At one point in time, many businesses viewed the world of social media as a playing ground for kids. Those days are long gone. In today’s society, social media sites provide a valuable tool for marketing and branding any business. With such a level of importance placed on these sites, it is equally important to make your social media marketing plan an effective one. In this article we will give you a few tips for starting out right.
If you are considering enlisting the services of a social network marketing company, use extreme caution. Many of these businesses are preying on inexperienced owners of Internet marketing businesses with scams. These fly-by-night companies use fraudulently registered YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts and use proxy servers to evade automated abuse control measures. The fact that they are using fake registration to portray the image that you are being exposed at excellent levels will cost you a great deal in money for little or no benefit in reality.
When you start up a social media profile, let your existing customers know that you have done this. Encourage them to join your page, as the social media venues will likely let all of their friends and associates in their network know that they have joined your pages. This form of advertising is free and accessible to a broad range of people. Make good use of it!
If you use Twitter for the promotion of your business, it is important that you respond to followers regularly. Whenever questions get asked answer them, and express gratitude to anyone that mentions you. These interactions help build stronger relationships between you and your followers. Your goal should be to further your online presence as both an individual and as a professional.
Use incentives to encourage people to follow you through social media. You should offer them something they are not able to obtain elsewhere. Try doing a contest on your social media page. If that is not feasible for your business, offer a coupon or unique item. Social media websites are also a great way to make special announcements.
In order to achieve the best possible results, create links to tie everything together. Put links in place on your blog that allow readers to follow your Twitter comments, view your YouTube videos and “like” your Facebook page. Add the URL for Facebook and your blog through your Twitter profile. Link your marketing across different social media platforms for increased customer traffic.
In order to get the most out of social media in terms of marketing, add social network widgets to your page. Widgets are great tools that can rapidly increase visibility of site. Also, a widget allows consumers to vote on your site’s quality and re-tweet information themselves.
You can use sites like Youtube to help give yourself attention through social media marketing. This helps because visitors will already know what it is you’re marketing, because they have already seen your videos. The more you inform visitors before they visit your site, the more your sales will increase.
Avoid the hard sell of your products when developing a following on your social networking website. Include testimonials, relevant articles and links to content your followers will find useful. You can run contests, post pictures and ask questions. Converse and have a dialogue with your subscribers and followers. Rather than looking for areas to place your products cleverly, you should think of how to generate interest in your products through content. Make it a goal to identify with your customer’s lifestyle, so that they will identify your product in a like manner, rather than viewing it as yet another thing to spend money on.
Your Twitter account can be set up to have your blog posts tweeted automatically. You can also choose a couple of your favorite high-quality blogs to promote on your Twitter. Post links to these blogs when they are updated so that you can build relationships with the bloggers and provide your readers with interesting content. They will love being mentioned on a company’s feed, and all of your followers will benefit from the conversation.
You can whip up shopper-friendly storefronts with your social media campaign. While it’s important to have an independent website, having a Facebook store that is easily accessible can also attract consumers to your brand. Many Facebook users prefer to remain on the site while browsing, so this option allows them to see and even purchase your products without leaving Facebook. In this, you can get sales from customers that would rather stay on Facebook than leave it for your dedicated ecommerce website.
Don’t forget to include the URL of your website in your description when you upload a video on YouTube, and also add your social media accounts to your profile. If you can get people who view your video to share it on social media, your audience will swell.
Start a Yahoo! account for your company and visit Yahoo! Answers. Users submit their questions here and other users can answer them for free. Try looking up any questions about the issues that are related to what you sell and prepare a response that links to your own services. If you give them quality answers, people will consider you a professional and an expert.
One technique that many social media marketers use is advertising with strange images that have been heavily Photoshopped. This makes a lot of sense, as a visitor is more likely to wonder what is up with the ad and click it. When someone is drawn to one of your ads they tend to check out your business and from there they may be interested with what you have to offer.
A great idea is to have your blog show up on your LinkedIn profile page with a blog feed application. This allows your post to appear as an update on your LinkedIn page. This is a time saver, since you can reach your blog audience and your Linkedin followers simultaneously.
The frequency with which you update your social media status should change with the situation. If you have a new product coming out and plan on having a big advertising campaign, consumers will expect some sort of updates on a daily basis. However, if you’re finding it hard to think of top quality content, you may want to think about posting less.
Update your social media pages often to increase interest. For example, followers typically look for an increase in posts centered around upcoming launches or product promotions. If, however, you have no reason to post every day, don’t force it. Update only as appropriate.
Make it a habit to respond to all your comments. You should make sure that you do this for positive and negative comments alike. When people think you care about what they say, they will trust you and your products. Make sure you respond quickly to make sure customers don’t feel ignored.
Be prepared for a certain amount of negative feedback. When your customers love your products, you are sure to be happy, but you must realize that there will also be bumps in the road. Do not turn your back on it but face it head on and help those customers who are unhappy.
You need to handle negativity and complaints on social media appropriately if you have social media pages available for customer feedback. You can also use your social media pages to improve customer relations, whether people are happy or complaining. Instead of lashing out or ignoring negative postings, do what you can to turn unhappy customers into happy ones.
If your company has a blog, post the link on your social media site whenever you update it. This can help alert your followers to new and relevant information on your site, making it more likely that they will stop by to check it out.
Promote your special offers via social networks. Your customers will search for your Facebook pages if they have incentives and discounts on them. Social media should be an opportunity for your customers to get to know you better and to get involved more personally with the brand and products.
Keep an eye on all the social marketing messages going out in the name of your business. Check them before you send them out. Given how quickly thing can go viral online, an embarrassing typo could prove very detrimental to your reputation. While this can give you a little more publicity, it may end up being negative publicity.
Do some research with regard to social networking. You likely have a social Facebook page right now, but it is important to remember that a professional page is a different animal. There are lots of great resources available online, and you can even find professionals to help you if you are stumped.
When marketing, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Bu using many different social media platforms, you spread your business around to many areas and help to generate a bigger customer base. Also, you may find different tools and apps, different followers, etc, by using different channels.
Studies show that the most popular times for people to read your social media posts are during business hours during the week. You should focus your posting for these times, even using an auto-poster to put up information for you while you might be engaged elsewhere.
Try using time-sensitive deals and coupons to generate buzz about your social media pages. This can make people in the network more likely to pay close attention and jump on specials quickly, before they disappear. You will also benefit from playing within the social context here. One friend will alert another friend of the offer and so on.
Pay attention to the hours throughout the day when people most regularly forward your tweets or respond to them. Use that information to refine when you send messages. Get a software that allows you to schedule your next updates so your followers will see your update on top of their feeds.
If anyone decides to follow your business Twitter account, return the favor. This helps your customers to see you as a real person, and it lets them know that you respect them as an individual too. Most people prefer to do business with a company that reciprocates the favor and is appreciative of its customers. When you follow back your customers on Twitter, it is an easy process, and it gives them a benefit.
If you are using social media as a marketing tool, provide some good incentives, but do not be pushy. Consumers are turned off by pushy or forceful sales tactics. Post some sort of sale or perk once a week at a given time when customers can find them. That way, customers get discounts but do not feel pressured or spammed.
Be sure that the method of subscribing to the blog you create is very simple. Don’t hide the subscribe button somewhere that no one will see it. You should put it in a spot that people can see immediately to make sign-up easy. Try and make things on your site visible to people with different types of Internet speeds, some people don’t have connections that are as fast as others.
Make your blog posts stand out by putting in a design or picture of some sort. People do not enjoy reading lots of text unless there is something to break it up. A good way to do this is by adding graphics or even a video. Don’t go to extremes; have a nice balance of text and visuals.
It’s important to stay up to date when it comes to marketing, and there’s no method of marketing as current as using social media. This approach grants your business an audience of millions; it also offers an opportunity to strengthen your brand image. Hopefully, this article has given you some wonderful tips to help you get started building your social marketing campaign.
