It’s funny, in the last piece, I complained that I was tired of relisting all the basic marketing strategies out there, and had hoped the next time I had to talk this to death, I’d have something new to say, about maybe the burgeoning social media movement. Well, I guess I get my wish, because today, we’re going to look at social media marketing strategies that are being implemented. Disclaimer: Before I get too into this, I need to explain that my grasp on social networks is kind of lopsided. While everyone else, even people who resist new ideas, adopted social networking right away, I didn’t. It just wasn’t something I had much of a purpose for. But, when it began to show some use for business applications like this, I investigated a few, and tested them. However, there seem to be about ten popular social media platforms, and I’m familiar with literally three. When it comes to social media marketing strategies, I can only talk about ones done over systems I’ve experienced. The Ones I Like and Why: I like Twitter first of all. On Twitter, while you see arguments come and go, they’re short lived, and there’s really no drama sticking around. The limited communication that’s enforced keeps the place from being noisy and impossible to interact with. And, it’s a great way to announce products, and to have a chat with your customers like a casual press release. I like Tumblr because it’s just like Twitter, but oriented around blogging and image posting. This is very useful. I don’t actually like Facebook. It’s an overdesigned nightmare that just doesn’t have much direction to it, trying to be everything and ultimately being nothing. But, its user base and its endless features do seem to have potential. Strategies: #1 – Twitter Character Tweets Representing yourself on Twitter as a character, be it literally or just in the sense of entity, and posting leisurely, amusing and interesting things, will build you a following. They will be receptive to announcements about products, both refined or launched. Followers may question them about their announcements, and to proactively engage them in various ways. This is really powerful. #2 – Product Marketing on Tumblr Tumblr is a blog system gone social media. You can use SEO tactics, to publish interesting reading material laced with the appropriate keywords. Tumblr is as huge as Twitter, and it’s basically filled the niche that MySpace and LiveJournal once filled. You can really do some serious content marketing here, with a built in audience. #3 – Video Sharing on Facebook The thing I took away from Facebook, ultimately, was its video power. The interface is a mess, most of the other features step all over each other and are unnecessary. It needs to shed the timeline, the walls, and the fifty forms of comments and interactions, replace them with a single entity, and put bigger focus on video. Maybe make a deal with YouTube. I see huge potential for harnessing viral video strategy there if that happens. Honorable Mention: Using viral image meme strategies over image sites like Instagram, Imgur and the like is fairly powerful, but it takes patience and creativity. Avoid: Don’t waste your time on Reddit, or Google Plus. Conclusion: Well, I only covered a few networks, as I said. I just can’t see having a thousand social media accounts, even for business. But, the social media marketing strategies I mentioned above are ones I’ve seen work. I won’t comment on strategies I didn’t witness. That’s not professional!