Social Media Marketing for Beginners

The Goal of Social Media is to Increase Sales. Really? Social media provides the tools that enable us to have online conversations. I know, the big advice out there today about social media is don’t try to sell anything to anyone. The idea of social media is to be part of the conversation to build relationships over time. Of course, our goal in business is to sell more stuff to more people. The new revolution in business is social media marketing. If done right, it can be your key to radically improving sales. The question is how do you increase sales by using social media? What should your strategy be? Sun Tzu in the Art of War explains that strategy is determined by the terrain. Here is an overview of the social media terrain. Your Word-of-Mouth Marketing Just Got a Megaphone There are three ways your customers will eventually find you: 1) Search engines 2) Advertising or promotion 3) Recommendations <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY" title="Susan Boyle">Susan Boyle</a>, chances are you have heard of her, the Britain’s Got Talent superstar already has over 40,000,000 views on one YouTube video in less than two weeks. She is listed on the second page of most viewed videos of all time for YouTube. Most of us heard about Susan because her performance was recommended. The idea is you want your business, your products, and your services to be recommended as well. Recommendation is the shortest distance between you and getting new customers. Social media gives your word-of-mouth marketing a megaphone. You have a good business, your customers are raving about you, and the customers you want are looking for you. So why is it taking so long for people to find you? Here is an important rule of social media marketing . . . You Must Be Present to Win Out of sight is out of mind. There is a saying in business, “You must win mind share before you can win market share.” Social media is where conversations and recommendations are happening. By joining the conversation you become visible and you are in a position to win mind share.   Here are some ways to be present to win: 1) Listening to conversations in your field of interest 2) Participating in those conversations 3) Publishing information 4) Facilitating conversations Listening Ask your customers which social media they use. Biznik, Twitter, Facebook, forums, YouTube, others? You can also search topics that relate to your business to find where relevant conversations are occurring online. You can use www.google.com/alerts and www.search.twitter.com to find the most current articles, blogs, newsletters, and other published content. It will help you gain insights into your customers, your industry, and discover a whole new world of ideas. You will be at the leading edge of the conversation. Participating By participating on social media websites like www.biznik.com, www.twitter.com, and hundreds more, you can create a profile that will help you show up on the front page of search engines. (I was surprised today to find I was on the front page of Google when I searched my name.) Participating in social media increases the likelihood that you will show up on the front page of search engines when customers are looking for you. Here are some interesting ways to participate. You can start a blog. Comment on other people’s blogs. Comment on relevant news articles. Comment on published online articles and forums. You can also attract attention by linking to interesting information on your website and other published materials and send it out through Twitter. Publishing You can publish (for free) pictures, videos, articles and announcements. Your new customers will find your published materials and those materials will link back to your website. There are hundreds of places to publish your information. Facilitating Social media websites like Biznik, Facebook, Ning, and others allow you to create social networking groups for free. You can facilitate your own conversations that will meet the specific needs of your existing and new customers while keeping you top of mind. Social Media is More like Customer Service than Marketing There is a buying process customers go through when they are deciding to do business with you: 1) Awareness - In this stage you come to their attention. 2) Consideration - In this stage they can see your participation online and it builds trust. 3) Purchase - In this stage they have decided buy. 4) Loyalty - In this stage they are your raving fan and want to stay engaged and connected. Social media helps with the awareness, consideration, and loyalty aspects of the buying process. Think of social media marketing as your customer service outreach. You provide customer service because you authentically care about your customers. It is the same with social media. If you have a choice between spending time making sales or doing customer service, your number one priority is making sales.  Just behind that priority and equally important is providing excellent customer service. Chances are, you are already good at customer service and social media gives you amazing exposure to new people very quickly. “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About” You know what I mean. You really have to give them something to talk about or point them to something worth talking about. Believe me, we are all learning how to use social media to gain new customers. I’ve talked to several social media experts and they admit they are stilling learning and discovering. No one has all of the answers. So don’t feel bad as you muddle through this new terrain. The best advice I have heard about social media marketing is to spend no more than one hour per day working on it. You are already busy enough. What you put online stays online and works for you 24/7. So giving it an hour a day allows you to build slowly and get better as you go. I also recommend keeping a social media notebook to keep track of the tools, websites, gurus, and ideas for improving your social marketing efforts.  There is no way to keep all that information in your head. Marketing efforts will pay off faster than customer service efforts. You may not get results over night; however momentum will build over time as you give your audience something to talk about. Don't give up too soon. Just tweek your approach, your message, and your delivery until you get the results you want. Radical Self-Promotion - Crawl, Walk, Run People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Social media can really get you out there. You are the face of your company. As you participate and publish you build credibility and trust. That’s why we call it “radical self-promotion.” We want to get know you. Start small. Crawl, then walk, and then run. Learn one social networking site at time and then add more as you go. The good news is, through social media you become visible, your SEO improves, you encourage raving fans, you get recommendations, you get to know your customers better, you get to meet new people, and yes social media will result in more sales. I highly recommend it. Your Social Media Marketing Plan: 1) Search online for social media information about your industry, market, and line of business. 2) Identify, and if helpful, join social media websites, online communities, blogs, and forums that are relevant to your customers 3) Pick one social media website that is most relevant to your customers and be present to win. 4) Spend one hour a day listening, participating, publishing, and/or facilitating. Keep a social media notebook to track websites and lessons learned. 5) Track your website traffic, your search engine placement, and the source of new sales to measure your effectiveness and continue to get better as you go. 2009-04-24T22:56:15Z

2009-04-27T14:27:08Z

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2009-04-27T14:26:55Z

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Get the big picture of how to do social media marketing and start creating your own social media marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing for Beginners

2009-06-19T23:40:02Z