Social Media Marketing for Small Business Demystified

Social Media Marketing for Small Business Demystified General Overview, Strategies and Tools for Small Business Marketing on Social Media [Learn How to Effectively Use the Social Media for Making Connections and Building relationships That Will Drive Business Results] Anil Agrawal, Certified Business Coach http://facebook.com/learnsocialmediamarketing What is Social Media Marketing? Social media marketing is basically how businesses can harness the power of the Internet to make connections with consumers and other businesses and build relationships of trust. The ultimate purpose of course is to promote their brand and drive traffic to their websites. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many others provide a platform to share information, exchange messages, engage in discussions, and take part in surveys as well as questions and answers. The business owners and staff can get involved in the social media interactions, demonstrate their expertise and the solutions their products and services provide, thus establishing their credibility. The social media sites really are a meeting place for people socially, professionally and to look for business connections. The different social media platforms are distinct in how people make connections and how people interact. You have to make a choice of one or media to serve your business objectives. In daily life, most people rely on the recommendations or opinions of family, friends and communities of interest before making buying decisions about products and services. People are always willing to share their knowledge and experiences and what they ve come to love or hate. Thanks to the Internet and Social Media, these days more and more people do online research and ask others. They read reviews and check what others are talking about as well as ask what others have to say. Each day millions of messages are being sent through Facebook and Twitter, the two most popular social media sites. YouTube receives nearly 50 hours of videos every minute, many of which share reviews of products and services. It is common to 1

see that people Like messages, pages, pictures and videos on Facebook and on YouTube, and "Tweet" on Twitter about the things they approve or don t approve of. What the Social Media affords is social proof of a product s quality and experience with it. People are relying more and more on social proof to make up their mind about a product or a service they intend to buy. In social interactions, people talk openly about how they liked or disliked a product or a service, thereby holding businesses accountable. You can test the market for consumer approval or disapproval. Can you effectively use this market buzz in your marketing strategy? You don t have to cold-call anyone. People are there in millions on each social media site. Get involved. Take part in discussions. Present yourself as knowledgeable and caring. Once they sense you as an expert, they will talk about you and your business. You will create communities of interest in your business. That is true word of mouth marketing, and if done properly, it can be very powerful in your small business. The Social Media have levelled the playing field for small and big businesses. You can effectively leverage social media marketing and successfully compete with other businesses, large and small. Online social buzz, if harnessed correctly, can make a big difference in your marketing endeavour. Some of your advantages in harnessing social medial marketing include: Access all social media free; it s also safe, risk-free and efficient! Cut down on your advertising budget, increase market penetration and maximize profits; Garner authentic social proof of your quality, service and customer care; Leverage social media with limited staff -- social media presence is not labour intensive; Expose and promote your brand and specialty to lots of people, far and wide; Make an impact on the rankings of search engines. 2

4 Ways to Use Social Marketing in Regular Business Activities Keyword Research. Social media marketing is about i) putting meaningful, informative and educational content on your social media pages and videos and ii) contributing useful input to social interactions. Key to attracting people is how they will find your content. Your content must show up in keyword searches. Whereas Google is still the #1 search engine, people routinely use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter search function to find content by keywords. When people find your content and like it, you will begin to connect with your target market? It s very important to use appropriate long-tail keywords in your content for page ranking on Google and on social networks. Conduct the keyword research and use the right keywords in your tweets, posts and comments as well as in the description of the videos you upload on YouTube. Networking. Business is all about people, and networking is the most effective way to create a buzz about you and your brand. Networking on the social media is a very costeffective and efficient way to generate fantastic contacts and connections that can pay off huge in many ways. You can drive more traffic to your sites. You can promote your events and contests. You can collect testimonials and recommendations. Still, be sure to balance everything. Don t overdo the promotional overtures. Keep in mind that social networking is mainly about establishing connections and generating a social buzz. Forums. People buy from people they know and trust. If you get involved strategically on various online forums, and provide helpful links and valuable comments when joining discussions, you will build your credibility. You will also form and build relationships. Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking is adding tags and free text comments and voting in favour of the quality of a published content. These tags and bookmarks help users understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it. They also add keywords to shared content, and help in garnering improved ranking on search engines. You may use a particular bookmarking site, like Propeller or Digg to 3

bookmark a link to a video or article you ve done; this way, you ll immediately improve your ranking on Yahoo or Google. Effective Strategies of Social Media Marketing Note that social media marketing is primarily about making connections with your target market and becoming known in your circles of influence. But when business owners post nothing but advertising instead of providing useful information to help their market, they fail to attract people to their content. Here are some strategies to be effective in social networking: Be active. It is very important that you actively participate in each social network that you are involved in. Regularly add posts and update your status, share material of value to your audience, make comments on the posts and other content that people have contributed, follow people, tweet and show interest in what they are doing. Be prudent with your advertising. If you are active and regularly show up in discussions, you will be recognized. This way you will establish your name and your brand in those networks. Plan your advertisements, that is, when and where to advertise. Aim at attraction marketing, rather than being all about advertising. Take a personal approach. In your contributions in social interactions, discuss more than just your services and products. Offer your expertise to your audience. Tone down on advertising your business. Talking about your products and services all the time is counterproductive, and you may be labelled as a spammer instead of a real person. Take interest in what your audience is talking about. Contribute your ideas, suggestions and expertise. Keep your focus. Know what you need to say to make yourself known. Once you project an interesting personality, mingle with your community and show interest, you will attract followers. 4

Know the media site you use. Find out about and understand the terms of each social media site. Become familiar with the norms and practices. Do what is expected of you. For example, re-tweet and acknowledge the tweets of others in Twitter; Like and comment in Facebook; comment on blog posts and YouTube videos, and such. The strategies outlined above will attract friends, fans and followers towards you and your products and services. They will be motivated to visit your blog or website, re-tweet or like your products or services, acknowledge your expertise, etc. This will create a word of mouth promotion buzz for your brand, which is how social advertising works. Tools for Social Media Marketing Before you have the opportunity to influence people to recommend or purchase your products and services, you need to take an active part in social interactions so you get noticed. Each social networking platform, i.e. Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Twitter, has its own methods of social interaction and allows different kinds of tools to contribute your content. Here are some of the most effective and useful tools you can apply: 1. Videos. Online videos have become very important for social media marketing campaigns. Videos are proven to attract more attention compared to articles. The success and popularity of YouTube is the proof. Over two Million videos are watched every minute on YouTube, and over 48 hours of videos are uploaded every minute. In Facebook, too, video posts are extremely popular. 2. Photos. Just like videos, photos have a tremendous visual appeal with regard to marketing. Pictures and images better attract people to a brand (a product or a service). Facebook is big on photos. 3. Blogging. Blogs are popular with people as well as the search engines. Fresh content in blogs is an effective social media marketing tool. Why? Because with proper SEO optimization (through proper use of keywords and tags), blog posts could drive a lot of 5

traffic to a site. Wordpress, Blogger and Typepad are the most popular sites for blogging. 4. Microblogging. Whereas blogs typically allow larger size posts and pages, microblogs such as Twitter, Squidoo and Posterous restrict the size and type of the content. Just like blogging, microblogs also allow a huge opportunity for business promotion. 5. Podcasts. These are audio clips describing products and services, and are very helpful tools for promoting brands. Sites like RioPodcast or Blip and others host podcasts. Once you publish your podcasts, you can promote your podcast links in your content on the social media sites. 6. Wikis. Wikis are online encyclopaedias; you can create your own wikis to provide detailed information (like FAQs, knowledgebase and how to ) on your products and services. 7. Brand monitoring. Certain sites like Radian6, ReputationDefender and Buzzlogic monitor traffic flowing to certain brand sites, and provide you useful data to monitor your own brand popularity. This enables you to be aware of your position in the market. 8. Widgets. Personalized logos are extremely helpful in establishing your brand and promoting your product. You can create logos with the use of widgets available for Facebook, Twitter and other channels. A Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign Planning an advertising campaign? You definitely need a strategy and a plan of action if you want your campaign to succeed. Lack of thorough planning is often a recipe for failure in any form of social media marketing. Here are some steps for a successful campaign on any social networking site: Define your target customers. Who would you like to attract to your brand and the website? What are the demographics of your preferred? Define your criteria for your 6

target customers, and identify factors that would influence their buying decisions. Enumerate their professional and financial/social profiles, education, gender, age group and other important factors. Whereas Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube allow a lot more information in the profiles, Twitter has a small profile. Select followers that closely match your desired customer profile. What differentiates you What is your USP (Unique Selling Position)? How does your business stand out from your competitors? Define your unique qualities and characteristics that would appeal to your customers. You may have the lowest price, unique service, or extraordinary products offerings. You may be providing an extra value, and so on. Once you have defined your uniqueness, think up ways to promote your other differentiators? You need to reach out to your specific target customers that you have connected with, and gently toot your horn. Define your value proposition -- how can your customers benefit from your products and services? In this age of social media, customers invariably carry out research on products and companies. They resort to social media to find other users of a product or a service and get their opinions as well as seek tips and guidance. You have to craft your value proposition in relation to the needs and pain of your target market. As you provide tips and smart solutions rather than selling or blatantly promoting your products and service, you will project the benefits of your solutions. Somebody will notice those benefits! Will that pre-dispose your social contacts to connect with you, explore your website and take a serious look at your products and services? Definitely so! The vast numbers of people active on the social networks gives you a tremendous opportunity to expose your value expertise, solutions and benefits -- with thousands of potential customers. Remember they are constantly researching the market. If you are seen as an expert and come across as always honest, you will portray an image of trust and surround your business with a positive aura? That is what social media marketing is about. 7

Write persuasively to get the attention of your potential customers. In all your posts and comments whether on Facebook and YouTube or on Twitter (tweets are limited to 140 character posts), write to the point and choose your words carefully. Remember, as opposed to videos and pictures, words allow a short attention span. Your words either attract or distract. Your words portray your image. Suggesting a solution; giving a tip; talking about your value proposition; narrating a success story related to your products and services; choice of words counts. Brevity has value. Readers quickly assess your message, and either stick or leave. On the other hand, use of key words in your messages will also help in SEO optimization of your social media posts. Test your Posts/Comments/ Tweets. In Social Media, the measure of good posts is how people respond (like, reply, comment) to your posts/comments/tweets. Test out different kinds of messages and monitor the response from people who follow/like you. Keep track of the effective posts and comments, and use more of those. Build strong relationships that last. The social media is to draw attention and socialize with people who connect with you, befriend you, and/or follow you. Find groups and forums that relate to your products and services and join the discussions. Give your input (posts and comments), offer expert advice and deliver value that draws people to you. Do inject your marketing messages, but offer them as a benefit and limit those to one out of several posts/comments to avoid being taken as a spammer. Do your research check out your market and competition. The social media has created a level playing field for all vendors and potential customers. Keep your ears and eyes open to what your competitors are saying. Everyone is out to impress and attract attention. Could you learn from your competitors? Absolutely! Surprised? They offer value and wisdom. Take it. Your competitors would also make mistakes. If you are watching, you can avoid making those mistakes. 8

What to do and what not to do in Social Media Marketing From business perspective, your aim is to network with prospects and customers. There are rules and etiquettes and a code of conduct at each social media site. Basic rule of effective social media marketing is to learn and follow the norms of each site, and abide by them. That will ensure your social acceptance and you will attract friends and followers. Here are some suggestions for success in your social media marketing strategies. What is Okay to do on Social Media? The community on each site has a culture of its own. When you first join the community on a site, just hang around and observe. Become familiar with the culture and existing practices before you become visible in it and contribute your posts and comments. Carefully earn trust by understanding the issues and opportunities, joining conversations and making meaningful contributions. Your objective is to establish your credibility as a trusted expert in your area of interest. Even though you ultimately aspire to promote your business and generate interest in your products and services, be human on the social media so people can relate to you. Once you are connected and become known within the community, it will much easier for you to market your products and services. Key to building relations is being friendly and socializing. Vote on and like a post/comment you see value in. Provide your own comments and posts to help others. Right people will notice you and want to connect with you. Invite friends and connect with people. If you want to mention your product or your service, initiate a dialogue focused on the needs and solutions of your market. This tactic will establish your credibility and give media exposure to your brand. Remain active and update your social profile regularly. Keep your brand page updated with new information, blog articles, posts and comments, photos, videos, etc. When 9

people get interested in you, they would check your profile. Imagine who would like a dead profile. Remember to optimize your own site and use social networking to build links to your site. This will help in your SEO efforts. What is Not Okay to do on Social Media No blatant marketing. No press releases. No self-promotion. Explicit advertising will alienate people on a social site. Remember social media marketing is a different ball game than traditional marketing. Avoid sending out a lot of messages about or links to your site and products/services. This would be deemed as spam, and will get you banned from the social site. Being seen as a spammer will tarnish your image, and you will quickly lose credibility. Take interest in other peoples posts and comments, and interact with them in intelligent and interesting ways. Avoid automation to build connections. Most social media platforms frown upon use of software that automates harvesting friends, fans and followers. Avoid pretensions. Don t come across as deceiving or pretending in any way, shape or form. Social networks are like news wires. News travel fast. Bad reputation could come to haunt you. 10