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How Many Social Media Accounts Do You Own?

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With a number of new social media platforms increasing every day, it is quite common that people feel overwhelmed and they end up not using any of them. Does this sound like you?

Or perhaps you are on the other side of the extreme and you hold multiple social media accounts. How many do you actually effectively use?

Social media is not about quantity but about quality. You can have presence on as many social media platforms as they are out there, but are you truly present if you engage with your fans every here so often? Can you truly communicate your message through odd posting once a week? Is this bringing any results for your business?

Multiple social media accounts need multiple time and resources to manage them efficiently. As a business owner you know that this equals costs. You also know that marketing is all about return on investment. So unless your marketing campaign has generated more revenue than costs, your return on investment will show as loss. And we want profit, don’t we?

 

Rule #1

To use social media efficiently you must get a grasp that it is a marketing tool that will grow your business, not a playground to catch up with your fans (this doesn’t prevents you to have fun with it). Once you make that switch in your thinking you will notice that you will need to adjust how you use social media to achieve the growth and positive return on investment.

 

Rule #2

You cannot be everywhere. You must decide which social media platform is right for your business and stick to only few of them to get it right.

 

So how do you decide which social media is right for you?

 

There is no golden rule and with time you might find that you prefer one over another.

 

A good start is to look at the nature of your business – do you offer services/products B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer) and based on that determine your social media priorities.

 

My favourite social media platforms, in a priority order for B2C business, are:

 

Facebook Business PageFacebook

An obvious one, because almost everyone you know has a personal Facebook account, which makes it a great tool if you have B2C business. Facebook is the most popular, very user friendly, highly customizable and effective tool for marketing.

 

You Tube lead generation

You Tube

People prefer watching videos over reading content. A video with compelling, relevant content to your audience is a great way to build trust, engagement and following. You Tube channels can be branded to showcase your business and if created correctly, it becomes a virtual sales person working for you 24/7, greatly increasing lead generation for your business.

 

TwitterTwitter

It’s amazing that 140 characters can be such influential and powerful marketing tool. It can be used for both B2C and B2B businesses for driving traffic to your website or Facebook business page by sharing content and opinions. It enables businesses to appear human, quickly and effectively enhance customer service, public relations and business development. While it’s not so good for self-promotions, it’s very useful for market research, spotting trends and connecting with media.

 

PinterestPinterest

One thing people love doing is looking at pictures and Pinterest is a perfect answer to engaging consumers visually. (Visual aspect is so important to us that even Facebook made the new Timeline design much more visual than it was before.) Pin (post) pictures of your products/services, share them and engage by commenting on others.

 

LinkedIn for businessLinkedIn

LinkedIn is great for networking and keeping in touch with your network, even when they change jobs. I think every business person (employed or business owner) should have personal business profile on LinkedIn. If you are in B2B selling, then LinkedIn must be your number one priority, as this is where you will find your customers. While a recent redesign of LinkedIn’s company pages is yet to show its full repertoire of benefits it is currently more suitable for larger companies.

 

All these social media platforms can be used for B2B business, however in this order of priority:

    1. LinkedIn
    2. Twitter
    3. You Tube
    4. Pinterest
    5. Facebook

 

Whatever social media you choose to play with, remember that like anything else in life, it takes time to create a following but the rewards are worth your work. While there are tools and ways to speed up the process, be cautious of social marketing consultants who promise you success over night.  Trust your story, share and engage with your fans and you will soon see your business grow.

 

 

Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Social Media Marketing?

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Let’s face it, it’s here, its importance and influence is rising each day and it’s not going to go away.

Why?

We are social creatures, we love being heard and we like having our voice. And Social Media is just another platform for voicing our opinions, sharing our life stories, connecting with friends, meeting new friends, ‘selling ourselves’….and all that in just few clicks in a matter of seconds, to the whole world. Wow!

I believe we are already past thinking about Social Media as a fad, not worth getting involved in it because it will go away tomorrow.

We are also past thinking that Social Media is only for celebrities, entertainment industry and big brands. If companies such as Ernst &Young are leveraging from Social Media, there is clearly more to it then chatting, photo sharing and playing games.

Social media is a new marketing tool that is effective, more targeted and cheap; and for that reason small business without big marketing budgets are benefiting even more from it. Anyone can be a marketing success online, no matter how small or big you marketing budget is. In the past, unless you had a massive marketing budget for TV commercials, printing and mailing campaigns, your marketing efforts have been restricted and you could have only reach a small group of people. With Social Media, the world is your oyster!

But you need to learn how to harvest it!

Social Media is not inventing new marketing techniques, the old ones still apply – they are just translated on-line.  So whatever you are doing well off-line just needs to be translated on-line; simple as this.

But why even bother if you are doing just fine off-line. Here is 7 points why;

  1. Social media and mostly Facebook are a ‘new’ word of mouth – and you know that word of mouth is the best marketing tool! Nothing new, just different platform.
  2. People search for services and goods through social media and they seek opinions from their friends on Facebook.
  3. People will choose what’s convenient. If they can’t find your business online they will do business with someone else. And that someone else is your competitor J
  4. More people will visit your Facebook page before they visit your website.
  5. It’s easier to rank well in Google with your Facebook, You Tube, Twitter & LinkedIn page then your website.
  6. You can tell your story to masses with one click
  7. Your competition is doing it, and doing it well!

 

Well…In have at least 3 more ‘WHYs’:

  1. Social media is fabulous tool to engage with your clients, get to know them, what they like about your brand and what they dislike, what excites them in life. With this information you can target you market better.
  2. You can test your new ideas, products and before you even launch them you can get fans behind them.
  3. You can spy on your competition;
  4. and the list could go on and on and on….

 

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that Social Media offers you pinpoint accuracy in targeting your market, communicating with your prospects and building meaningful business relationships in a way that it’s cost effective, easier and faster than anything else – and from a conform of your office desk.

You can no longer afford to ignore Social Media in your marketing plan.

Send us an email, and will get you started…