Promoting your Business using Social Media

Promoting your Business using Social Media

I HAVE HAD A LOT OF CLIENTS ASK ME LATELY HOW TO GET MORE MEMBERS TO JOIN THEIR FACEBOOK PAGES, SO HERE ARE SOME OF MY THOUGHTS, RESEARCH AND FINDINGS.

First off, let’s talk about what social media is. Social media represents low-cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words. These tools are typically internet or mobile based. A few that you have probably heard of include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Social media gives marketers a voice and a way to communicate with peers, customers and potential consumers. It personalizes the “brand” and helps you to spread your message in a relaxed and conversational way.

The downfall to social media, if you could call it that, is it must be a part of your everyday life in order to keep the momentum and attention you need for social media marketing to be successful.

What role should it play in your marketing? As most of you know marketing is  a tool we use to inform consumers about our products, who we are and what we offer. Social media does that.

Here is how:

  • We can use social media to provide an identity to who we are and the products or services that we offer.
  • We can create relationships using social media with people who might not otherwise know about our products or service or what our companies represent.
  • Social media makes us “real” to consumers. If you want people to follow you don’t just talk about the latest product news, but share your personality with them.
  • We can use social media to associate ourselves with our peers, that may be serving the same target market.
  • We can use social media to communicate and provide the interaction that consumers look for.

As you can see social media carries with it a lot of value, but how do you do it right?

  • You cannot just depend on social media, you must integrate it with other vehicles of marketing. While social media will create awareness, I’m not convinced that in the beginning it will sell a million dollars worth of product. That’s not to say that one day once you’ve built up your social media “stardom” that it won’t, but it probably won’t happen tomorrow.
  • Be yourself, reflect personality. There are no written “right” or “wrong” rules when it comes to social media, only you can determine what will work for you.
  • Be consistent, if you do not plan on being consistent don’t do it at all – it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

Success stories are abundant when it comes using social media from headhunters that find job applicants to new businesses that want to introduce a new product as well as already established Fortune 500 companies that want to strengthen their brand.

The role of social media in your marketing is to use it as a communication tool that makes you accessible to those interested in your product and makes you visible to those that don’t know your product. Use it as a tool that creates a personality behind your brand and creates relationships that you otherwise may never gain. This creates not only repeat-buyers, but customer loyalty.

Fact is social media is so diversified that it can be used in whatever way best suits the interest and the needs of your business.

WHERE DO I START?

Sign up for Social Media Accounts
Begin by creating accounts with all of the major networking sites, including: LinkedIn, Youtube, Google+, Facebook and Twitter. They all offer advantages and can be used together to truly market your business. LinkedIn is designed for businesses and helps you find customers in your area that want your products or services. Facebook, on the other hand, makes it easy to run promotions, engage your fans and offer exclusive discounts.
Set up a Social Media Manager
Next, find an effective way to manage all of your accounts. There are plenty of apps that can help you, like Ping.fm, which allows you to monitor all accounts in one place while posting updates and messages to every account. You can also use it to check on the success of your Twitter account in real-time.
Post Updates Often
You want your business profiles to be very active so make sure you post updates to your accounts at least daily. This will make your profile interesting and increase your chances of being followed by other users. On Youtube, post videos about your business, what it offers to your community, even interviews with customers. On Facebook and Twitter, try creating interesting conversations, commenting on the posts of other users or asking questions for your audience to answer.
Promotions
Offering promotions is one of the best ways to gain followers and increase your sales. It also makes your business profile a resource for people interested in saving money. You can choose to offer deals to your business that are exclusive to either Twitter or Facebook followers without posting the details anywhere else. You may also wish to offer the same promotion on every social media account to increase the amount of people who see the offer. Remember, however, that offering it on only one account gives you a great way to measure the effectiveness of that resource.
Encourage Activity on Your Page
Use your business page to encourage participation from your customers and followers. You want people who view your site to stay, check out your business and leave a comment. A great way to do this is to ask a fun question or offer a poll for followers to answer. You can also offer tips and advice. For example, a carpet cleaning business can recommend ways to clean a wool rug. Be sure to edit your settings to allow followers to add links, pictures and even videos to your profile page.
Of course, this is just the beginning to marketing your business with social media networks. There are many directions you can take and dozens of popular sites you can create a presence on. Remember, start with the basics and make an account on the top 5 networks. Next, find a good media manager and begin making interesting posts and updates. Comment on other profiles, connect with local consumers and offer great advice and deals to get people interested in your company. Promoting your business in this fashion doesn’t have to be difficult. Focus on quality content and daily updates and you’ll soon find hundreds to thousands of people following your business page and looking forward to what you have to say next.