Social marketing differs markedly from traditional online marketing. The objectives
of traditional online marketing are to put your business’s message in front of as many
visitors as possible and hopefully encourage them to come to your Web site to buy products and services, or to find out more information. The more “impressions” (ad
views) you get, and the more unique visitors to your site, the better. Traditional online
marketing never expected to listen to customers, much less have a conversation with
them, any more than TV advertisers expected to hear from viewers.
In social marketing, the objective is to encourage your potential customers to
become fans of your company’s products and services, and engage with your business
by entering into a conversation with it. Your further objective is to encourage your
business’s fans to share their enthusiasm with their friends, and in so doing create a
community of fans online. Ultimately, the point is to strengthen the brand and drive
sales, and to do this by increasing your “share of online conversation.” There is some
reason to believe that social marketing is more cost effective than traditional marketing
although this is still being explored.