Leveraging Social Media Effectively
To the small business looking for marketing ideas, larger business’ tactics might seem too expansive or high-cost. To the larger business, small business marketing strategies might seem underwhelming. But no matter what size your business is, everyone can agree that that best marketing is FREE marketing. Here’s a couple of ways all businesses can leverage social media effectively within an internet marketing strategy, concentrating specifically on Twitter and Facebook.
The act of sending a short 160 character message throughout the Twittersphere is known as Tweeting. How in the world do you infuse proven small business marketing techniques with something that sounds as silly as a “Tweet”? Easy. Let’s take the old concept of the coupon, and combine it with a Tweet. Bingo. Have your friends “ReTweet” a link to a web page with a daily/weekly/monthly special. Your very own “Tweetpon” will spread instantly throughout all your customers and followers. It’s perfect for small business who don’t have a large budget for radio, television, or periodical marketing.
If you are a larger company, why not use your economic gravitational pull to your advantage? You will have access to a much larger follower base on Twitter, so see if you can’t breach the infamous trending topics list! Challenge your followers with a juicy offer, maybe 10% off a particular service or product for one day if you can get your business seen on the first page of Twitter’s popular topics. Millions of people visit Twitter.com every day, the exposure would be beyond phenomenal.
Facebook is a bit more dynamic in that you can establish an entire “page” for your business. You can add relevant information, photos, invite people to “events” and even make status updates for your company. Status updates are kind of like Twitter posts, but they consolidate the response messages into one neatly organized thread.
You can post a status update with some information, or a product that you want to advertise. Offer a prize to a randomly selected commenter to quickly build awareness around a specific offer, product, or service. Have fun with the photo feature! (Caveat: This might require a bit heavier moderation on your part) Offer prizes for funny pictures with captions related to your business, or other cool contests that use specific Facebook features.
How would you feel if I told you I could give you the power to turn everyone in the world into an outbound salesperson for your business?
Two Words: Referral Incentives.
Seriously, all you need to do is make a sweet (but sensible) offer, Tweet and Retweet it to high heaven, post it everywhere in your Facebook circle, and watch the money roll in. Everyone likes a freebie or a discount, and if all they need to do is get a friend to use your business, they will remember to mention your company every time they walk out the door.
The Most Important Thing
Like always, keep track of your leads/referrals. See which of your social media marketing endeavors are generating significant ROI (either monetary or in regards to manpower). Remember, social media is perfect for every size of business, but not every type of business. The degree to which you will be able to fit social media into your internet marketing strategy will vary. How can you tell? Carefully analyzing how much money your social media internet marketing brings in, and whether or not it is cost effective.