Today, HubSpot featured a very informative webinar covering the relationship between Social Media and Business Marketing. I found that the webinar cleared up many of the questions I had about social media. I would like to share some of what I learned. This is post one of a three part series. This article will cover Part 1: An Introduction to Social Media Marketing.

Why is social media important?
Traditionally, we have practiced many forms of outbound marketing—we attempt to pull people in toward us. We have tried seminars, trade show booths, telemarketing, print ads, direct mail, email blasts, television commercials and radio ads. Sometimes successful, these types of marketing are expensive and are very easy to block out. We have Do-Not-Call lists, our DVRs can skip TV commercials and we even have handy ways to assassinate spam.

Social media is important because people do not need more marketing. Instead, people are now relying on recommendations from trusted friends in their social circle.

What is considered inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing could be search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), blogging, social media, RSS, etc. Customers already know what they want, and they come looking for you. Ideally, when Customer A steps up to the Google search box, your site will rank high enough so that Customer A will find you (instead of your competition).

What is social media?
Social media is any form of media with a social component. This may be the ability to add to it, share it, comment about it, etc. Social media is permission centric and sometimes the ‘conversation’ has already started. All we need to do as marketers is join in at the right time and place.

What if I don’t understand all this social media stuff?
That is okay. The latest generations have had the opportunity to grow up with social media. Many of us have not. Try to think of social media as being similar to a business cocktail reception, except without the time or space constraints. Now, simply follow some business cocktail party advice like:

• Meet people and start conversations
• Answer questions and help others
• Ask questions and trust the advice of others

Become a real member of the community. Figure out how you can add value to the community. The great thing about online social media is that everything is well documented, other people can easily listen in to your conversations and you can be found by search engines.

Tomorrow I will cover Part 2: Three Types of Social Media and What to Publish.

Please comment with your experience in social media marketing here.