join me in future blogs about this subject and we'll talk some more about the strategies you can consider when tackling this new medium.