Thus far, many social media marketers, whether working for major companies or representing themselves, have focused on the direct value of social media.
From Twitter followers to Facebook fan pages, Ning communities to Delicious sharing groups, marketers have used quite a narrow focus to target people with direct offers, clear pitches, and sales-based initiatives.
Of course, social media is a wide and varied world, and using platforms for something as specific and single-purpose as direct sales only ever generates mediocre results. Social media marketing is about long-term relationships, remember?
While there have been countless examples of major social media sales success, there are many more potential examples of indirect social media marketing success.
One form of marketing that can benefit hugely from social media, however, is SEO.