Social media marketing can help small business owners generate a lot of brand buzz—building your image, and your customer base, at the fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.
But social media marketing takes a lot more than creating a Facebook fan page. Here are some simple tips on how to make your social media marketing campaign work.
Listen to your market
The secret to getting a lot of followers—whether it’s for Facebook, Twitter, or even Google Plus—is to know what matters most to your target audience. Join forums or discussions to find out what they naturally talk about. This will help you generate content that will get them to comment and even share it.
Focus on particular communication values
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. The best social media marketing campaigns are very specific, reaching a very clear demographic and reinforcing specific values and messages,
Raise your standards
Create quality content, and create quality relationships. What matters more—10,000 followers who jump ship after the first ‘meeting’ or 1,000 who religiously read what you have to say? (read our tips on how to sound smarter on Twitter.)
Invest in the long term
Too many social media marketing campaigns fail because the companies/individuals behind them lost patience and gave up too soon. Loyalty and reader base grow over time. The good news is that every step you take, no matter how small, can lead to exponential growth. Your readers will share content on their Facebook, Twitter, etc.—so you reach more and more people, each time.
Find the opinion makers
In every community there are existing online influencers who already have a captured market. Tie up with them and work with them so that you can offer your products, services and businesses through them.
Create value
If you just keep talking about your product or service people will simply get tired and stop listening to you. Create good, useful content that address their need for information, entertainment or simple solutions to everyday problems.
Be consistent
Publish posts/tweets regularly. Don’t disappear. People need to consistently and constantly see you, because if you’re gone for weeks or even months, they’ll find someone else to give them that information.
Photo from econversemedia.com
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