A majority of your customers are probably already using a variety of social media networking sites. But, not many businesses use it to communicate with customers like they should. This article presents some ways to utilize social media as a way to improve the bottom line for any business.
You need to have a current and relevant blog. If you blog is interesting and helpful, followers will be more likely to continue reading it. Even if you simply changed something simple like your store hours or new location. See to it that all of this gets posted to your blog.
Your social media friends can get deals others cannot. Give your followers an incentive to buy by giving them exclusive discounts or offering limited edition items with purchase. An example would be to have a contest that is exclusive to your social media followers. Otherwise, you could just simply provide some special offers for your fans. Another thing to try is to make announcements about your business directly on your social sites. Make them exclusive to social followers.
Be patient in forming your overall strategy. If you rush into any campaign without doing your research, you may find yourself spending time and money to get no returns. Plan out your strategy, make sure it is detailed, and follow it.
Make certain to update your social media sites regularly. Staying updated will keep your content fresh, so people think that they are reading something new and exciting. Work on updating your followers a couple of times each week.
Engage with your consumers as often as you can. If you get to know certain customers well, comment on their blogs or Facebook walls. As long as you have a comment to add that’s related to the topic at hand, you should interact in a friendly manner to build rapport between you and your base.
You need to add links to all social media sites you have profiles on to every webpage, social media site, and email communication that you make. Ensure that these buttons are on your blog, email, website and on your signature when you go to leave a comment. Also, don’t forget to link all of your social media profiles together so that people can follow you on multiple sites.
Make sure that you provide valuable answers to the questions on your social networking websites. Make it a regular part of your daily routine to look at your inbox and check notification messages. Also, link this up to your email to know when you receive something new. Keep in mind that anything you post in reply to a comment will be visible by all.
Your blog posts can be viewable from your LinkedIn page when you use its blog feed application. When you post your article, it will be displayed as a LinkedIn update. This not only helps you save time, but doubles your exposure–both LinkedIn friends and blog readers will get your update.
Make Facebook or Foursquare friends into customers by working your profile in a professional, yet engaging way. Offer relevant information about upcoming sales promotions or grand openings. Provide printable coupons or incentives, such as special offers for Facebook friends of your business. Customers are unlikely to connect with your brand on Facebook if you do not offer anything of value.
Be prepared for the negativity associated with social media marketing. You may see that many people love your company and products, but you must be able to deal with with unhappy customers too. Don’t simply ignore these comments. Embrace them, and assist your unhappy customers.
Keep checking on what your competition is doing. Look into what they are doing on other social networks and figure out which techniques work for them. Perhaps you will mimic their strategy and compete for customers, or maybe you will work on developing a style all your own that will have even broader appeal.
Stay strong with your social media efforts. Once you start gaining new followers and a good reputation, your success will become more apparent. Many users have found that it may take as long as an entire year to develop a solid fan base on their social network of choice. Once this happens, it will become easier to explore the advantages of social media and incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
A good social media marketing technique is to conduct a video interview with an influential figure or an expert in your niche and upload the video to YouTube. Not only will this offer relevant and interesting ideas, but it will also allow your business to be viewed as an authority in the field. This will be very helpful in selling your services or products in your niche.
Always proofread any content before submitting it to a Facebook page or as a tweet for Twitter. You are going to aspire for professional appearance in all your content. You may have to abbreviate some things to fit them into Twitter messages because of the 140-character limit. Use abbreviations sparingly, even on Twitter. Always strive to create the best looking content you can.
Consider having a contest or a free giveaway and use all of your social media to promote it. The vast majority of folks love freebies, and don’t mind following a Twitter account or registering for a possibility of winning something. Make the results public to enhance your reputation and generate additional awareness.
Update all of your social media accounts to keep people interested. Your customers want to know what is new and prefer to read fresh content. Your Facebook page should always have notice of your new blog posts. That way, one blog doubles your marketing efforts.
It is not wise to kick back and watch your competition dominate your sector or niche. Use these tips to have a social media marketing strategy that is well thought-out as well as effective. You’ll be surprised by how many people and customers you’ll be able to connect with through social media.