Social Media Marketing: The Best Way to Grow Your Business
Social media was once thought of as a fad, but now it is simply too big and powerful to be taken lightly.
Social media -- with sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube -- has fundamentally altered the way we communicate with each other and with our prospects and customers.
The numbers are too impressive to ignore: If Facebook was a country; it would the third largest in the world.
YouTube is now the second largest search engine behind Google, exceeding 2 billion views a day.
You get the idea.
If you are not on social media, you can be sure your customers and competitors are; so now is the time for you to take action and get involved before it's too late.
A Better Kind of Marketing You should know that social media marketing is vastly different than traditional marketing - and so much more powerful.
In social media marketing you don't interrupt your customers with promises hoping to catch their attention.
You forge direct relationships with customers built on their experiences with your brand.
You engage your customer in a way that is memorable and meaningful.
Social media marketing is about developing relationships with your customers by being generous with value up front; vulnerable by including customers in your marketing process; candid by being yourself; and accountable by backing up your promises.
Social media marketing turns strangers into friends, then into fans, then into loyal customers.
Focusing Your Efforts If one were to try becoming active on all of the thousands of social media sites, it would be virtually impossible.
There isn't enough time in the day; and besides, many sites are focused on small niches that would not be relevant to your business.
If you're just starting out, you'll be best served by establishing a presence on four major social media sites.
Each has its own strong points which compliment the other, so by being on all four you have a variety of different ways to reach and interact with your customers and compel them to visit your store or website.
Facebook: Facebook is the key way to establish relationships with your prospects and customers.
Every business should take advantage of the enormous reach of the site, currently with 500 million active users, by setting up a free business page and creating content that builds relationships with your best customers and interests them in buying your products.
LinkedIn: With its over 100 million business professionals, LinkedIn is the site to make and establish meaningful relationships with the movers and shakers of the world.
You can establish a personal profile and network with others, look for opportunities for partnerships and new business, and create a profile for your company.
Often you can secure work right on the site, and you can add three links to your profile that lead to websites where you can sell your products.
Twitter: Known as a micro-blog, because you write in 140-character bursts, Twitter is great for creating buzz about your company.
It's a global networking event where you meet and greet new people, strike up conversations based on common interests, and discuss business trends in your industry.
Once you can engage and entertain other people on Twitter, then it's easy to connect them to your main website where they can be converted in buying customers.
YouTube: If a picture paints a thousand words, a video does even more: It creates an emotional connection with your customer in a way that static text or pictures never could.
A video of you talking about your business or demonstrating your product on YouTube becomes a 2/47 global selling tool that people can watch online or on their phones.
You can add links to your website in the video and also on the video page, thereby giving your viewers a place to go to purchase your product.
In summary, social media marketing is a revolutionary new way to engage prospects in a two-way dialog that can lead them to becoming raving fans and buying customers.
It's not a fad anymore.
Every blue-chip company is using social media...
and every small to medium business ought to take notice and get active today.
Social media -- with sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube -- has fundamentally altered the way we communicate with each other and with our prospects and customers.
The numbers are too impressive to ignore: If Facebook was a country; it would the third largest in the world.
YouTube is now the second largest search engine behind Google, exceeding 2 billion views a day.
You get the idea.
If you are not on social media, you can be sure your customers and competitors are; so now is the time for you to take action and get involved before it's too late.
A Better Kind of Marketing You should know that social media marketing is vastly different than traditional marketing - and so much more powerful.
In social media marketing you don't interrupt your customers with promises hoping to catch their attention.
You forge direct relationships with customers built on their experiences with your brand.
You engage your customer in a way that is memorable and meaningful.
Social media marketing is about developing relationships with your customers by being generous with value up front; vulnerable by including customers in your marketing process; candid by being yourself; and accountable by backing up your promises.
Social media marketing turns strangers into friends, then into fans, then into loyal customers.
Focusing Your Efforts If one were to try becoming active on all of the thousands of social media sites, it would be virtually impossible.
There isn't enough time in the day; and besides, many sites are focused on small niches that would not be relevant to your business.
If you're just starting out, you'll be best served by establishing a presence on four major social media sites.
Each has its own strong points which compliment the other, so by being on all four you have a variety of different ways to reach and interact with your customers and compel them to visit your store or website.
Facebook: Facebook is the key way to establish relationships with your prospects and customers.
Every business should take advantage of the enormous reach of the site, currently with 500 million active users, by setting up a free business page and creating content that builds relationships with your best customers and interests them in buying your products.
LinkedIn: With its over 100 million business professionals, LinkedIn is the site to make and establish meaningful relationships with the movers and shakers of the world.
You can establish a personal profile and network with others, look for opportunities for partnerships and new business, and create a profile for your company.
Often you can secure work right on the site, and you can add three links to your profile that lead to websites where you can sell your products.
Twitter: Known as a micro-blog, because you write in 140-character bursts, Twitter is great for creating buzz about your company.
It's a global networking event where you meet and greet new people, strike up conversations based on common interests, and discuss business trends in your industry.
Once you can engage and entertain other people on Twitter, then it's easy to connect them to your main website where they can be converted in buying customers.
YouTube: If a picture paints a thousand words, a video does even more: It creates an emotional connection with your customer in a way that static text or pictures never could.
A video of you talking about your business or demonstrating your product on YouTube becomes a 2/47 global selling tool that people can watch online or on their phones.
You can add links to your website in the video and also on the video page, thereby giving your viewers a place to go to purchase your product.
In summary, social media marketing is a revolutionary new way to engage prospects in a two-way dialog that can lead them to becoming raving fans and buying customers.
It's not a fad anymore.
Every blue-chip company is using social media...
and every small to medium business ought to take notice and get active today.
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