Social Media Marketing

More and more businesses are taking advantage of the impact of social media to advertise their products and services. Referred as social media marketing, this type of advertising is actually the process of marketing through social media or social networking sites.

Using social media as a marketing tool is advantageous because its reach is boundless. Compared to costly advertisement sites, memberships on social media are free. While you have an option to buy an advertising space in these sites, it will be economical to just create an effective marketing page that will initiate a viral campaign.

The top three popular media sites that provide marketers with gigantic opportunities are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This means being able to reach a broader market. Such social media offer completely different social actions. For example, Twitter is a site that allows people to share short updates, referred as “tweets.” Facebook, on the other hand, is a full-scale social networking site that allows users to post updates, photos and videos, join events, play games, and do other activities. Lastly, YouTube is a Web site specifically made for video postings.

With the rise of these media sites, consumers have countless ways to express their immediate reactions regarding a brand or service. An individual opinion of a certain brand can already have a great impact on other potential consumers.

Listed below are some dos and don’ts of Social Media Marketing (SMM) which are long term tips and social media strategies which will get your social media campaign going effectively.

Connect with right people. Identifying who to listen to and connect with is very important. You must reach out to the influencers in your niche who are opinion leader. Listen to them, talk with them, be polite, honest and offer authentic and interesting content. You’d be amazed what brand advocates can do for you.

Engagement and getting Social. Share other people’s posts. Engage and demonstrate that you value content and opinions from others, too. It’s just like socializing in real life. The more engaging and interesting content that you make available online – be it yours or others – through your social media profiles, the more people will want to share it with their audiences. Post content that provides value to your target audience, but also add some fun stuff, too.

Focus: Pareto Principle. One of the basic rules of Management is Pareto principle which is applicable in almost every thing which has an impact on you not just from sales and marketing point of view but on life in general too. According to the principle – also referred to as the law of vital few – roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. You may also experiment at mixing your 80% relevant content with 20% fun content etc to break the obvious monotony of business tweets and posts.

Mention and #tag. To engage with right people and make yourself heard amidst information avalanche of the networking sites, you need to be more forthcoming. While replying or making sure that right person gets the message, mention users on Twitter using @ before user id. Add #tag to highlight/optimize your keyword for search engines. Make your own list and curate them so that you can target everyone in your particular niche or specific subject.

Retweets. While sharing interesting content of other users make sure you don’t just click retweet. Another important thing is to leave space for others to retweet your post. While posting make it a habit to convey your message in 110-120 words as opposed to 140 words. The remaining spaces increase the probability that your post get retweeted and the person retweeting may also add a #tag to it if he feels like it.

Contribute. Be the one to create (quality) content. Community may be the knight in shining armor in Social Media, but content is still the King, and always will be. Make sure that you offer quality content which could be engaging and interesting enough. The bottom line in any form of marketing is value creation. Offer that value and you’ll be amazed at the benefits Social Media Marketing could ensure to your niche/campaigns.

Blog. Make sure you have setup a blog. Use your blog as a platform to offer useful and sharable content for your niche. Also make sure you come up with offbeat articles once in a while to keep your reader interested. Make lists and provide resources and share your blog post through social media platforms.

Feeds and comments. Subscribe to feeds or other favorite RSS readers. Leave comments on the websites/blogs that you visit if there’s an option. Bookmark the pages you find really informative and useful. Review sites/products/services. Watch for changes and be the first to comment and engage in your topic. Being on the top of comment list often gets you more visibility and traction. Also retweeting after reading or seeing the short link is more effective way to engage by adding a short note in your retweet which only a visitor could make. Impresses the person whose post get retweeted just like personal contact do.

Submit. If you submit content, make sure it’s useful, unique and that the title of your post stands out. Don’t bookmark/share/tweet only your own content, since doing so is considered spam. Always be on the lookout for additional content to share, tweet and bookmark frequently enough that fellow members can get to know you but don’t over do it.