So you’ve got your blog in place, a Twitter account and your Facebook page created? Surely it’s time to sit back and wait for the money to roll in?
This may sound like a rather foolish plan of action, but it does rather typify the approach of many small businesses. It seems that there are plenty of small business owners who don’t really understand what social media marketing is all about.
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. We’re talking about a subject here that has a considerable “buzz” surrounding it, but that level of hype often only adds to the confusion. It may be that plenty of business owners and marketing executives are aware that they should be doing something with social media. You may well be in the same position.
Do you need social media?
You could be forgiven for thinking that all of this hype suggests that there is no substance to the social media revolution. But you’d be wrong to dismiss the impact of this type of marketing.
Many businesses have embraced social marketing successfully. They’ve realised that a Facebook presence, for instance, can reduce their dependence upon other traffic drivers, such as search engines. This clearly offers a number of advantages.
If you’re tired of having to spend a significant amount of money optimizing your website and having to take your chances on Google, there’s certainly something to be said for reducing costs and reliance on this particular channel.
Although there are small business SEO providers around, there’s absolutely no doubt that good quality SEO companies are frequently too expensive for many small business owners to make use of their services.
Maximizing the impact of social media marketing
The important things to do if you want to be successful in your social media marketing approach are:
- Sign up on the main social networks. These include Facebook and Twitter
- Make sure that you post regularly. This ensures that potential clients know that you take social media seriously. Try to post daily on Twitter and update your blog at least twice a week.
- Engage with your audience. Remember that you’re not simply sending a message out there – you should be actively engaging in a two-way conversation. Always think about the target demographic.
- Monitor the results. If you find that a particular channel is working really well for your business, then it makes sense to put more effort into that channel. You can use Google Analytics to monitor results.
If you know that social media could have a vital impact for your business, then how do you go about getting the returns that should be available to you?
It’s simply not enough to create a Facebook page and to expect that you’ll derive a significant income as a result. You need to engage with potential customers.
The best approach is to make sure that you regularly post to Facebook, Twitter and any other social media networks that you choose to use. Try to offer a “joined up” marketing approach, enabling potential clients to know that you use multiple channels.
This approach has a number of benefits. By reaching out in this way, you maximize your chances of exposure. But you’re doing a lot more too. You’re also allowing customers to see that you take online marketing and business successfully.
There’s an enormous amount of evidence to show that most of us like to buy from trusted brands. We often worry about using retailers and companies if we don’t know much about them. That’s why many organizations spend an enormous amount of money on increasing brand recognition.
This is particularly important when it comes to online marketing too. Think about your approach to social media as offering the world a window on your brand, your ethos and the services that you have to offer.
If you can create an interesting, dynamic, informative approach then there’s no reason why social marketing can’t help to transform your business.
Author ProfileKeith Barrett is an experienced search engine optimization expert and has been working in this area for more than a decade. His agency, Search South, currently offer Hampshire SEO services, as well as a full range of SEO packages.
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