Social Media Marketing and Your Business
When it comes to developing a plan for your business on Social Media, it can be overwhelming. In the last 20 years, companies have had to learn how to use email, manage websites, or learn programs that do our billings just to name a few of the many changing parts to business plans. But that’s not enough for today’s, businesses. Let’s look at ten stepping stones to Social Marketing on any platform.
1. Listening
When you leverage the power of your Business Mission and Social Media you can elevate your audience and customer base dramatically. Why? Simply put, your business already fills a need and a want for your customers. Otherwise, you would not be in business. By listening to your online customers, you will begin to respond to what your customers want. And in understanding social media marketing fundamentals, we will look at maximizing the quality of your posts by increasing your online presence.
2. Focus
When it comes to online marketing, it's better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. It’s always better to have a highly-focused Social Media plan and Content Marketing strategy that helps build a single strong brand rather than a varied and all-encompassing approach that attempts to be all things to all people.
3. Quality
Your quality product or service is what you offer that separates you from others. It's always a better goal to connect with 1,000 online users who take the time to read, share and talk your content with their audiences rather than to have thousands who disappear after linking to your post the first time. Offer something unique, free or emotionally moving to gain interest in following you.
4. Patience
Everything takes time and implementing an excellent Social Media and Content Marketing plan will not happen overnight. The hook with Social Media is it's possible to catch a fast ride with the right combination of content exposure. However, it’s probably more likely that the long haul of consistent posting that will achieve results that will grow your business. But keep in mind, the opportunity for fast growth is always there. Waiting for you to tap into it.
5. Compounding
The keys to success are the same as your brick and mortar product or service, and it’s no different online. When you publish interesting, unique and quality content, you will be building your online audience. It is the online audience that shares with their followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their personal and business blogs and more.When followers share and discuss your content, your followers open up new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. This is very important for making your Business better indexed. These various entry points could grow to hundreds or more of potential ways for people to find you online.
6. Influence
Researching your competition is always a right place to start looking at how to start. Look for online influencers in your market. They will have quality audiences and would be interested in your products/services. By spending the time to connect online with those people and work to build relationships with them, you will be elevating your presence by association.To get on their radar, you will want to present an authoritative, and an exciting source of useful information. Everyone online wants to share content that is dynamic and interesting. Growing your business in front of a vast new audience is a few clicks away.
7. Value
Adding value also means you don’t spend your time repeating your comments by promoting your products and services over and over. Eventually, people will stop listening. Focus less on numbers of hits on your website and spend more time creating fantastic content. Think pictures, videos, and giveaways. Give them something that will improve their lives. Dynamic content will draw your audience to you. In developing your online relationships, you will expand your current pool of potential customers.
8. Acknowledgment
Building relationships are among the essential parts of Social Media marketing success. That means you need to acknowledge every person who reaches out to you. Either with comments or thanks. Something that says, “Hey, thanks for stopping by.”
9. Accessibility
After you have published your dynamic and exciting Social Media content remember to answer any and all questions from followers who comment on your posts! Be ready to be available to your audience. They will disappear, so you need to continue to post fresh content. Online traffic can be erratic, and your business will be replaced by a new exciting company if you disappear for weeks or months.
10. Reciprocity
There is a quota of your time that will spend on Social Media. You should be attentive to content published by others. If you want others to talk about your content, you have to spend some time looking at their content. You can't expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don't do the same for them.
By using these stepping stones, you will build a foundation that will serve your customers, your business, and your bottom line. Cayer Consulting can help coach you through these steps. Contact Karen to set up your free evaluation of your business needs today.
