If you are just dabbling in social media, you may still not be sure what exactly it will do for you or where it fits in to your company structure. You’ve probably created a Twitter account, built a simple Facebook page, and maybe even added a company blog to your website. Good. That’s a great start. Now step back for a minute and think about what this is all for.

There are four reasons to use social media for your business. In no particular order, they are:

• Marketing
• PR
• Market research
• Customer service

All four of these are geared to do the same thing — connect with your customers and interact with them. But don’t hide behind trendy words like “engagement;” ultimately you want to do one thing: sell more products or services. Let’s take a look at how each of these four components of your social media strategy can help you sell more.

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Fanscape recently celebrated its 11th year in business. The fact that we’ve survived this long is indeed reason to celebrate; but honestly we’re more excited that most, if not all, of the brands that we’ve been explaining social media to for all these years have finally come around to understanding that it’s something they need.

I won’t lie; we didn’t call ourselves a social media marketing agency 11 years ago. We were an online music marketing company. Record companies hired us to market their bands on the internet. We ran online street teams that acted as conduits between fans and the musicians they worshiped. We empowered fans to help promote their favorite bands by giving them buddy icons, wallpapers, and links to stream music. They built fan sites on Geocities and Angelfire, and gossiped with others in message boards and chat rooms. It was social media via Web 1.0, pre-MySpace and Facebook.

The connection between fans and musicians had long been overlooked. A band was someone you saw on stage or on MTV, not someone who would actually respond to your letters. Fanscape closed that gap. At first it was relatively unknown bands like Simple Plan and The Calling, which gladly engaged their fans on message boards and recorded voice “thank you” email messages. But when those bands proved that engaging your fans can help you sell CDs and rise up the MTV TRL charts, then others joined in and soon megastars like Mariah Carey and Bon Jovi were filming web-based videos thanking their street teams for all their hard work.

Music campaigns led to movie and television campaigns, which led to brand and product campaigns. Nearly a thousand campaigns later, we’ve honed our craft and stayed ahead of the curve as the landscape continually evolves. But while the tools today are better, faster, and infinitely less expensive, the basic premise of social media remains the same:  Listen. Respond. Empower. Reward.

What is social media and digital word of mouth marketing?
The number one reason people buy something or try something is because someone they trust told them to. That’s word of mouth. The goal of a brand is to create a product that is so well received by its customer that they tell someone else about it, leading to increased sales. Meanwhile, the internet has evolved into a social environment where people share their thoughts openly with others who are eager to listen. Word-of-mouth companies help brands by facilitating digital conversations about their products through social networks, blogs, and online communities.

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