Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 208

Leveraging the Social Web
IN THIS CHAPTER
Generating leads and sales on the social web
Listening for reputation and customer service issues
Getting customers and prospects to know, like, and trust you
Partnering with influential brands and individuals
Social media is an affordable and efficient way to reach prospects, leads, and customers.
But social media communication is a vast discipline, encompassing everything from social
networking on sites like Facebook and Twitter to content-publishing platforms like
YouTube and Medium. And that’s just to mention a few of the hundreds of social channels
to choose from — each with its own brand of processes, procedures, and protocols. The
opportunities in social media are exciting, but they can seem intimidating at times.
At its core, social media marketing is no different from other forms of marketing. It’s
essentially just a new way to interact with customers, prospects, influencers, and partners.
In this chapter, we help you sort through the madness, make a plan, and start using social
media to create value for your company. We tell you how to generate leads and sales,
practices to expand your exposure, the powerful uses of “listening” tools, ways to sharpen
your skills for gaining the trust of your prospects, and how to avoid social media mistakes.