Social Media Marketing simply refers to the process of creating and promoting strategic marketing campaigns through popular communication or publication platforms generated and sustained by a social community, like Facebook and MySpace.

Social Media Marketing also uses specific mediums or tools like video, podcasts, social site creation, microblogging and more as part of its campaigns and can encompass everything from viral marketing to online advertising.

Social Media Marketing isn’t just about “Digging” things. Or having an account on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. Really, its not.

Social Media Marketing, like any other type of marketing, is all about time, strategy, planning and execution across multiple platforms.

Anyone can ‘do’ social media, but there are definitely ways to do it better and more effectively. There’s lots of great DIY guides online, but Social Media is a huge time commitment. Even if you do a minimum of, say, five hours a week, think about the fact that there are companies who hire individuals and even teams of people to take on their Social Media Marketing campaigns.

They hire people with their fingers in the game, so to speak. If you’re brand new, there is going to be a learning curve, especially if you’re not comfortable with the internet.

Even if you are comfortable, maybe you’re not a particularly social person, maybe you have so much to do you couldn’t possibly do it yourself or any number of other reasons its worth investing in someone to help you out. Even if its just hiring a consultant for a few hours to help you outline a plan, bringing in an expert is never a waste.