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Making a Start in Social Media Marketing for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleSocial media marketing can seem like a quick win for many businesses, but if you don’t fully understand how to utilize these platforms, the millions of likes and followers won’t mean much if they are not converting. Many businesses are fixated on high numbers when it comes to social presence, but in fact, engagement is an accurate representation of the quality leads you can expect from this form of marketing. By focusing on the bigger picture, you can implement a precise strategy to make the most out of this vast arena. It’s not enough to just upload content and hope for the best, as most people want to be a part of the brand experience plus if you interact and communicate on a deeper level, this can have enormous benefits for your company.

Take a look at the ways to make a start in social media marketing, so that you can utilize its potential.

Understand what you are trying to achieve

When you create content or promotions for your social media platform, it’s naïve to think that if you just pop it up that people will find it. Feeds change every second, so if you haven’t got anything interesting to shout about, it’ll get lost in the ether. Unless you know what you want to get out of the post, you will have no idea how to measure its success. It could be a simple tally of likes, or how many followers you achieved but delving deeper could identify the engagement level and what type of people are looking at your content.

You can’t be good at everything

You will rarely see one brand doing every platform well. There are so many to choose from that spreading yourself too thin will mean that each may fall under the radar in the long run. Looking at how the different platforms work and what type of people they attract will help you decide on where to focus your efforts. For example, young people love Snapchat and Instagram, whereas professionals will be on LinkedIn, so knowing your audience is key to delivering the right message and not wasting your time trying to promote to people that have no interest.

Make it visual

Posts that are wordy can put people off reading them, but if you have a succinct, snappy message with a high-quality image, you will generally grab people’s attention. You can also use free resources such as MailChimp landing pages to create a call-to-action to share on your social media. This helps to give your audience a specific message such as promotional offers, sign up page or competition entry form in a simple way.

There are many things to think about when using social media to target new and returning customers. By utilizing these platforms and creating content that is interesting and shareable, you will begin to see excellent results both in engagement and sales. Like all marketing efforts, this aspect can take time to grow so unless you’re one of the very few lucky ones to get that moment in the viral spotlight, you’ll have to be patient and persistent.

Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses

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Many small businesses are increasingly focusing on the web when it comes to making their brand a success. It’s easy to see why when you take a look at the extreme success of various online businesses and take into account that almost every high street retailer also has a website which allows them to operate online in tandem with their brick and mortar store. Setting up a website gives you an edge. It allows customers to order goods from you from the comfort of their own home. This is the ultimate form of convenience, especially if you offer next day delivery options. A webstore also allows you to operate round the clock. You no longer have to work with strict opening and closing times, as you can leave an online store unmanned and operating twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Then you can open up your brand to a worldwide market of consumers with the simple addition of international shipping options! However, your brand’s online presence has the potential to reach so much further than a website alone. You can also incorporate other forms of media into your business strategies in order to make profit. For now, let’s focus on social media. Here are just a few of the benefits that it can bring to your venture.

Facebook

Facebook is perhaps the most popular form of social media. It has approximately 2.2 billion users active every single month. So, this may well be the best place to start if brand exposure is what you’re looking for. When setting up a profile for your business on social media, make sure to establish that you are a business at the start of the page setup. This will give you access to more appropriate profile editing options that can benefit you as a brand. Perhaps the main benefit of Facebook (besides exposure) is that you can add certain details to your page’s profile which help customers to receive the best possible customer service that you can provide. Your profile can detail your store’s physical location (including address and postcode) so that customers can make their way to your brick and mortar store without hassle. You can also add a contact number and contact email address so that they can contact you easily. Then there’s the instant messenger option that you can activate. This means that customers can easily contact you, you will receive a notification, and you can respond to them as quickly as possible. You can then use your feed to give customers updates and put out announcements, such as sales, new lines, and special events.

Instagram

Another extremely popular form of social media is Instagram. This app specialises in the visual, which is particularly beneficial for online companies who only have visual representations of their goods to sell to their customers until they receive the real deal in the post after purchase. For the strongest Instagram presence possible, you need plenty of followers. The more followers you have, the more likes you will have on your posts. If consumers see that other consumers like something, it becomes increasingly desirable and they’re likely to want to purchase the goods that everyone else likes. However, cultivating these followers and likes is a little difficult to start with when you haven’t yet established a presence. Perhaps the best way to get started is to buy likes on Instagram. This will give your brand a presence, which will in turn generate more attention and more legitimate followers and likes.

Twitter

While Twitter isn’t necessarily automatically associated with brands, it’s an online powerhouse that you should engage with regardless. Twitter’s main benefit for companies is convenient communication. Tweets are capped at 140 characters, so it can be used for short and sweet exchanges with your customers and potential customers. More complex and lengthy conversations can be taken to the inbox feature. It can also be used for short announcements and updates for your followers. However, you can also take a controversial approach which brings mass attention to your brand. Just take a look at Denny’s twitter feed. Their comedic tweets have resulted in the fast food chain amassing 479,000 followers.

If you haven’t started engaging with social media on a professional level yet, it’s about time that you get around to it. After all, some of the most accessed apps have the potential to bring a ridiculous number of potential customers your way and also allow you the resources to keep in touch with them and make further sales!

Build A Buzz Around Your Business And Profits Will Soar No Matter What

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In the film industry, movies are products. For business owners, it is interesting and useful to consider what makes a new movie successful. How do studios today reach that incredible goal of one billion in total box office receipts? It’s quite simple; they build a buzz around the product. This is what you need to do with your product. The best recent example is Suicide Squad. Suicide Squad is Warner Bros product, and it’s just been slammed by critics. Should they care, should they be worried it’s not going to sell? Actually no, because they’ve already done their job. The marketing has built a buzz. There have been viral strategies in place for over a year. They’ve had millions of views on YouTube, and it came out as the top brand in a recent marketing event. All this points to one fact. Warner Bros have got themselves a hit, whether critics like it or not. This is a valuable lesson all business owners should learn. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a product of high quality, if you can establish a high demand, it will sell. How do you do this?

Social Media Marketing

Build A Buzz Around Your Business And Profits Will Soar No Matter WhatPhoto courtesy of Pixabay

If you want to build a buzz around your new product or business, you should start by looking at social media. You need to use your social media networks in two ways. You should be connecting with your customers on a regular basis, and you should be releasing content that they want to share and view. You can use each social media network in various ways. For instance, on Facebook, you can create discussion or group pages. Groups can be powerful marketing tools, particularly if you fill the group with influential members. People who your customers will trust and will want to hear from. An extra tip is to not add these people to the group yourself. Rather, you need them to join independently. This is the best way to ensure that they are an active member of the group. They will generate the buzz around your business for you.

On Twitter, it is crucial that you use hashtags, although not in every tweet. This can get annoying. At the same time, though, it’s useful to know that hashtags make it more likely for content to be shared. If your content is shared, more people will be talking about your business or your product. It is an easy way to generate more interest in your company.

Live feeds are becoming more important as well. Live feeds are often used as a backdoor into the company. You can show your customers what is happening behind the scenes and make the business more accessible. If you can do this, it could be very valuable. Customers always want to see the people behind the corporation. If you have interesting individuals working for you, it’s a great way to build a buzz.

Content

Build A Buzz Around Your Business And Profits Will Soar No Matter WhatPhoto courtesy of DigitalRalph via Flickr

The key to great content that generates talk and publicity is to make sure that it’s targeted. You need to write and create content specifically for your target consumer. Think about the people who don’t need to be primed to buy your product. This is who the content needs to be aimed towards. You might be offering SEO services. If that’s the case, then your business is going to appeal to local and international entrepreneurs or business owners. You might also catch the interest of bloggers and website owners. Since these are your target customers, you need to think about what is appealing to them. The best way to do this is to create a context around your marketing. Business owners are probably unaware of the difficulties of SEO. By pointing things out such as Google penalties, you can persuade them to use a professional service. This is just one example of how content can get your business the buzz it needs. You will be offering your consumers the solutions to their problems.

More Than A Business Space

Build A Buzz Around Your Business And Profits Will Soar No Matter WhatPhoto courtesy of Pexels

You should be aiming for your business venue to be more than just space. It needs to shine on the high street, particularly if you are part of a retail company. It is all about offering customers more and taking your service that extra mile. If you own a physical space as a business, creating an online buzz won’t do the trick. You have to get the customers through the door to buy and to do that you may want to look at these great tips from The POET Companies. Agencies like this know what customers want and what they’re looking for. Once you have redesigned the space, then you can start generating a buzz around it online before it reopens.

Marketing Events

Build A Buzz Around Your Business And Profits Will Soar No Matter WhatPhoto courtesy of Charles & Hudson via Flickr

We have already mentioned how the film industry uses marketing events to create a buzz. Every industry has the potential to do this, and it is a possibility that you should be looking into. A marketing event is the chance to make your company shine over other businesses. You can attract attention from investors and consumers at the same time. Obviously one of the key marketing events that you need to know about is a trade show. You can use a trade show to generate a buzz by showing off a new product or a new business model. Remember, though; trade shows are highly competitive environments. You will need to deliver something truly special to win the attention of customers and investors. One possibility is to utilize available technology. With the right tech, you can make your business seem modern and exciting. Even using older ideas could generate this effect such as 3D. 3D is fairly cheap tech these days, and it could bring your marketing into an entirely new dimension.

These are just some of the techniques you can use to create a buzz around a company or a product. As you can see, it is all about perception. If you alter the perception of your product, customers will buy anything. We have seen this time and time again in different industries. With the right marketing and promotion, you’ll always get the sale.

More BIG Questions and BIGGER Answers

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Here are a few more sales, business, and life answers that can help you make more sales TODAY, and help you build a personal brand and reputation FOREVER.

1. Jeffrey, what do you do EVERY DAY to build attraction and brand?

What do you do to create consistency in your daily business habits? And I wonder how many of your daily habits take the long-term view. Or are you just trying to make sales to make quota? Big mistake.

I want to talk about one element of your personal business habits: Your personal outreach, your daily outreach that builds attraction, personal brand, authority, known expertise, recognition, position in your industry, Google rank, social media presence, top of mind awareness, and reputation. Oh, that.

Sounds like a LOT of work. But actually it takes LESS time than your morning bathroom routine once you’re set up and rolling. And these are habits that create attraction. Real attraction. Value attraction.

The cool part is it costs (almost) nothing. All you have to do is allocate the time, and (most important) commit to DAILY OUTREACH.

Here are two of my consistent actions:

  • Blog or personal website. A starting place, a landing place, and a jumping off place for stories, ideas, opinions, photos, videos, training, and anything else your customers or followers would find BOTH interesting and valuable. On a blog you can mix business and personal, as long as it’s not offensive. Your posts can be subscribed to and delivered by email. OUTREACH: Blog with a minimum of a weekly, if not daily, post. You have unlimited space for text, photos, and videos. Your blog is an opportunity for people to realize both your intellect and your passion.
  • YouTube. Video is the new black. This is a chance to convey messages, training, subject matter expertise, testimonials, and offers of value. Your viewers can subscribe, and your posts can be cross-pollinated on your blog, your Facebook page, and your LinkedIn profile.

2. Jeffrey, there’s a HUGE misused and misunderstood word in small AND big business. The word is ATTRACTION. How do small business owners attract leads in today’s social world?

All business social media must be combined with your traditional business and Internet outreach. To attract, the key ideas are ‘personalized messages’ and ‘value-based’ messages.

If you’re looking for more attraction (who isn’t?), here are some of the small business, internet, AND business social media value-based messaging and marketing elements I use to transfer my messages. My messages and posts both attract and connect. Go to these links and follow me. Then study them, learn how I do what I do, and emulate it.

  • LinkedIn – Jeffrey Gitomer – The number one business resource. I post my thought of the day or link of the day. RESPONSE: People like it and share it with their connections. That has lead to more than 23,000 connections.
  • Twitter – @gitomer – I tweet three or four times a day. I usually send out one link a day. RESPONSE: I am re-tweeted or favored more than 100 times a day, and I gain between 50 and 100 new followers a day.
  • Facebook business – /jeffreygitomer – Like me, then read a bunch of my posts, then be inspired to comment or post. RESPONSE: All of my followers (likers) read it, and when they like it or comment, all of their connections can see it too.
  • YouTube channel – BuyGitomer – People watch a few of my 300+ videos. RESPONSE: more than 25,000 subscribers.

You cannot control how people search. You must be findable by company, person, product, topic, and keywords that will get your name to pop up.

It’s not one thing that creates attraction. It’s a strategic combination of a social, online, and face-to-face outreach MIX that attracts interested buyers. It’s a confluence of value-based things that are available to customers and prospects.

Look at the diversity of my offerings, and the multiple opportunities that prospects have to find you, be attracted to you, connect with you, and buy from you.

3. Jeffrey, how do I attract leads at a face-to-face networking event?

NOTE WELL: Most people take networking for granted, and think of it more as a place to meet friends and clients rather than capture an opportunity. They also fail to realize that people, whether you know them or not, are cultivating an impression of you – not just about what you look like, but also based on how you act, and how you dress.

Your physical presence, your physiology, and your communication prowess can determine whether the outcome is business or no business.

Here are 3 networking attraction tips for your learning and connecting pleasure:

1. I shake and look. When I shake someone’s hand, it’s a firm grasp and a direct look in the eye.

2. I smile. Even in New York City. I find that by giving a smile, I get a smile.

3. I ask before I tell. Whether I ask for their name, or a simple “how are you?” I want to hear the other person before they hear me.

Face-to-face networking is still a GREAT way to attract and connect in the world of social and online sales.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Measuring the ROI of social media? There’s a laugh, and a joke.

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I got an (unsolicited) email offering a webinar to teach me about how to measure, and the importance of measuring, the ROI of social media.

TOTAL JOKE. And a bad one at that.

Social media, business social media, is running wild – with or without you. Your customers and prospective customers are posting on Facebook whether you have the balls to have presence there or not.

And I am not just talking to companies – I am talking to YOU – the individual.

CONSIDER THIS: Of all the grassroots revolutions that have occurred on social media, none of them were started by companies or a governments. They were all started by people – people who were excited, people who were afraid, people who were pissed, and people who wanted change and spoke up. They spoke over CEOs, media, newspapers, government, lobbyists, and politicians.

HERE’S WHAT THEY SHOULD MEASURE: LRI otherwise known as Lost Revenue (and goodwill and customer loyalty) of Idiots.

While Macy’s and most other department stores are/were measuring ROI, Zappos is cleaning their clock, delivering value, connectingwith and responding to customers one on one, and building a billion dollar empire in less time than it took Macy’s to expand to a second store 100 years ago.

Webinars on the subject of ROI of social media are likely run by the same people who thought Amazon.com wouldn’t make it. If Bezos measured the ROI at Amazon in the first five years, he would have quit. He accomplished domination while Barnes & Noble was measuring ROI, and Borders was going broke.

Amazon now has total market dominance based on leadership, vision, and technological excellence. Same with Apple. Microsoft used to laugh at them, now their employees all have iPads and iPods at home.

Measure? No, INVEST RESOURCES IN SOCIAL MEDIA WITHOUT MEASURING. NOW!

It’s way too soon to measure.

MAJOR POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: If they had measured the ROI of TV, or the computer, or the automobile, or the telephone, or the Internet after 5 years, NOBODY would have gotten involved, and we’d be in a technological bog – sinking.

Wake up and smell the opportunity!

People guarding nickels have no idea of the power or the value of business social media, much less social media. They have no idea of the lost opportunity, or the lost revenue. They have no idea of the perception and participation of customers.

My bet is people who measure the ROI of social media HAVE NEVER TWEETED. Wanna take that bet?

I define these people as the ones who still have a small rubber circle in the middle of their keyboard – completely out of touch with what’s new, and trying to prevent the unstoppable force of progress, and customers.

Wanna know who else ‘measured’ financial return?

  • Blockbuster measured online movie services.
  • Blackberry measured smartphones.
  • Microsoft measured music players.

Billion-dollar MIS-MEASUREMENT: Bank of America DIDN’T measure or understand the power of Facebook. They were greedily measuring increased revenue from debit card customers. Their billion dollar loss paled in comparison to their complete loss of goodwill. I doubt they will recover in a decade.

All of those companies are/were foolish.

There’s one company you want to take their time, measure nickels, rely on lawyers, and stick their big toe in the water before getting involved – that one company is your biggest competitor.

Here’s an easy plan to get rolling in a week or two:

1. Gather the email addresses of EVERYONE in your world.
2. Create a first-class, well tagged with key words, business page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
3. Start a YouTube channel by inviting your customers to film WHY they bought from you.
4. Map out a strategy, and goals for engagement, for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
5. Assign someone to monitor, post, and RESPOND to all who engage.
6. Create six value-based messages, two each for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
7. Shoot 2-3 value-based (something your customers could use) videos and post them on YouTube.
8. Invite all of your customers to join you by sending examples of your value messages. I recommend one campaign per media for four weeks – but have links to all in each email.
9. Post something every day on Facebook. Tweet something every day. Link with 2-5 people every day. Post one video a week.
10. If you really want to create some buzz, convert your contacts to Ace of Sales (www.aceofsales.com) – and send emails that differentiate yourself from the competition.
10.5 Only listen to your lawyer if they tell you what you CAN do.

Start there.
Start now.
Start.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].