Saturday, September 7, 2013

Is Your Business Getting All It Can From Social Media?



More and more people are using social networks. You may be surprised, in fact, as to how many of your existing customers are on these sites. This alone should inspire you to investigate using social media as a marketing tool. If you fail to do market research to determine which social media platforms your customers use and market to them on those platforms, you are neglecting a potentially lucrative revenue stream. If you have included Twitter in your social media plan, make sure your tweets are valuable, relevant and vary in content. Offer advice and suggestions of interest to your customers via Twitter. People following your tweets need something of substance to latch onto. Pure promotion will come across as spam. So remember to go with a blending approach for the best results. Provide special offers to your followers. You should offer them something they are not able to obtain elsewhere. An example would be to have a contest that is exclusive to your social media followers. If not, offer an exclusive price reduction or coupon savings just for followers to enjoy. You can also have announcements that are made specifically on social media websites. To make a more friendly site that works with social media, try adding comments, ratings, and a way to sort material. When you add these things, your customers will be able to find content they are looking for, which will keep them around. In order to assist your site in becoming social media interactive, add comments and ratings. In addition, you should have the ability to be able to sort out items. Doing this will help to create a sense of belonging for your readers, increasing their sense of loyalty. soundcloud promotionIf you need help doing social media marketing, don't be embarrassed or afraid to ask. This market is large and many designers and consultants can create a website and social media strategy that works for you. If you choose to hire help, ask for quotes and references, as it can be quite expensive. Without being too intrusive, have regular interaction with your clientele. If you feel comfortable doing so, you should leave comments on their Facebook page or blog posts. Don't interrupt a conversation with irrelevant comments or links to your products. Only post relevant comments, and don't mention your business unless the conversation naturally leads into it. Sprinkle your tweets with the names of people you know to be influential in the field. Make sure you write their usernames behind the @ symbol. By doing this, they receive notification that you have posted about them. This can either lead to a tweet reply, or they will re-broadcast your post to a wider audience. Update your Twitter regularly so that your followers actually get a chance to see your post before it gets pushed further down their page. Twitter is all about volume. You need to make a lot of high quality posts to get seen. Use Twitter's character limits to your advantage, and split one event or update into several small updates. Use social networks to get people to come to your stores. Inform them of any new discounts, sales, or locations you have coming up. Put printable coupons on your Facebook page to lure your Facebook friends into your stores. You want people to be interested in adding your Facebook profile. Give your social media marketing a boost by posting a video interview with an interesting or influential expert in your marketing area. Besides the content value to your customers, it will help you build market credibility by your association with well know experts. Your audience will hold both you and your products in higher esteem. Generate publicity for your company by hosting contests that offer attractive awards. News of the contest could spread quickly, due to the nature of social media. Make sure you create a fun contest that is related in some way to what you are selling. You can do something like make a contest where someone has to design a logo for one of your upcoming products. If you are using social media as a marketing tool, provide some good incentives, but do not be pushy. Prospective customers resist a sale being forced on them. Post a discount or special once weekly at the same time so customers know where to find them. Your followers will be treated to exclusive offers and sales, but they will not feel harassed. soundcloud promotionAs previously stated, your business or product can really gain popularity using proper social media marketing. The tips in this article will help you increase business profits using social media as part of your marketing approach.



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