As a small business owner it is not easy to find a simple and step by step process on how to dive in the social media jungle.If you are one of the small business owner or marketer really impressed with the huge noise of social media marketing in recent years and really keen to jump into the social media marketing jungle then this post is for you.
You can easily be overwhelmed with the emergence of lots of new social media tools and end up doing nothing.
In this post you will find an actionable plan for:
- Social media channels you should concentrate on when starting out
- Things you can do with different social media channels
With the increasing number of tools emerging on a daily basis it is getting really confusing where to start social media marketing.
Believe me it is really confusing!
If I have to start social media today as a I small business I will follow the following process.
Content Strategy
Social media is a communication tool like a telephone, fax and e-mail and success depends on how you use it not on the number of social media properties you own.
Content is the fuel of any communication tool, therefore, most businesses fail because they don't make the effort to create good content.
Before you jump into the social media jungle, I would suggest that you plan and have your content creation and sharing strategy in place, which should include the following:
- Decide what is your goal of content marketing (Simple goals are easy to get)
- Type of content you will create (how to's , opinions, FAQ's etc)
- How will you share content (Blog posts, videos, tweets, etc)
- Frequency of content sharing (ideally 3 tweets and 1 blog post per day)
To me real success of social media marketing depends on building a true relationship with your customers and prospects. Handful of engaged fans or followers are lot better than having thousands without any engagement and relationship.
You should really learn how to create content that generates engagement, comments and sharing.
Facebook Page
Every social media channel has a different type of audience as well as a different type of culture. Facebook is the by far the biggest and most popular social media channel out there. With over 600 million active users, you can't go wrong.
Because of the huge population on Facebook, chances are you will find your share of audience whatever your business is. Therefore, your first step should be creating a Facebook business page.
- Once you have the business page up and running you can do the following with it:
- You can building a community of your customers and prospects
- You can research about new products and services.
- You can run a contest
- Share photos and videos with your fans
- Share your blog posts
- Offer fan only offers to increase the fan base
- Suggest your business page to friends and family to like (Good starting point to increase the 'word-of-mouth' marketing)
I am sure you can add to the list in the comments section below.
Twitter is really changing the way we communicate.
- Excellent tool for doing real time research, what people are talking about you or your industry right that moment.
- Find prospect using twitter search or Google and communicate directly with your customers and prospects in real time.
- Break out special discounts or offers
- Answer customer service queries on twitter
- Share your content through twitter and let your followers spread the word about you for free (your content must be worth sharing)
- Follow industry leaders in your niche and keep up-to-date with latest trends in your niche.
I am sure you can add to the list in the comments section below.
YouTube
If you are not using videos to market your business, then you are missing out big time. YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world.
You should start without wasting any more time and the good news is you don't need to create Hollywood quality videos. Simple videos are really easy to create with normal video camera and reasonable quality microphone. If you don't believe me check out this video and look at the views it has, amazing.
You can create following types of video content quite easily.
- Record a short video about your organization for your 'about us' page
- Answer 'frequently ask questions' for your customers via video
- Demonstrate how to use your products
- Record video testimonials if possible (could increase your sales immensely)
- Create video adds for your products
I am sure there are lots of creative people out there who can add to this list in the comments below.
LinkedIn is the Facebook of business people. On Facebook people normally go for checking out their friends and family, sharing photos, videos and life experiences.
On LinkedIn everybody is in the mood of doing business, therefore it is a great opportunity for all businesses to network and grow.
- Create your personal profile on LinkedIn (consider this as your online resume)
- Add your blog into your LinkedIn profile
- Make connections and network with 'link' minded people
- Answer questions in your niche and gain authority
- Create a company page and promote your products within LinkedIn
- Create a group and share useful content
- Find new business partners and recruit employees
Company Blog
Your blog is your social media marketing hub. Your entire social media efforts should concentrate on bringing traffic back to your blog. Therefore, whatever you do on any other social media channel your focus should be bringing all the traffic back to your blog.
How can you do that?
Each time you create a blog post share it on:
- This way you can bring the people back to your blog.
Here is a Deal
Bill Gates said it in 1995 that content will be the king on the internet. That has proven so right, only thing I would say as a business point of view, content is the king but you need a viral content to be the business king.
When creating social media content keep following in mind to increase the chance of getting your viral.
Social media is all about your customers and prospects not about you. If you talk about them most of them eventually will be dying to buy from you. If you talk only about you then there is a very high possibility that they will run away.
Business guru's recommend hiring people you need, not people you like. You can apply the same rule when selecting social media channels.
Your Views
I hope you will like what you read and I am always interested in what you have to say about my thoughts and ideas in the post. Please feel free to share in the comments below.