SEO, the once all-powerful method of attracting online customers, has been demoted to co-star in the online marketing realm, as social media takes over the starring role.

According to Mark Gustowski, the global business development manager of Pyksis, SEO is just a small facet of online marketing now when trying to grow your customer base.

Much more effective is social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Tumblr and LinkedIn because they offer the opportunity for customer engagement.

Using Twitter as an example, Gustowski says companies can now actively look for potential customers using these social media tools. An online retailer of virus protection software, for example, could use the hashtag (#) search function in Twitter for finding people who have been hit with a virus (#computervirus or #virus) and then further narrow the search to a certain geographical region and then talk one-on-one with those potential customers via Twitter by tweeting to them.

The important thing to remember, Gustowski says, is that social media is all about engagement rather than the ‘hard sell’ and customers should be approached in a conversational manner.

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