All posts in Social media

Social media has changed the internet. What is now called Web 2.0 has changed everything about how people interact, and how businesses promote themselves. With social media, it is possible for a person to network with thousands of people easily, and for businesses to market themselves to a wider array of customers than they ever thought possible.

So, how can you use social media strategy with your own company for more customers and higher profits?

The Benefits of Social Media

There are several ways that one can use social media. The most common are:

1. Social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are all being used by companies, individuals and celebrities to promote themselves and increase their networks.
2. Wikis: Thanks to Wikipedia, custom encyclopedias are popping up all over the internet. Companies can use these to answer questions that customers may have, while others can find people with similar tastes to them to network with.
3. Blogs: Blogs are the new form of journalism and if a company does not have a blog that it can use to be more in touch with its customers, then it is in danger of falling behind.
4. YouTube: With YouTube, a company can have free advertising to millions of people, simply by uploading company videos to this revolutionary site.

Probably the biggest benefit related to social media is the fact that it is free. It costs a company nothing to have a blog, put up a page on Facebook, or to upload a video onto YouTube. This free service comes with another benefit and it is the fact that an organization can reach millions of people in a very short amount of time. Television ads cost thousands of dollars and reach only a few thousand or hundred people. Radio does the same but reaches less, while newspapers are a dying form of advertising. Social media marketing is the future and successful companies are seeing this.

Social Media Success

Several companies have used social media marketing to great success, here are just a few who hit it big with social media marketing:

1. Burger King launches the Sacrifice Ten Friends Facebook application, which quickly resulted in 20,000 users signing up 200,000 friends for free Whoppers.
2. Starbucks created a website that allows customers to submit their ideas for the company.
3. Sun Microsystems sets up a blog where their CEO talks about what is going on at Sun, while allowing people to post both negative and positive comments. The blog receives about 400,000 hits every single month.
4. Zappos, which is an online retailer, uses Twitter to promote the company by giving its employees active accounts and consolidating the streams into one page that shows what is going on at the company.

The Social Media Strategy

If you are going to be successful with your social media marketing, then you need to have the right kind of strategy. Here are some great strategies you can use to spread the word about your organization.

1. Don’t limit yourself to just text. People want to see videos and pictures, especially if they are thinking of buying from a company. By also putting up photos and videos of what goes on in the company, you are creating a transparency that facilitates trust in your company with your customers and clients. Don’t be afraid to take pictures at company events to show the culture of the organization. A very good example of this strategy is WorldMusicSupply.com, whose YouTube channel now has 260,000 views and 7,000 subscribers.
2. Whenever you advertise your organization in the offline world, make sure that you include the links to your Facebook page, blogs and YouTube videos in your company advertising. You want people to go to these places to learn more about your company because you can only say and display so much in an offline advertisement.
3. Adapt your message to the specific social media outlet you are using. What you say on your blog doesn’t translate properly into Facebook because of limited status space and what you say on Facebook is limited on Twitter because of the 140 character cap. Tailor your message on each social media site and you will find more success.
4. Join up local networks on social networking sites and blogs, as well as other sites like Yelp, which showcases local businesses. Local searches are often done by customers and it is a good way for them to find you when you are on a local network. Bella Napoli in New York does this very well by ensuring they are in every local search done for pizza in New York City.
5. Social media marketing is great for offering contests and discounts to a wider audience. You want to build a community of users and customers through social media and the best way to do that is by offering customers free things. One good method of doing this is requiring users to share the message about the contest/discount in order to qualify. This can be done by sharing it on their profile on Facebook, Digging it on your blog, or retweeting it on Twitter.

The Top Tips of Social Media Marketing

Here are some quick tips to make your social media marketing successful:

• Make your brand social by starting discussions with your customers and getting their input.
• Start putting your company on Twitter and Facebook and see what the response is. There is no harm in it and it is free.
• Be consistent on all your social media sites. If you have a slogan or specific colors, then ensure you use those on all your blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter pages and YouTube channels.
• Keep an eye on where your customers are coming from so that you can market to specific areas.