Social Media Marketing & Your Business
Imagine trying to drive a car with no steering wheel and all the windows are blacked out, that’s how things may seem for many business owners venturing into the world of managing their own social media campaigns and networks. With the ten tips on social media marketing listed below we hope to take some of the black off those windows and lend some assistance to your ventures with social media marketing. For those of you who are new to social media marketing let me just give you an idea about what it means. Social Media Marketing refers to a process in which you gain traffic or attention through the use of social media networks. There are endless ways you can promote your business on the web, drive traffic to your website or products, and interact with current clients/customers as well as potential ones through social media.
1. Serve your guests before you get to eat.
Constantly trying to sell your business or product through social media will only result in a lack of presence for your company and people will be hesitant to engage with your brand online. Try to provide the user with something helpful or beneficial that might not necessarily help you. This will help to create a stronger relationship in the end with the user. If you approach at social media solely as an avenue to promote products and your business you will fail. I wouldn’t want to hang out with someone who’s constantly trying to sell me something, neither will your audience. Fun Fact: Coca Cola’s online buzz affected sales by only 0.01% but yet if you look at their online presence it’s huge!
2. Pass Traffic not gas
One of your main goals for social media marketing should be passing traffic to your website. Your website is still the biggest and greatest sales tool for your business. It has all the information on your business, the ability to keep the user interested, and sell your product or service. Post a link to your website everywhere possible where it relates like YouTube videos, LinkedIn, Facebook, and anywhere else you feel will benefit the business.
3. The Stone Age era has passed. Try using some helpful tools.
There are more third party tools for social networking websites than I can count on both hands. They are there for a reason, use them. Some tools, like anything else are better than others so be sure to do your research. One of my personal favorites, that has a ton of features and great service, is Sprout Social.
4. Find the networks that work for you
Social networks are popping up left and right these days and it’s important to not stretch all your resources to networks that won’t help as much as others. Finding the networks that really benefit your business and help your brands online presence is all part of the process.
5. Learn from your community
Everyone has something to teach and the people who are part of your community are the best people to learn from. See how they interact with others, see what posts create more engagement, everything these people do in your community is something you can leverage and capitalize on.
6. Write, write, write, and then write some more
If you don’t already have one on your website, set up a blog, like right now, open a new tab set one up then come back and finish reading this. Once you do that write until you can’t write anymore. Keeping your content fresh and your readers interested is key. Blogs can be very beneficial to your business if utilized properly.
7. Pimp your articles out
I don’t mean this literally, I was just trying to write a catchy title name. Once you have finished writing and your fingers have healed from excessive typing, it’s time to promote it! Post up the articles on all of the social networks your business is on, you can even submit them to sites like Digg and Reddit. Everything you write can be promoted through every possible avenue. It’s only a matter of time before that one article becomes a hit.
8. Provide something of value to the people.
What is it that you do or can offer that others don’t? If that’s still a question that’s awaiting an answer I suggest you find that answer fast. Some things you can provide are discounts to Facebook fans, twitter only specials, when you hit a certain amount of fans or likes give something away. These are just a few ways you can provide value to the people.
9. Don’t forget about your community
Posting and leaving is the social media equivalent to ding dong ditch, you get the reader or user there with your content and then leave. Spend time talking to the people in your community, reply to tweets, comments on Facebook, and engage with the user on your own posts. If you disagree with a comment, be polite. Do not come off as a know-it-all because don’t forget everything you say or do is reflected on your company not just yourself. Being respectful and answering in a timely fashion will only help to build trust, a strong online presence, and referrals.
10. Be everywhere like a super hero
Just because you’re currently on one network and it’s working great don’t close your mind to expanding to other networks, by doing this you could be missing out on new customers. Try to find a use for every network. Yes some networks work better than others and may command more of your attention put towards them but having an account there is better than not having an account at all. Reading this should help get you started with promoting your business through social media. If you find you just don’t have the time to spend doing social media marketing or it’s becoming too much with handling on your own, then think about hiring a social media expert to run your campaign for you. Social media can become very time consuming and because of that many businesses decide to stay away from it. For more information on Social Media Marketing and Fat Guy Media’s Social Media Marketing services click here.
