Five Steps Businesses Need to Take Now to Catch the Social Media Wave, or Be Swamped By It!
Michael J. Savino
Social Media…Not Just for Family and Friends!It’s Become Extremely Important for Businesses, Too!
Social media….it’s all the buzz today! It is estimated that more than a third of the world’s population is some how connected to one social media platform or another. So pervasive has social media become that it has become crucial for all businesses, small and great alike, to consider harnessing the power of social media and use it to their advantage. Social media is allowing business to become more “humanized”, similar to our home town business owners that know their customers on a first name basis, their likes and dislikes, and whose word of mouth advertising businesses thrive on. Businesses, even nonprofits, that ignore the potential afforded them by social media involvement will put themselves at a great disadvantage as more and more of their competitors realize the excellent return on investment that social media marketing gives them.
I’m Broke…My Budget is Limited!
Those on a limited marketing budget will find out that social media marketing is very cost effective, with a great return on investment compared to traditional, non-trackable forms of advertising. Having an employee devote even part of his/her time keeping social media up to date is well worth the effort and expense in the added, perceived value it will create in providing information about your products, services, news, sales, deals, etc., and the potential increased customer base it will create. Here are five basic steps all businesses should take to begin using social media effectively:
Step 1: Blogging
Blogging, for example, is an easy way to reach out to both existing and potential customers with information about your brand, company, organization, industry developments or any other valuable content they could use. This sharing of yourself raises awareness about who you are, gives a clue as to your business philosophy, what you do differently from competitors, and increases your overall credibility with a public that is becoming increasingly more savvy in terms of social media. Customers and clients today like the ability to interact with their brands and favorite companies. They like being able to share both positives and negatives about their experience with products and/or services, especially if you, the business owner or associate respond to them. This goes a long way in developing branding, name recognition, consumer confidence, and ultimately, loyalty…which is what you want. These same loyal, satisfied customers now become your best ambassadors as they engage in the all-so-coveted word of mouth advertising, both on- and offline.
Using a blog to convey relevant and valuable content, even occasionally entertaining content, will no doubt result in increased traffic to your web site, resulting in increased sales…and an increase in the return on the investment you made in your social media campaigns, since you’ll be expanding your satisfied customer base.
When considering a social media marketing campaign, an important point to keep in mind, if you’re still hesitant, is that many of the most useful platforms are free! For example, WordPress.com and Blogger.com (owned by Google) are very good choices. Both of these are hosted within the site and don’t need to have outside hosting sites. WordPress.org offers more control and versatility, allowing for the use of many themes and plug-ins that enhance the functionality of the software, but may be more advanced for some and requires an outside hosting site.
Once you decide which blog platform type, you want to use…a more “open source” one like WordPress.org that have developers constantly designing components and “plugins”, or a hosted blog site like Blogger.com or WordPress.com, you’ll want to limit blog posts to a minimum of 1-2 and a maximum of 3-5 posts per week. You can even develop 4-8 blog writings at once, and then schedule them for release on the HootSuite.com site, which has both a free and subscription managed release service. I mention this because you’ll want to sync your blog posts to your next giant platform, Facebook, with an RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed.
A final point to remember about blogging is that it should be used to engage your current and potential customer/client base and build relationships with them, not sell your products or services. Connect and link your social media together and to your website, but it’s your web site that you will primarily use to sell. Social media is for engaging and building your brand and expanding your market. It’s the “human” side of your business…so keep it that way.Besides Blogging…Which Social Media Platforms Are Needed Most?
Step 2: Facebook
Facebook currently has an estimated membership of some 750 million users and counting. If it were a country, It would be the third largest! Nearly half of all users log on each day, for an average of roughly half an hour to an hour. With the advent of more web-enhanced mobile devices, we now have some 100 million mobile users who access Facebook regularly. Businesses should note that 40% of Facebook users become “fans” of products and services. So, Facebook is a crucial market segment businesses need to get in front of! So, you’ll need a Facebook fan page if you’re in business…
For that, rather than spending hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars having one designed and maintained for you, you can do a great professional-looking job with that yourself now using the newly launched, fully-integrated Facebook app called the “Total Social Media System.” It will give you an easy-to-use, point-and-click/type interface to get a knock em’ dead awesome fan page and side bar up (like the big guys do) fairly quickly!
With this app, Then you’ll have desktop, 24/7 back office edit-on-the-fly capability any time you want to switch it up, such as with new promotions, product design, launch, or demonstration videos (videos get higher ratings on search engines like Google!), photos, customer testimonials, etc. You’ll be able to interact with your customers and “fans” (very important goal of social media) as they leave comments and you respond. If you’re a little nervous still around Facebook, you’ll have access to short 4-5 minute video clip tutorials in your back office as well, which are pretty awesome (They’ve already helped me!).
You’ll also get three-way communication with email alerts when someone visits your page (and you’ll get their name and email address for follow up, so it’s also a capture page!), they’ll get a personalized “thank you” message across their profile wall (which all their friends will see, further advertising your business!), and visitors receive a personalized email message from you, the business owner…a message that can be filled with all sorts of value-laden content, such as coupons or special offers for “fans” only. Of course, when visitors “like” your page, of course you’ll get even more of that all-important viral marketing effect, since all friends on your visitor’s contact list get notified! Then it just EXPLODES from there. Oh…almost forgot…if you like the app, you can even earn commissions when others you recommend to use the application actually sign up to use it…a cool way to get a second income stream! (For information on how to take advantage of this application, check my author bio!)
Now, your Facebook fan page will be updated frequently, like your blog, so you’ll need to be linked to the next big giant, Twitter!Step 3: Twitter
Twitter is quickly becoming the fastest growing, on-the-fly social media platform, one that businesses are courting with gusto! We’re seeing some one billion tweets a week, from some 200 million users. Some 460 thousand new accounts are created every day! Twitter allows anyone to post short, 140-character message bursts from where ever they are, when ever they want. It’s a great way for individual entrepreneurs and companies to alert their “followers” about updates, news, latest offers, promotions, unannounced specials, etc.. Best of all. …it’s free!
Once you’ve set up a blog, you’ll want to link it to Twitter and Facebook, and vice versa, via RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed, which will help funnel people to your blog content. Twitter also allows you to announce things on the fly, in real time, as they happen, which includes announcements about when other things (like your fan page on FB or your blog on WordPress, for example!) have been updated. Twitter is quickly becoming a huge way customers or clients who “follow” you can be alerted to the slightest changes, company announcements, product launches, specials, etc. that your business goes through. It’s quickly becoming the fastest way people comment to others about your products, services, location(s), recommendations, etc., so don’t underestimate the power of “tweets.” One little side note about linking…you don’t want to link your Twitter tweets to Facebook because your Facebook fans probably won’t like it. However, the reverse is considered okay!Step 4: YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine to Google,and is actually owned by Google now. Over 3 billion videos are streamed daily, with 35 hours or more of new footage being added each minute! There are some 300 billion views per day! The average YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube. Obviously, this represents another huge marketing opportunity for those wanting to get themselves in front of an audience…and again, it’s free!
YouTube is another boon to business, as you can use this free medium to do video marketing by creating, say, one video per week, which, again, can be linked to your other media! Video marketing is HUGE now, as YouTube is the second largest search engine, next to Google (and is owned by Google now!). Videos also get you much higher rankings in search engines. Videos also get the third highest amount of interactions when posted on Facebook! You could probably manage to put together one or two videos per week. They don’t have to be long to be effective. A couple of 1 – 3 minute videos per week is all you need! This could be anything from customer testimonials, special projects, video blogs from company execs, product launch announcements or demonstrations…you name it!
If you spent maybe half a day writing up four blog posts and making, say, two videos, you could schedule their release on YOUR time table by using a site like Hootsuite.com (free, but also has a /mo. package) and the TubeMogul.com site that uploads video to ALL major sites and helps you track views to see which sites are getting most traffic…an important piece of market research for you! Very cool!Step 5: LinkedIn
LinkedIn, which just became a publicly traded company last spring, has over 100 million users right now. Although geared more towards the networking of professionals, it still represents a great way to network with people and get your business promoted. People in your network can refer and recommend you to others, thereby giving you more credibility. Again…most of it is free!
LinkedIn is a great place for networking with others in your business, following forum discussions, doing forum marketing to individuals as you post and respond to “discussions”, learning more about your industry, and getting lots of free resources through a variety of exchanges. You may even find excellent talent through their “jobs” area.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile is search engine optimized (SEO)by embedding important search keywords in your title, summary, education, experience, activities, societies, interests, etc. Make sure you include ALL contact information, other social media profiles, and websites. You want to make it easy for people both to find you and contact you!
So…Start Taking Action With Your Five-Step Summary!
Here’s a simple action plan some might call ideal for micro or small businesses and start-ups:
1. Get Your Blog Set Up — post valuable content at least weekly, but 3 – 5 times a week is optimal.2. Link Your Blog to Twitter and Facebook via RSS Feed — but remember…DON’T send Twitter feeds to Facebook…your fans won’t like it. The reverse is okay, however.3. Start Video Marketing Via YouTube and TubeMogul — shoot for a couple of videos per week!4. Devote half a day to create four blog posts plus two videos and schedule posts to your blog, Facebook updates, and Twitter “tweets” (140 characters, max) using HootSuite.com5. Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile and make sure you link it to your other social media and vice versa. Use forum marketing on this channel as both a promotion and learning tool by initiating and responding to “discussions.”
Once you are set up on these social media giants, just log in daily, or assign the task, for comment moderation and quick, daily posts, for perhaps a half hour per day.
These initial steps will go a long way toward establishing a strong social media presence for your business or cause and greatly expanding your exposure!
So…catch the social media wave! See you in the surf!
I am Michael J. Savino, a social educator for over twenty years, and Social Media Consultant for, and Independent Business Owner in, Social Outbreak. We specialize in helping individuals, non-profit organizations, home businesses, network marketers, and businesses of all sizes harness the power of social media to grow and expand their customer or client base. Our newest product is the “Total Social Media System”, a fully-integrated Facebook application that allows for side bar and fan page creation using a user-friendly, point-and-click interface that allows for thousands of different font, color, and layout design and style possibilities, including photo and video upload, and customer/client interaction sections. The application has three-way communication and viral marketing capabilities built right in!
To find out more or get the Total Social Media System for yourself, visit me at http://www.michaelsavinosocialmediaconsulting.com, or http://www.socialoutbreak.com/michaelsavino