The social media has revolutionized the power of marketing. Where once marketers were limited in their ability to target certain demographic groups and in also limited in what they could do when trying to reach a large and regionally diverse audience today the power of social media marketing has made things both easier and more challenging.
Marketing today using the social media is easier due to the fact that the buy in to establish a baseline brand presence on the Internet is extremely low. Anyone with access to a computer and even a standard dial up connection can, within only hours build a home for their brand on any one of the many social networks. Even populating the social media site with brand elements and visuals is relatively simple.
The challenge of making proper use of social media marketing to reach target audiences is in providing unique and high quality content and refining the marketing program so that the key messages about both the company and the individual brand are clear and more importantly add value to the Internet experience of the user.
Why is content still king when it comes to social media marketing? The answer is simple, the power and reach of social media marketing relies to a large extent on sharing. Content that is rich in images, video and thoughtful, value added copy writing is shared by more people in the social media environment, more of the time.
A simple example is when you produce an informative infographic connected to either your field of expertise (if you are services) or the brand itself (FMCG for instance). The infographic is posted to one of your social media sites and so the onward sharing the marketing message begins as one visitor to the site shares with his or her connections and so on. That one single share has the potential to reach literally thousands of people.
However the sharing relies on the fact that you have produced something (content) that is of value to your target audience. Your choice of where to host this content is also important, to give an example which is not based n reality, but makes the point; you wouldn’t place content regarding financial advisory services on a sire that has an audience that primarily consists of 16 year old females from rural areas. You would choose another piece of social media real estate for that sort of content.
This neatly brings us to measurement and demographics. Firstly ensure that the social media site you select is appropriate to your target audience. There is a mass of relevant data on each social media site on the Internet. Research this data prior to establishing your site. Rather be safe than sorry. Your time managing your business is valuable, don’t waste ti aiming for the wrong target demographic.
Most of the social media sites have the ability to supply metrics and measurement data. Do not ignore this data when you are rolling out your marketing program via the social media, it will help you refine your brand activities.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE >> Making Effective Use of Social Media sites in Internet Marketing
Most Businesses Don’t Understand How To Use Social Media Marketing
Here is what happens with most businesses, they hear about how social media is a great place to find customers so they create a twitter and Facebook account. They tweet a few, “hey we have X for sell, come get it” type of posts. After months of doing this they lament on how social media marketing doesn’t work and how it is a waste of time.
If this is how you use social media, don’t feel bad, most business mistakenly use social media in this way. They have people who don’t understand social media running their accounts and those people can’t really be blamed either. Marketing is a skill that has to be developed.
If that is the wrong way to do social media marketing, then what is the right way to do it? Thank you for asking! To understand the right way to do social media marketing, you have to change your reason for doing social media marketing.
The average business owner is only doing social media marketing because they were told that they should do it and they heard about people finding new customers from social media. Those are all good reasons to use social media but if that is all you understand about social media, then you will fail to attract new customers.
So, I mentioned that you have to change how you think about social media and now I will tell you why. Social media marketing should not initially be used to try and make money. Everyone likes to buys but no one likes to be sold to. People get on social media to have a good time and to joke around.
Today’s consumer knows how to locate your business or one like it, what they need are reason to do business with you. They also want to know more about your business on a somewhat persona level. Social media marketing should be used to build rapport with people. You should share interesting and funny things. You should share your office culture with the world and share your new ideas with them and even ask them for new ideas.
There was one restaurant owner who used social media to show himself in the kitchen making meal and he would ask his friends and followers on social media for new menu ideas. Guess who packed his restaurant to try this new creation? Exactly!
Rapport, is you build it, they will come.
This is a topic I love to write about because it gets right into the nuts and bolts of how to use social media. Please apply some of these ideas to your own business and put your own spin on them. Remember that social media marketing is more about building relationships than advertising your products. Your goal with social media is to build a large group of loyal fans who will take a serious interest in what your company does.
Think about fans of Apple computers and have they care just as much about the Apple brand and culture as they do about the products.
