Social Media Presence, Marketing - Social Packs Using Same Brands, Themes
Social media campaigns for marketing can work for driving traffic to your blog and website, as well as in enhancing the visibility of your brand and business. Social media marketing offers extremely valuable, shareable rich media content in various forms including text, video or images. In this article I outline the tactics for a successful marketing campaign.
People watch Facebook and YouTube videos because they are funny, entertaining, educational and answer their questions. Viewers can in the future open your Slideshare account be captivated by your stunning content. LinkedIn is renowned for personal branding and joining in the questions and answers sections and generally learning from the various updates and reviews on the site.
Twitter teases you to click on links for information and product reviews and information. The news that is concise and up to date.
You can tap into these conversations to for a marketing campaign for your products or services if you have the right approach, suitable technique and know of the tricks and tips.
The secret for these tips is to create a ‘social media synergy’ and two-way conservation.
Develop a company Blog and appoint a staff member to participate - Reserving a separate domain name for your blog – something catchy and appealing. You need to appoint someone who can build fabulous content and build the social networks. A blog demands a long term commitment of resources and time and needs to be updated and kept fresh and thriving. Help your readers promote your content by installing helpful plug-ins, such as a TweetMeme button and the many others types are available.
Targeting appropriate sites - There are hundreds of social media pages to choose from, but it is important that you choose the right one for your company and products. The ones to start with are Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter and Digg. Do some research to find other sites that can send you highly targeted and good quality traffic. Look for niche-specific social media sites in your own area. Digg and Reddit are good for promoting new products and reviews.
Use Social Media consistently - Becoming an expert in social media and getting it working for you requires skill experience and dedication. It also requires on-going commitment and lots of time, especially at the start.
Develop appealing and specific content for your target audience - You need fabulous content that is designed for and meets the needs of the social media users you are targeting. Make the presentation and media used as appealing to the social group. Social media communities love pictures and videos, up to date real breaking news, top ten lists, what's new, controversy, and how-to-do content.
Participate On Other Blogs and Social Media Sites - You must spend time by joining and contributing to discussions on other people’s blogs, twitter feeds etc. This is why you need staff devotes to this. The rewards can be substantial. Remember that it takes some time and effort to establish a reputation and validate your credibility and authority. You can not rely on others coming to you if you don't contribute. Focus initially on 2-3 blogs used in your industry and regularly read their content and contribute to their discussions. One strategy for identifying suitable blogs is to use Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop directory. Once you have established a reputation you can ask for guest post or to put an article about your products on their blog.
Actively Network, Engage, and Help Others in Forums - Take the time to build you network on social media websites, by adding friends, providing comments and advice, and providing answers to questions on forums. Vote for submissions on the site and generally keep yourself informed about the happenings and events in your social circle.
Be Consistent - Your profiles, advice, comments, suggestions, posts and interaction should maintain a consistent set of values and authenticity. Ensure that all staff involved are consistent with the information that is provided. Otherwise you will destroy your reputation
Facilitate Conversions - Attracting social media traffic to your Webster is only the start. Make sure that your website is designed to convert visits into subscriptions, purchases, backlinks or other services. Offer discounts, exclusive coupon deals, or a free gift.
Start Slow and Evolve - Pick one site that you are familiar with. Develop communication with that site and then add more sites as you develop the skills.
Develop a Plan - Work out your goals and what are you hoping to achieve and when. Then develop a plan to achieve these goals to create a process that will accomplish what you are aiming to do. Outlining the clear goals and steps for developing your social media marketing campaign and work out how you are going to measure success and adapt the strategy to the feedback.
Monitor Your Brand and the Responses in the Market - Part of an effective social media campaign is monitoring who is talking about your company, what they are saying, and how people are reacting to it.
- Set up Google Alerts which are free email updates from Google search results about what you are tracking in tracking.
- Review the results in your web analytics data - such as Google Analytics or a hit counter.
- Search Facebook for your company’s name to see who and what people are saying about company.
- Search Twitter for real-time results using your company’s name.
Actively Request Feedback - Use social media as a proactive customer service tool. Don't wait for a customer to send in a comment, question or complaint, use social media to directly engage and interact with your audience in requesting feedback, reviews and comments. You will get valuable feed back much quicker by asking for it.
Evaluate your Facebook content and their business strategy and use this to build your own presence. Facebook offers outstanding, low cost marketing campaign options for small businesses and you need to put your business on it. Secure your company's username and search for your competitors.
- Acquire Twitter followers quickly but remember that quantity is important
- Include # tags that deliver the Tweets to various groups. Do some research to find the relevant # tags for your topics
- Tweet regularly and consistently and follow the posts of other influential bloggers in your topic category and respond to them
YouTube
- Include keyword tags for each video
- Write a headline that is 'keyword' rich for your industry and niche
- Interview influential people in your topic category on video and post them to YouTube
- Include your website/blog link in your profile
- Write a tempting and teasing headline that makes the potential viewer want to 'hit' the play button. Place a link to your blog at the beginning of each description for each video and make sure you write a description that includes keywords and inviting description
- Linked In
Make your LinkedIn profile 'Public' in your settings
- Setup a LinkedIn profile for your blog (not just your personal profile)
- Add your Twitter feed into your LinkedIn account using the 'Add an Application'
- Pose questions in the Q&A section of LinkedIn with links to your possible answer as a post link.
- Use all three website or links that LinkedIn allows in your profile (these can point to your website, blog and Facebook)
- Integrate your Slideshare into your LinkedIn account using the 'Add an Application' button at the bottom right of your home page
- Integrate your Blog post feed into your LinkedIn account using the `Add an Application' button at the bottom right of your home page
Slideshare
- Post them to your Facebook page
- Promote your presentations on Twitter
- Include keyword tags that would be used to find the presentation
- Write a good headline both on the presentation itself and the Title area
- Turn your posts into PowerPoint presentations and post them to Slideshare
- Allow viewers to download your presentation to assist in making it easy for people to share
In choose CC (Creative Commons) Copyright License so people can use your content and then attribute and link to your blog
Leverage Combinations of Social Media Tools
- Connect your LinkedIn profile to your WordPress or other blog.
- One of the best strategies is to use social networks in combination with each other.
- Connect your Twitter account to Facebook so that your tweets will appear in your public updates on Facebook.
- Integrate Twitter tools into your blog. Put TweetMeme retweet buttons on you blogs. Also use the ShareThis tool to enable readers to quickly share content on multiple social networks.
Social Packs with Common Branding and Themes
It is important to not develop your social media presence in a willy nilly way. Building a common theme, with identical graphics and branding maximizes the impact. Social media promotion should be an integrated part of developing your presence and brand.
Conclusion
Social media marketing campaigns can be a very successful strategy to expand your small business. I trust that the campaign strategies I have outlined help you to get started.