Are you a small business owner trying to expand your enterprise? Are you trying to increase the number of leads coming to your company? Have you heard of social media marketing and want to give it a shot?
You encounter several difficulties as a small business owner, including a lack of funding, a lack of support employees, and having too much to do in what feels like very little time. So, how can a small firm develop without making significant investments in marketing and advertising? Answer: By utilizing technology. You can use a variety of tools and tactics that are available through Web 2.0 to help you create leads and spread the word about your home-based business. Such a tool is social media. Here is everything a small business owner needs to know to start using social media to boost sales.
Describe social media.
Online communication, participation, sharing, networking, and bookmarking are all activities that take place in the social media area of online media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Plus, and MySpace are a few examples.
Social media marketing: What is it?
The aforementioned channels are used in social media marketing to reach a new customer audience and build brand awareness for products. Social media marketing aims to increase the validity of a message by distributing it among reliable “friends” in order to promote word of a product.
Which social media platforms are the most widely used?
According to studies, YouTube, LinkedIn, and GooglePlus are the next most popular social networking platforms after Facebook and Twitter.
Why should I be interested in social media marketing?
If you believe that this type of marketing is not for you, reconsider. These platforms provide small business owners with a wide range of advantages. Consider using social media for your business for the following reasons.
Exposure: As a small business owner, you mostly depend on network marketing to direct leads to your company, which in turn depends on your interactions with people. This is the fundamental idea of social media! However, there are countless ways to communicate with people on social media! Your firm is no longer restricted to local leads with this intriguing method of marketing; you will find leads flowing in from a diverse geographic market!
Zero-cost: This sort of marketing is comparatively free or involves little financial input, when other marketing media would be pricey. It’s a fantastic, affordable way to spread the word.
Increased web presence: Participating on well-known social media sites improves your web presence. The more Facebook or Twitter mentions you receive, the more likely it is that customers will find your company while conducting relevant web searches on Google, Yahoo!, or Bing.
These platforms allow you in direct communication with potential and current customers. You can speak with them directly and learn what their true desires are.
Go viral: This type of marketing gives you the chance to have your marketing go viral. Consider this. You upload a YouTube video describing your company. Ten people like it, and five of them tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell 20 more people. This practice is referred to as “viral marketing,” and it can significantly boost your lead generation.
What is a “game plan” for social media, and why should you have one?
You may accomplish your social media marketing goals by following a method with a few easy steps called a social media game plan. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you could become lost in the social media world, which is very big. If you want to stand out from the competition and be taken seriously, you must have a clear plan.
Your ideal strategy for social media
These four steps should make up a normal game plan for your company.
Increase your network
Make your presence known.
Maintain contact Observe
First, establish your network: Finding and adding members to your network who you believe belong to your target audience segment is the first step. It is always preferable to provide a personalized note with any requests to add users to your network. Additionally, you can browse for and join groups relevant to your industry. For instance, if your company sells health beverages and other things linked to health, you may join communities where issues like diet, nutrition, or health are discussed. These organizations give you customers for your items. However, keep in mind to ADD VALUE when working in a group. Respond to inquiries that you are qualified to address, participate actively in conversations, exercise discretion, and avoid aggressively “pushing” your items.
Spread the word about your social media presence in the second phase. Adding links to your social media profiles on your website, email signature line, or newsletter, if you have one, will help you with this. You are operating a business; let people know!
The next step is to stay in touch with your followers and fellow group members. It is simple to launch a social media marketing venture, but maintenance demands work. Additionally, results from networking activities typically take time to manifest. Get the go-ahead to send emails from group members and other users on your network. After that, you can email your network with pertinent information. The goal here is to provide CONTENT THAT IS RELEVANT AND ADDS VALUE, NOT ADVERTISES FOR YOUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. You might send links like “10 Best Anti-Oxidant Rich Fruits” if your company sells health drinks and is also involved in the diet and nutrition community. You can also include an image and some details about your product and invite people to contact you if they are interested. This strategy will be more effective than simply sending potential customers an email flier that only promotes your goods.
Don’ts and Dos
Although social networking is all about human contact and cannot be boxed in, the following advice will be helpful.
What should you do?
Give your contacts more value: Add value to every interaction you make. Always! Give them knowledge that they can utilize, advice, and other fascinating facts. Jane, a home-based company owner, distributes items for weight loss and health. Therefore, it makes sense that she would offer her audience engaging articles on the subject of weight reduction.
Be constant in your online engagement; it requires ongoing work. It’s about establishing a connection, and connections take time. When communicating on social media, be consistent. Post/tweet/update something interesting at least once every day. Multiple postings each day are preferable in some circumstances, but don’t forget rule #1: add value. You shouldn’t use your posts to promote your goods or services or to ramble on inanely.
Pay attention to the conversation: Participate actively in pertinent topics if you’ve joined a forum or community. Help others by applying your specialized, professional knowledge. Help a discussion gain depth and dimension by contributing.
The key is conversation: As previously noted, connections are the lifeblood of social media marketing. You must converse with your prospects in order to establish a solid relationship with them. Keep the lines of communication open with your audience. genuinely listen to what they have to say, and then follow up on any comments or insights.
possess in-depth knowledge of the subject you are discussing: Establish your authority on these sites. But make sure you’re speaking intelligently. If you’re unsure of something, do some research. On these sites, errors propagate swiftly and harm your company’s reputation.
Personalize your communication: It’s a good idea to make your audience feel special. Ask about an occasion or event that was shared on a Wall, such a recent trip, or “like” their vacation photos on Facebook.
Showcase your uniqueness: Small business owners have a major advantage over big corporations because they are considerably smaller and still have a personable feel to them. Tell your audience who is behind the company. Make sure there is a personal element to your encounters!
Immediate redress for client complaints: Did you know that 88% of customers feel that not receiving a response to their complaints on social media sites makes them less likely to return? Even worse is erasing consumer concerns! Therefore, be careful to respond to client complaints posted on social media platforms very away. Even if you are unable to answer their problems, at least reply to let them know that you have heard them. Recognize everything.
Mention your social media activity and promote your accounts. In your website, blog, emails, and even print pieces, always include links to your social media profiles. It’s preferable to include Facebook and Twitter widgets on websites and blogs so visitors can view a live feed of what’s occurring on your Facebook or Twitter page right there. Encourage people to follow you on social media networks by offering rewards or valuable content like whitepapers or articles.
Monitor and control: Keep an eye on your online activity. Find out where and in what context your name is being used online. Although there are many free programs online that you can use to monitor your internet presence, a Google alert is the most straightforward way to do this. Maintain control over your social media accounts as well. Check out what people are posting on your page, then reply right away.
Syndicate your social media material since it takes time to create new content. So why not maximize the content you already have? Don’t be afraid to reuse them. Post your content on all main social media platforms. Create a link from a blog post and post it to Facebook. Make it into a presentation and post it to SlideShare, or make it into a video and post it to YouTube and Facebook. The goal is to give your material the most exposure possible.
What should you avoid doing?
DON’T blatantly promote your goods or services: A platform is social media.
where you develop connections in order to add value. It is NOT a place for advertising. Your viewers
will avoid you if you only discuss the products you sell. Ask yourself if you would discuss it with your family.
and acquaintances about the goods you constantly sell? Obviously not! So don’t behave any differently toward your social media followers.
DON’T bombard your contacts with meaningless updates like, “Well, you’ve added two more products to your line-up, so now what?” Sharing the news is fantastic, but avoid bombarding your friends with advertisements. Post a link to the new product line, keep track of who is interested, and only share information with those who need to know.
DON’T publish with grammatical and spelling errors: You are a tiny company trying to make a good first impression. Don’t ruin it with spelling and grammar mistakes. Use grammar and spelling checkers, but never completely on them. Before posting something online, proofread it. If you struggle with language or spelling, have someone else check your work before it is published.
DON’T ignore pleas for assistance in your field of expertise: If you participate in a group or forum, take advantage of every chance to showcase your knowledge. Avoid being a wallflower and engage in conversations.
DON’T allow your profile become stale: Make sure you offer something fresh and that it is updated frequently. A common error made by small business owners is to set up social media profiles and then ignore them. For your social media initiatives to be successful, they must be ongoing.
DON’T get sidetracked: Online, especially on social media, there are plenty of distractions that might cause you to lose sight of your productive time. Focus on your objectives when using games, quizzes, forums, and live chats to attract potential customers. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending too much time and effort on things that have little benefit for your company.