7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products
and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the
conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content
and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people
will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.
8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore
them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of
social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches
out to you.
9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience.
That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in
conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to
replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.
10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t
do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media
should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
While the importance of social media marketing is generally accepted, the
fact that people don't question its value is all the more reason to think about
exactly what its value is. The goals of social media marketing can't be just to
gain likes, fans, and retweets. These things are not ends, but means to an end.
Social media marketing is far more than an online popularity contest, and the
better business owners understand that, the better they can use it for their
companies. Here are five benefits to social media that business owners need to
understand.
1. Increase brand awareness
One of the main benefits of social media marketing is the easiest to recognize:
Social media is an excellent way to introduce people to a brand. Despite the Field
of Dreams notion some business owners have that "if you build it,
they will come," if people are unaware of a business or a website's
existence, they can't shop there (Kevin Costner was dealing with ghosts, who
have a lot of free time to meander around cornfields). Because social networks
are used by more than two-thirds of the country, and given the way content
spreads virally to others, social media is the perfect channel to promote a
brand to potential customers. Relevanza reported that 78 percent of small businesses attract
new customers through social media.
Research shows just how valuable this brand awareness can be. According to Adroit Digital, 75 percent of online Americans said
product information found on social media influences their shopping behavior
and enhances brand loyalty. They also report that social media is the second
most likely way U.S. Millennials will learn about a new product (26 percent of
respondents), just 3 percentage points behind TV advertising (29 percent). In
the future, social media may be even more important than TV ads for introducing
new products to consumers. Similarly, research
from eMarketer has shown that 33 percent of consumers cite social networks
as the way they discover new brands, products, and services.
2. Legitimize a brand
Another way social media marketing helps with customer acquisition is by
establishing a brand as legitimate. When Internet consumers discover a business
or retailer they want to use but know little about, they often check their
social media page to learn more about it. Many small businesses have static
websites that change little, if at all, after being initially set up by the
designer. Social media pages, on the other hand, should be constantly updated
with new posts, comments, etc. A website establishes that a brand exists, but a
social media page establishes that the brand is active. Similarly, the number
of fans shows how popular a brand is and Facebook reviews can reassure buyers
by showing them that other consumers like a business. Research from
Ballihoo found that 63 percent of consumers who search for local
businesses online are more likely to use businesses with information on social
media sites.
It's worth noting that poor social media marketing can also delegitimize a
brand. If a new customer goes to a business's social media page and finds that
a post hasn't been made in a few months, that customer may assume the business
is defunct. If customers are asking for help in the comments and they're being
ignored, they may assume the company has poor customer service.
3. Increase sales
In the end, social media marketing needs to help increase sales and revenue.
That's why it's called social media marketing and not simply social media
public relations. To be fair, improving brand awareness and legitimizing a
brand should, by themselves, help increase sales. But there are ways to use
social media to directly steer consumers toward the sales funnel. For fans of
the business, business owners can write posts that link to products, sales,
etc. Marketers can also use promoted content and advertisements to sell
products to target audiences who haven't become fans of a brand yet. The
ability to target particular audiences is one of the greatest benefits of
social media marketing. Social networks know a lot about consumer interests and
demographics, so even though there are hundreds of millions of fans, marketers
can accurately target the right people with the right message.
There are also a lot of ways that retailers can sell products directly from
social networks. On Facebook, business owners can set up a Facebook store with apps like Ecwid or Beetailer. On
Twitter, retailers with Amazon.com pages can allow Twitter users to add products to their Amazon checkout straight from their Twitter
feed. There are also ways to sell products on Pinterest, YouTube, and other
social networks.
4. Improve customer service
Another benefit of social media that's easy to overlook is customer service.
Even if a business has a dedicated customer service department, telephone
number, or email, it's important to handle issues via the method of
communication the consumer prefers. The fact that people use social media to
ask customer service questions is reason enough for businesses to ensure their ability to help customers through social media.
This also goes back to establishing a brand. One of the key concerns of
consumers when they shop online is the responsiveness of customer service.
People want to be assured that if they have a problem, they can easily find
help. By being receptive to customer needs, business owners can increase
customer loyalty to a brand.
5. Distribute content
Social media should be a part of any content marketing distribution system. Social
media accounts for a huge portion of referral traffic on the web. People are
looking for content that interests them and they want to share it online. A joint study by AOL and Nielsen found that people spend more
than 50 percent of their time online with content and an additional 30 percent
of their time on social channels where content can be shared. Business owners
who want to gain customers through content marketing need to use social media
and promoted content to make that happen.
All of these points and data show that social media marketing is a huge
benefit for business owners, and exactly what the benefits are. Besides
increasing brand awareness and establishing the legitimacy of the brand, social
media marketing can affect the bottom line of a business by increasing sales.
Learning about the importance of social media for marketing should also
underscore why these efforts need to be continuous and the harm it does when
social media marketing isn't up to consumer expectations. Long story short,
social media marketing is something that every business needs to do and needs
to do well. For more statistics that show the benefits of social media, read
this article that shows 11 stats to make you re-appreciate social media marketing.
Social media tools make it easy for small business owners to interact with
their current customers while attracting new clients, too. As a result,
understanding social media is essential for small businesses that rely on
Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about their company.
Along with giving you direct access to your customers, another benefit of
social media is that it’s extremely cost effective. In fact, many social media
tools are free. You may have to buy some social media apps for your laptop,
tablet or mobile device, but the cost is minimal — only a few dollars for each
application. The low cost of these apps makes increasing your social media
literacy an easy way to reduce your marketing expenses. There are a few social
media pitfalls your business should avoid. One major mistake is using social
media to argue with customers who have complained about your products or
services. Another is posting too many messages that aren't relevant to people
in your target market. Be careful to post targeted messages that will appeal to
the people you want to have as customers.
What are the different types of social channels?
Not all social media sites and platforms are created equal, and each social
channel won't always work the same way in helping users reach their goals. In
looking across the online environment, it helps to organize your social options
into categories. By looking at groups of channels with common themes, it is
easier to frame your decisions about when, where, who, and how best to engage
with your community online.
The easiest way to break up the categories is to think of them as owned,
rented, and occupied. Here's how each of those categories breaks down:
Owned properties. Owned
properties may include blogs, forums, or homegrown social networks, and they
can be internal or external. The main difference with this category is that you
literally own the channel rather than occupying a page on a platform that is
owned by someone else. It may be on your primary site or on another domain, but
it is fully under your control.
Rented properties. Much
like renting an apartment, a user occupies a portion of a channel with the
permission of the owner. Sometimes there is a cost involved, but in the world
of social media, that doesn't happen often. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and
Tumblr fall into this category. Facebook owns its site, and you're simply
managing a presence on it. You may have official claim to the page, but you
have no claim to the platform itself or a say in how it may change.
Occupied properties.
This category is the most removed from your control. Your company might have an
official representative who interacts and engages in an occupied property, but
there is no ownership of any kind, and these channels can be changed at any
time. Reddit is probably the most popular example. Employees of a company will
frequently participate in forums or community sites in either an official or
unofficial capacity, but always on behalf of the company.
Consumer conversations take place across all three of these social channel
categories, but before you dive into any of them, it's important to take some
time and think through your channel management plans and participation
strategies. For example, smaller brands with limited resources might select one
site based on the high mileage they can get from their consumer base before
needing to branch out into multiple channels. As a representative of your
brand, you have the opportunity to add unique perspective and value to whatever
channel will work best for your organization.
Which network should I sign up for first?
There is no one answer to this question. For each and every business, this
question will be answered differently. A good first step for any organization
is to visit KnowEm.com. This
site allows you to register your brand name across more than 500 social
networks. This will help to ensure that your name will be registered where you
need it to be, regardless of which platform you end up deciding is right for
your brand. And for those that you may not need to use right away, your brand
name remains protected from squatters. Consequently, Knowem also has one of the
most comprehensive
lists of all of the social networks on the web, so it is also a good place
to look for networks beyond the obvious Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.
That said, it's a pretty safe bet to say that nearly everyone should have a
Facebook page. With over 1.19 billion active monthly users (as of Sep. 2013), it’s
quite likely you will find a healthy number of your customers here. You may
find the same thing in Twitter.
Another tool to help you narrow down the "where" of your social
strategy is to go on a bit of a listening journey. Use one of the many social
listening tools to find out where your customers and greater industry are
having relevant conversations. This insight should help uncover where it makes
the most sense to set up your presence.
Single vs. multiple accounts
Whether or not to attempt multiple accounts on one social network is a big
question. The answer: It depends. Some large companies, like Nordstrom, have a corporate Twitter account,
while many of their stores have their own accounts. This allows them to communicate rather
specific and relevant information to regional followers, while maintaining
their corporate account for overarching news, promotions, and announcements.
Other companies have found it helpful to segment their accounts by product,
such as Google, GoogleAPIs, Blogger, and so on. In this case, it makes sense based on their
offerings to divide the conversations up by audience and product rather than
geography. Nike, Comcast, and Delta Airlines are
good examples of brands that have successfully implemented multiple accounts
for multiple purposes.
Additionally, you should carefully consider your ability to manage multiple
accounts. Tools like Hootsuite,
Sprout Social, and SocialEngage make it easier than ever to manage multiple
accounts from one dashboard, but remember—there's nothing sadder than an
abandoned social account. It doesn't send a good message about your brand and
its ability to follow through.
How to
get started
Identifying your own goals will help you decide which type of social media
channel makes the most sense for your efforts, and clarifying the desired
behavior of your community members will help define how you go about engaging
with them. For example, are you trying to increase brand awareness? If so,
consider marketing activities that include the collection and sharing of customer
testimonials, highly-shareable content, and buzz-worthy
interactions. Are you shooting for increased traffic and conversions? Look
for opportunities to engage with relevant, interested customers who are ready
to pull the "buy" trigger. The point is to match your engagement
efforts with the outcomes you want to see.
Once you get going in social, it's easy to get distracted. There are new
apps, tools, and networks that pop up on an almost-daily basis, and you could
easily spend your entire day just checking them all out. The idea, though, is
to strike a balance between tools-obsessed marketing and being an ostrich with
its head in the sand. It's better to do fewer things effectively than many
things ineffectively. But you should also keep your eyes and ears open for the
up-and-coming social trends; there will be a time when it makes sense for you
to jump in.
When all else fails, keep your eye on your goals, but don’t be afraid to dip
your toes in the water and test, test, test. Invest enough energy so you can
get a meaningful response, and use this as your guiding light on whether or not
you should go deeper.
As new networks emerge, how do you launch a new presence?
In social media, there are certain truths and norms. Once you've applied those
to your business in launching a presence on one network, you will quickly see
that they are portable across nearly all other networks. The rules of
engagement may differ slightly from site to site, as will the semantics,
perhaps, but the fundamentals will remain unchanged regardless of the platform
and are always the best place to start when branching out.
Goals and measurement: Determining your new channel's goals
should be something you think about from the very beginning. Why are you
engaging on this new channel? What are you trying to get out of it? After you
have identified your goals, you have to decide how to measure your success. For
emerging platforms, this may take a while, depending on what analytics tools
are available in the marketplace and how the platform’s API is set up. (You
could always build your own if it’s open enough and you have the resources.)
Branding: Your social authority is vital, and effective
branding can go a long way to establishing your authority as a brand. Social
channels also provide you with exciting possibilities to express your brand and
increase brand impressions. Make sure your avatars are on point and your bios
are dialed in, and make your first impression count!
Content seeding: There is nothing quite as sad as visiting
the page of a social profile you’re interested in and finding absolutely
nothing there. Before you start following people or actively directing traffic
to your new profile, make sure you post some content over the course of several
days. This helps reassure visitors that there is something there worth
following.
Influencer connection: After you get your branding t's
crossed and your content i’s dotted, it’s time to start looking for people with
whom you can engage. Start by seeking out those individuals you’ve identified
as influencers from other platforms. You have likely already established a
relationship with them, and relationships are portable across platforms.
Leverage that. As you interact with them, seek out more individuals who are
relevant to your space in their followers. Before long, you should have the
basis for a nice little network.
Discovery: Once you have established that this new network
is a place where you plan on investing time and energy, add links from relevant
places to help your customers discover your new presence. Write up content
about what you’re doing that is interesting, and highlight it on your blog.
Cross-post from your other social channels to drive awareness.
Content calendar/publishing: As with all of the other
channels you have established, it’s important to keep a content or publishing
calendar. You can do some content scheduling through available tools like HootSuite, Spout Social, and SocialEngage. When planning a content calendar, you can be
as sophisticated as having a plug-in baked right into your content management
system or as simple as using an Excel spreadsheet. It's really about whatever
works for you, and planning ahead helps to ensure you’re fully optimizing
events, promotions, and interests relevant to your audience.
When you're ready to get started, there can be so much to do that it seems
overwhelming. The great thing about social, though, is that once you get the
basics settled, most of them are transferable to whatever new site comes along
that you want to try. These best practices will help you set yourself up for
success in social regardless of your size or what the platform is.
More About Facebook
Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has become an integral component of
people's online social presence. For many, Facebook is the only online social
network in which they participate, though the level of engagement varies across
the user spectrum. From those that check the network periodically throughout
the week to those who are almost compulsively active, the core driving force to
participation is connection: connecting with colleagues, friends old and new,
alumni networks, and for an increasing percentage of users, even professional
connections.
The network itself has transformed into one with highly customizable privacy
and visibility settings. Users can dial down their visibility to the point
where they are nearly invisible on the platform. They can choose which posts or
updates are visible and to whom. Conversely, those users who have chosen a more
all-in approach can leave everything completely public, from the images they're
tagged in to their active stream on Spotify.
Features go beyond the individual user's page to brand pages, events,
groups, and now a pseudo-standalone messenger service.
As more and more people and brands jump onto Facebook, the noise level for
individual users increases. While Facebook's News Feed algorithm helps the
noise level by showing users what it deems the most relevant content, in order
to really stand out from the crowd, brands must be remarkable, interesting, and
add value.
In order to ensure your content is seen, you'll need to optimize and take
Facebook-specific functionality into account.
Content: Everything you post on Facebook is content. As we
now know from the News Feed algorithm, how users interact with that content is
important. Consider every piece of content you post an opportunity for
increased and specific engagement, and don't be afraid to have a little fun.
Take a look at these examples from Delta and GE. While completely on-brand, you can see they're a bit
unexpected and show they're not afraid to show their human side. Also, images
are incredibly effective on Facebook—posts with photos get, on average, 39% more engagement.
Post timing: Also related to the ingredients of your
content is when and how you post it. Be sure you're tracking what time of day
your fans are most active. Focusing your engagements during these times will
help you grow your community. Also be sure to pay attention to things like
sentence structure, phrasing, and types of posts that are particularly engaging
to your audience. Many Facebook users check the site on their lunch breaks and after dinner, and while the
latter is outside of normal business hours, it's worth testing to see if that's
a time when your audience is looking for content.
Moderation: Brands have increasing levels of responsibility
for user-generated content posted on their walls or in comments. You'll want to
proactively think through your stance on inappropriate content on your Facebook
page, and your best practice would be to make this stance publicly available.
This lets your community know what you will and will not allow, lessens the
chance of a surprise, and builds a sense of safety and sets expectations.
Facebook is an open and public space, so you can't control everything people
say.
Instances in which it is appropriate to remove user content would
include: advertorial content, harassment and abuse, derogatory or
offensive language, threatening posts, and posts that contain sensitive
information (credit card numbers, addresses, etc.).
Instances in which
you should address the comments instead of removing them include:
customer complaints, negative commentary, and critical statements. You may not
like what people always have to say, but in social, you always have to listen.
Engagement: Because we are building something rooted in
relationships, you can take full advantage by joining in the conversation with
your customers. They want to interact with your brand, and are going out of their
way to do so. Honor that. The type of conversation will dictate the cadence and
rhythm of your response. This is largely dependent on your product as well; for
example, an airline's response rates to customer service issues ought to be
rather quick, as their customers' needs are likely far more time sensitive than
those in another industry. Only you can determine what is right for your
organization and product, but at least in the initial stages of building a
community, it's better to err on the side of faster responses.
Community: Make your audience's experience on Facebook
about their experience and their connections rather than your CTR and
conversion rates. Concentrate on them, and you'll succeed. Your audience will
turn into a community that thrives, grows, and supports one another. By
enabling engagement within the audience, you can help increase the level of
stickiness and affinity they will have to the brand, moving toward customer
advocacy.
User flow: While the page environment Facebook gives brands
is mostly set, you want to make sure you're directing your users where you want
them to go. If I am a user looking for support or help, will I know where to
go? Just as you do when designing landing pages for your website, consider the
goals of your Facebook page. What do you want users to do when they land on
your page? What information do they need to be able to access easily? Make sure
these elements are front and center. You can easily change the order of the
apps and even optimize the icons used to display those apps for visibility. JetBlue is a great
example of a clear and obvious user flow.
Credibility: A huge part of your brand is built on trust,
and the foundation of that trust is your credibility. Grammar and spelling are
universally important, and all efforts for their correct uses should be made.
Fact-check sources and news before sharing them on your networks. Ensure the
safety of your users by not sharing links to malicious sites. Essentially, make
sure you don't give your community a reason to believe you are anything other
than what you are: awesome.
Like offline social interactions, Facebook has its own set of unwritten do's
and don'ts for users to follow. Facebook is, first and foremost, a social
network built to help users stay connected with one another. It has also
evolved into a platform for businesses to engage with their customers. This
hierarchy is important to keep in mind, and means that you must know the ropes
before diving in. Here are a few tips to get you started with proper Facebook
etiquette:
Don't spam: This is a big no through all of marketing.
Always be tactful, classy, and do not spam. This includes sending mass-event
invites and messages and invitations to like your brand pages from your
personal account. It's not impossible to spam as a business page either, but
Facebook's functionality prevents most of it.
Respond: Response times are going to vary based on the
issue and the product in question, but in social media timeliness is critical.
Users expect things to happen much faster on social channels than on more
traditional web channels like email. In most cases, same-day responses are
required. Don't ever let your community feel like they've been forgotten.
Say no to clustered updates: With the notable exception of
image albums, avoid making multiple updates within a short time span. Beyond
News Feed algorithmic concerns, it's just annoying to your followers. Your
signal-to-noise ratio falls, and you may lose the long-term attention of your
audience.
@Name: If you want to call out another public Facebook page
or user, you can directly link to their Facebook page, which also notifies them
that you're talking about them, by putting an @ and then typing their name.
(Facebook will help your selection with a drop-down.) This also makes it
clearer to whom you're addressing. Note that private users can't be called out
in this way unless you're replying to a comment they left on your page.
Highlight important posts: If your brand has any very
important updates; e.g. acquisitions, sales, or feature in news articles; you
can highlight them in your page's timeline. This expands the post to both
columns, and may get these important updates further into people's News Feeds.
Messages: People can send your page private messages.
You'll find the most of these messages will be customer service-related, so
make sure to check them. The messages section functions like an email inbox.
Notifications: The notifications box will show you the most
recent likes, comments, wall posts, etc., on your brand's page. Depending on
the volume of incoming activity, this administrative section can be useful when
tracking activity by your community. Due to Facebook's focus on recent
activity, you'll probably only receive comments and likes on recent posts, but
the notifications can help track activity on older posts.
Page favorites: You can mark other brand pages as favorites
on your business' page. This is a helpful way to promote partners, good causes,
or others you're connecting your business with.
Posting: While many social media tools allow you to post
from them to Facebook, you'll have the best results by posting directly to
Facebook from Facebook itself. Facebook's algorithm biases toward post that originate
from its own interface. Responses and comment moderation, however, can be done
via social management software without issue.
Scheduling: Thankfully, Facebook does allow scheduling of
posts directly in their interface. If you are sharing linked content, this
content must already be live on the web, which can be a pickle for those
scheduling unpublished blog posts or other content. Scheduled posts will appear
only to the moderators in the "Activity Log." Keep in mind, though,
that engagement is a primary goal, and you'll want to be around for the
responses to your scheduled posts.
Social Media Marketing Facts
- Social
Media acts as an amplifier of your reality: it multiplies
the positives and negatives online.
- Personal
and Business profiles act separately but are always connected. You cannot
hide behind a logo. To achieve social media marketing success you must humanize
your brand.
- Find your voice
and make sure that you give your Social followers a feeling of what
they’ll find in your shop, office, website or blog. Let them know what
makes you different from the rest. Those who identify
with you will want to get to know you better and might end up doing
business with you.
- Content is the backbone of Social Media
marketing and it comes in different forms. Some examples are: your own
blog articles, slide presentations, branded visuals, podcasts, videos,
e-books.
- You need to
use a minimum number of tools to help you manage your
social media marketing: from scheduling, to social
listening, analytics and even photo editing tools.
- You must be
able to handle complaints and negative reviews and turn
them into positive impressions for other online connections. Likewise, you
must incorporate positive real life experiences and testimonials
into your online content and social channels.
- Social
Media is rented land that will be permanently changing and can be used for
a limited period of time only. It requires constant adjustment
and it’s time consuming.
- Not all
Social Media platforms are right for your business. You must find the ones
where your prospects or current customers are and focus
on those.
- Social advertising
is not a choice anymore, it is a necessity. It requires knowledge and
testing for it to be effective. It is also time consuming and
ever-changing.
- Not all metrics
are equally important: there are vanity metrics and ‘real’ metrics. Make
sure you choose wisely which ones to measure. On the other hand, Social
Media marketing success cannot be measured overnight, so you must have
realistic expectations in order to measure success correctly.
- Social
Media shouldn’t be considered an isolated marketing strategy. It is one
more resource to establish communication with potential or current
customers and you must include it in your overall marketing
strategy.
Social Media Marketing Tips
Here are some social media marketing tips to keep you on
the right track across all your social media campaigns.
- Planning – As discussed previously,
building a social media marketing plan is essential. Consider keyword
research
and brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target audience.
- Content
is King —
Consistent with other areas of online marketing, content reigns king
when it comes to social media marketing. Make sure you are offering valuable
information that your ideal customers will find interesting. Create a variety
of content by implementing
social media
images,
videos, and infographics in addition to classic text-based content.
- Consistent Brand Image — Using
social media for marketing enables your business to project your
brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While
each platform has its own unique environment and voice, your business’
core identity should stay consistent.
- Blog — Blogging is a great social media
marketing tool that lets you share a wide array of information and content
with readers. Your company blog can also serve as your social
media marketing blog, in which you blog about your recent social
media efforts, contests, and events.
- Links — While using social media
for marketing relies primarily on your business sharing its own unique,
original content to gain followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also great to
link to outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable
information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy about
linking to them. Linking to outside sources improves trust and
reliability, and you may even get some
links
in return.
- Track Competitors — It’s
always important to keep an eye on competitors—they can provide valuable
data for keyword research, where to get
industry-related links, and other social media marketing insight. If
your competitors are using a certain social media marketing technique that
seems to be working for them, do the same thing, but do it better!
- Measure Success with Analytics —You can’t
determine the success of your social media marketing strategies without
tracking data. Google
Analytics
can be used as a great social media marketing tool that will help you
measure your triumphant social media marketing techniques,
as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned.
Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing campaigns so that you
can properly monitor them.
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Social Media Marketing
Just like any digital marketing
tool, there are advantages as well as disadvantages or risks when using social
media for marketing. Let’s begin with the advantages and potential benefits
business owners can gain when using social networks.
Advantages of Social Media Marketing
- Direct interaction with customers – Business owners can
have a better line of direct communication with customers that no other
traditional advertising methods could ever achieve. This interaction
builds trust which could later turn online users into loyal customers.
- Broader Reach to a Wider Audience – Interaction with
your direct connections in social media are visible not only to you and
your direct connections, but also to their subscribers own network and
circle. This can facilitate viral posts that will make more and more
people genuinely interested about your brand, product or service.
- Gain a Better Insight of Your Target Audience – The
more you interact with your social media subscribers, the more you can
gain a better insight of your audience and a clearer understanding of what
influences them in their spending habits.
- Reach a More Targeted Audience – Through social media
marketing, you can target on specific groups of online users or
communities with the same likes and preferences.
- Helps You Gain Better Search Engine Optimization –
Social media channels are used as an integral part of search engine
optimization, with social media profiles and pages appearing on
top-ranking search results.
Disadvantages of Social Media
Marketing
- The Need for Constant Maintenance – As a tool for
directly engaging or interacting with online users, social media marketing
will need constant maintenance and management to maintain fresh content
and constant interaction.
- The Need to Abide With the Social Network’s Rules – You
do not actually own your social media profile and pages so you need to
abide with the rules, changes and limitations set by the social network to
avoid being banned and your valuable content and existing relationships
with online users removed.
- The Need to Deal with Spammers and Trolls – Social
media is a haven for trolls, spammers, thread hijackers and other unwanted
elements which can run rough shot of your marketing efforts with negative
comments and posts. There are however ways on how you can deal with these
nuances to protect your branding and online reputation.
- The Possibility of Wasting Time and Resources – If
social media marketing is not done properly, you may end up with not
tangible results or returns from your marketing efforts except for wasted
time, money and other resources. That is why it is very important that you
perform social media marketing wisely – and the following tips can
jump-start your strategies.
More Social Media Marketing Articles
Looking to learn more detailed information about implementing social media
in marketing? Get more information about social media and how to use it for
your business.
Experts Guide to Keyword Research for Social Media
- Learn about how to conduct winning keyword research for various social media
marketing campaigns.
Social Media Showdown Infographic - Compare
social media platforms to see which have the potential to drive the most
traffic for your b2c or b2b social media marketing campaigns.
Learn From Social Media Marketing Experts - We conducted a
series of interviews with various industry experts who share their knowledge
about using social media in marketing campaigns. Read our interview with:
Benefits of Live-Tweet Sessions - Discover
the advantages of conducting live Twitter chats with customers and target
audiences.
10 Tips for Creating Compelling Facebook Content -
Discover the secret to creating content that users can’t help but “Like”. It’s
easy to use social media for marketing when your content makes visitors want to
share and learn more.
Guide to Ranking on Google with YouTube Video Content
-This two-part YouTube video content guide explains how YouTube videos can help
your business rank higher in Google SERPs and why video content is so valuable.
10 SEO Reasons to Add Facebook to Your Content
Strategy - Read how Facebook can provide tremendous SEO benefits for
small businesses.
