Marketing your business today no longer means just using Ads across the online space and sitting back, you need to play a more active role in online marketing of your website and business. This includes engaging actively in social media marketing.
Unlike traditional avenues of online marketing, you should start and maintain a social networking presence for this form of marketing to be effective. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are popular today, but do you remember MySpace? It was once the go to social networking site for everyone, but one day, seemingly overnight, Facebook took over. The secret to avoid being left behind in the tide of technology is to diversify yourself into numerous social networking sites. This will not only expand your exposure, but it will keep you relevant, no matter which social networking site is at the forefront this week.
Social Media Marketing
How do your implement an online presence and incorporate a social networking marketing campaign without going crazy? There are some simple points to follow through which apply both to general online marketing and social media marketing.
Customer service comes first
Whether you are a business owner or you just want increase the awareness of your webpage, you need to start engaging with your customers before they are even visit your site. Do not fill every Tweet and Facebook update with a plug for your website, let your followers learn about you so they automatically become curious about your product or website. Maintain a link to your site from your social networking page, and mention it only if it comes up naturally in the conversation. Which leads to the next point,
Keep your followers up to date.
Daily updates are a must with social networking, and in the case of Twitter, even hourly “Tweets” are not above the norm. Do not let it take over your life, but for your followers to trust you enough to visit your site, they must see you as active in the social networking community. Begin and maintain a constant stream of conversation with your followers. This can only be done if you are checking and updating your social media sites.
Diversity is your friend.
Create and establish a social media presence on as many networking sites as possible. Right now everyone is on Facebook and Twitter, but other sites do exist. Consider creating accounts in FourSquare, Linkedin. Google, MSN, and Yahoo groups allow you to create a social media presence to reach those still not connected to the other main social networking sites. With Google, Yahoo and MSN groups, you can tie in your contact list in your Yahoo, Google or Hotmail account to the group for creating invitations. By being on many social networking sites at once, you can be assured that the next upheaval in the Internet social world will not catch you by surprise.
Do not neglect traditional online ads.
Banner ads and pop ups do work. Thousands of people click on these daily. Consider getting professional assistance with designing and implementing your ads, especially on other websites. That professional touch will make the ads more effective and free you to keeping up with your social media advertising.
The future of marketing is online, through social media, people can connect in ways they never were able to in the past. Use this to your advantage as one of the most powerful marketing weapons in your arsenal.
Social media marketing is one small cog in the online marketing strategy. The phrase online marketing is the new terminology used for search marketing (search engine marketing (SEM) ) and search engine optimisation (SEO)