Social media marketing is a form of viral marketing that lures potential clients in hordes. Online entrepreneurs embarking on new projects need to understand that social media marketing is very different from broadcasting. Big brands can harness the power of viral engagement by adopting a marketing strategy that is supported by paid media. But, if they want to broadcast themselves, they must just stick with the old school concept of billboard advertising.

One of the best methods adopted as a part of the social media marketing strategy which is also largely responsible for its success is creating viral marketing campaigns, channelizing them through a number of social networking sites and blogs with back links to your website.

Automation is a big no-no. Many self-proclaimed Internet marketing experts are gaining popularity due to their sheer number of Twitter followers. Today, numbers really don’t mean much when it comes to social media marketing. Abundantly using the automated tools available on Twitter to promote your business is not a strategy. The business plan must involve a lot of ‘social activity’ and should incorporate an element of engagement. However, automation can be used only to a certain extent to reduce and maybe even eliminate the requirement of manual labor.

A little amount of outside the box thinking will gradually transform the online audience into a force that is solely responsible for driving all the online advertising campaigns towards success. For examples, contests and blogs that allow users to interact with each other through your website can give your business that much-needed impetus. 

The goal should be to target not just any platform, but those that have an open API and open ID. Twitter already has these required features. With LinkedIn announcing its decision of doing the same a short while ago, the web can be integrated along with other devices and products such as mobile, television and video to create and design new and effective ways of social media marketing. This mode of marketing has excellent reach and can be tailored to suit the needs of any kind of business, both big and small.

SEO is a science on search engines, so when it comes to SEO, you have to know well about the search engine you are targeting. In the English speaking world, Google is the No. 1 search engine, but when it comes to China, the local search giant Baidu outweighs Google with no doubt.

Most of the time, Baidu SEO and Google is the same, but there are still some facts that those who are familiar with Google should bear in mind:

1. Baidu is more sensitive about "over-optimization"

Baidu is much less tolerant about the issue of "over-optimization", so be careful when you are optimizing your website. Looking too smart may attract Baidu's attention and make it put you in the sandbox. Do some small mistakes such as "forgetting" alt tags, meta keywords, etc to make yourself look innocent.

2. Human intervention

Human intervention is commonly seen on Baidu, and the best Baidu SEO solution for it is - just avoid it. For some hot keywords, no matter how hard you try, you just can't make it to the top. So a comprehensive keyword research is very important to avoid a waste time and money.

3. Link building

Google has become more and more picky on backlinks, on the other hand, Baidu seems very open - it even recognizes mentions of domains as backlinks. This is good news for SEO, because the task of link building is easier. But don't get high - please review Fact No.1 - Baidu is more sensitive about "over-optimization", which means a fast increase of backlinks can put you in trouble.

4. Baidu prefers international domains

Unlike Google,who usually prefer a regional domain such a.co.uk domain,.cn domain, etc for local searches, Baidu usually shows preference on international domains such as.com,.net and.org domains.

The above are four most obvious differences between Baidu SEO and Google SEO, if you have anything to add, feel free to comment.