Guest post by Roy Fernandez
Every business needs a marketing plan. Large or small, a business cannot rest on its accomplishments no matter how impressive they are.
Small businesses need to think carefully about a marketing strategy for many reasons.
The most obvious is to expand their business and take it to a new level.
The other is to do so without spending money that needs to be invested wisely and carefully in other ventures.
So how does a small business create an effective marketing plan that does not burn a hole in its pocket? It uses social media.
Social media is a boon for businesses, especially, small and medium sized ones. Marketing on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook is simple, does not cost the earth, is not time consuming or risky. If you’re thinking of going the social media way, here are some marketing tips that you can use.
1. Quality content
Social media sites are crammed with information and not all of it is relevant, true or useful. A simple way to differentiate yourself is to have quality content about your product or services. Make sure everything you say is genuine and do not mislead in anyway. Content is really the key to creating a great marketing campaign, so work on this before anything else.
2. Show the real you
Social media sites are a winner because fans, friends and followers get to see the real you. An informal platform, Facebook engages people in a way that a website would never possibly be able to do. So put your best face forward and share news that is interesting and shows you in the best possible light. Create videos, audio files, share links- give a glimpse of the kind of person you are.
3. Choose wisely
Yes there are tons of social media sites but you don’t need to be on all of them. Choose what works for you and stick to those platforms alone. Perhaps, a YouTube video of you baking those famous cupcakes (without giving away too many secrets, of course) followed by a tweet about the new batch being up for grabs is all that’s required. Don’t try to show up everywhere; it could be an annoyance and counter- productive as well.
4. Engage the audience
Instead of words, think about videos or power point presentations on your page. This is a great way to climb to the top of search results as well and getting a customized channel on sites like YouTube is incredibly simple. Whether it is a guide to your product, or a trust building video, a video is a good way to engage your audience and keep them coming back. This means you need to know how videos work- how they are tagged, edited and published. A slipshod, badly shot video is of no help and does nothing to further the cause of your business.
5. Keep a track on things
A good marketing strategy needs to be pruned and tweaked from time to time. So keep a check on the number of shares or likes your post or video is getting. You can use helpful tools like Klout, Social Bro and Tweetreach to do this. Information thus received will give you crucial ideas about how to plan for the future or how to energize things in the present.
6. Keep in touch
Marketing plans require consistent effort, so you must be regular with your tweets or updates. Disappearing after a spate of activity can only cause confusion or help spread all sorts of false information. Don’t overdo, though! That’s plain annoying. Make sure you’re keeping in touch with your audience and are listening to what they have to share.
Social media sites have a lot to offer small businesses. Learn the nuances of these sites and use them to expand your enterprise further.
About the author:
This is a guest post by Roy Fernandez of acquiweb.com, a site that offers savings and current information on comcast internet deals and comcast cable rates, as well as other Comcast.com services.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Like local businesses it is significant for online entrepreneurs to devise both short and long term marketing plans. The same principle should be applied to the social media strategy a business adopts to prosper in the market and get the competitive edge.
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I have to take full use of Twitter & Pinterest this year. I think we should keep it as simple as possible for our blog readers to connect with us on various social media platforms. Good post, thanks for sharing.
Twitter: tlmarketing_net
January 8, 2013 at 7:33 am
Hi Steve, thanks for commenting! Google seems to like Pinterest so it is a good idea to use it in your marketing.The easiest way to use social media sites is to add buttons below or above your posts.This makes it easy for your readers to share.Simple works best!
Nice list of points.Quality content is the first step to reach our targeted destination and it will help us to get noticed in this huge virtual world.Also at the same time it is essential that we leave an impression of us while posting content.Finally we should interact with our readers.
There are endless ways to drive traffic to a website, increase brand awareness around the web, and engage with potential clients through Social Media Marketing & you have provided some really great tips, thanks a lot for sharing.
Good useful blog, Social media marketing is a simple way to get going online. The key to the success of your ventures is consistency. Show up regularly and often. Let people know that they can rely on you, your services and advice.