Social media marketing is the process of marketing your business through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, just to name a few. Social media marketing provides a business the ability to connect and interact on a much more personalized and dynamic level than through traditional marketing channels.
Before diving in to any social media site, it is important to have both clearly defined goals and a good understanding of the various sites to which you will be participating.
Your company’s social media goals may include:
· Connecting with your current customers?
· Create relationships with potential customers?
· Establish credibility within an industry?
· Manage your online reputation?
· Respond to customer complaints?
· Try to create “buzz” about your business?
· Rank higher in the search engines for targeted keyword phrases (SEO)?
The social media landscape is hard to ignore these days, particularly for small businesses. The big question is where do you begin with social media?
Below are the first steps to get your business started with social media.
The first thing to do is to determine what sites you should be participating in. By that, I mean contributing to the community and the conversation. Social media should not be a one-way conversation. The best way to do this is to first determine if your customers and potential customers are hanging out there.
A good way to learn where you should be participating is to see what influential bloggers within that market segment are doing. Do a Google blog search or a technorati search using your targeted keywords to determine this.
Once you’ve identified these influential bloggers, check to see what they’re doing. See what social media sites they are using and the type of language and conversation they are engaged in. The first step for anyone that is new to social media is listening. Listen to hear how people communicate, what topics drive response from users and what will create buzz.
Once you’ve determined the most popular sites, that you are going to participate in, you can follow this simple four-step process to get going within social media:
- Setup profiles of your business at the major social media sites. Always include a link to your website and blog. Add a short introduction of you and your business. Remember social media sites are for connecting and not hard-sell tactics.
- Once your profiles are set up and complete, do searches within those sites to find users and groups that relate to your business. These can include potential customers that you’d like to connect with.
- Add yourself to communities that share common interests with your business by joining groups, and “following” like-minded people or requesting them as “friends.” Spend some time listening to what types of conversations and discussions are going on between your new friends, and in your new communities, then join in the discussion when you’ve had a chance to gauge the tone and activity there.
- When you feel comfortable with the situation and you’re ready to join the conversation, be sure to keep the sales pitch to a minimum. Social networking is less about selling then it is about building relationships and contributing to the community in such a way that you become perceived as a market leader. The content that you contribute should be focused on providing valuable information to the people that are interested in you and your business.
Whatever product or service you are selling, Social media marketing is a very cost effective way to gain exposure and interest about your business within a targeted niche.
Do remember, this takes time and sincerity to establish effective long-term relationships that will hopefully lead to business down the road. The most important thing is to stay with it and have some fun while doing so.
