There is a number of social media channels/types that a company — be it an online-based, or a brick-and-mortar one — can successfully use in their marketing. I could count the following seventeen:
- Blogging
- Content aggregation
- Crowdsourcing
- Forums
- Livecasting
- Microblogging
- Photosharing
- Podcasting
- Presentation sharing
- Reviews & opinion sites
- Social bookmarking
- Social networking
- Social news
- Video sharing
- Virtual worlds
- Widgets
- Wikis
Today two excellent lists have been tweeted about by a friend and fellow online marketer, Jim Kukral. They are full of examples of how various businesses are using social media in their marketing. Here are the links to them:
In addition to the above two lists, you may also want to review the following ones:
- 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action
- 110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business
Both merchants and affiliates — however savvy or new to the world of social media marketing you may be — have something to learn from the five above-quoted articles, papers and websites. I have certainly found more than a dozen of good ideas to borrow.
Tags: microblogging, social media, social network, social networks
Another excellent post (with plenty of visual examples) on how e-commerce websites can use Social Media has been made by Linda Bustos (also on Twitter: @Roxyyo). Here’s a link to it: Top 10 Web 2.0 Activities for Ecommerce. A must-read!