
Here is a great photo from a friend on Facebook who is a Social Media Expert!
Quite funny but true. The best thing about this photo is that it shows the disconnect from most businesses when using Social Media Marketing. While we are not experts in Social Media Marketing we partner with several pro’s in this field when our clients need assistance. Most social media marketing is done incorrectly and used as a push device instead of a relationship tool.
Push Device: Buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff
Relationship Tool: Hey this is cool check it out, How can we add value to your life, Here is a neat thing about our product or service
So when you are looking to do some Social Media Marketing make sure you consult the photo above to ensure your Social Media Marketing success.
Social book marking is an important SEO tool that can generate valuable traffic for you. Here’s how it works-when you book mark a website, it means you like the content and have expressed a clear intention of visiting the site again. So, if your site gets bookmarked frequently, it means you have developed a loyal band of followers and regular visitors.
When your website is book marked by the Webmaster of a reputable site, then that is even more good news. To give you an analogy it’s like Oprah promoting Ellen DeGeneres in her show. It increases your credibility and exposure.
Another thing you should know is that search engines place a lot of value on social book marking. So, if your site gets bookmarked frequently, your chances of figuring out at the top of search results increase manifold.
To utilize this tool, you may consider hiring a social book marking service provider. They will bookmark your site and encourage users in their network to do the same. You can easily hire people for social bookmarking gigs through sites like Fiverr.
Another tip to excel in this technique is to maintain a constant presence in social networking sites. The higher the traffic, the more people will get to notice you. Also, keep your website updated. Nobody wants to read the same thing over and over again. Keep adding content or changing a few details on your site without really changing the essence of it.
Social book marking allows visitors and your target audience to reach your site easily. Utilize tagging so people know how to reach you once you have captured their interest.
Social marketing strategies have traditionally included social book marking and stumble upon is a much-recommended social bookmarking site online. The question that most social media newbie’s tend to wonder about is, how much weight does this recommendation really carry? Well, then here are a few facts that will hopefully take you a step closer to the answer you are seeking:
According to a recent survey conducted by a social media optimization firm stumble upon sent five times more traffic to their sample blogs than other social bookmarking sites.
Stumble upon is a very popular social bookmarking site, which in SEO terms means- it gets a huge amount of traffic. So, by submitting your site and blog posts to stumble upon, you get to take advantage of its huge ‘footfalls’.
The site is believed to be especially useful for businesses targeting United States web users, as a lot of its traffic comes from that geographical region.
Having said that, using stumbleupon does have its share of downsides:
One, some people find it a little complicated to use. Usually, it takes new users a while to get familiar with the site; however, this is a hurdle that can be easily overcome with a little patience.
The traffic from stumble upon is not always stable, so you can’t use it as a replacement of your search engine marketing efforts.
Social marketing is an essential element of any business’ traffic building campaign today. It is therefore important that you understand the nuances of the marketing technique.
Social marketing approach today demands quick thinking so that you can adapt to the changing market demands quickly.
Almost every business today has a Facebook page and with the site’s rules getting more stringent by the day, it is becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses to make their mark in FB’s competitive world.
In my experience the best strategy therefore is to unite with other small forces and gain leverage from each other’s network. This means it makes sense for small businesses to identify blogs/common interest sites and run promotional campaigns in partnership with them.
For example, let’s say you are a small business that markets baby products. Now the best social media approach for you would be to identify blogs that cater to young mothers and contact them to run a giveaway promotion. How does this tie in with Facebook promotion you wonder?
Well, for one the blog you partner with will publicize the giveaway on their FB fan page, this way you get visibility among their fanbase. Secondly, the giveaway will generate a buzz about your business among the blog’s regular readers. Third by giving something away for free you will be giving people a reason to spread the word about your business among their friends!
Another smart social marketing approach is to create cross-promotional discount campaigns with businesses that you are not in competition with. For example, if you run a salon for women, you may distribute discount coupons of a local shoe store and request the business owner to do the same for you through his/her social network.
Social marketing approach today is all about seeking innovative ways to reach out to bigger networks of people. Good Luck!
Social marketing approach can help define your success with online marketing. It isn’t necessary to spend huge amounts on placing ads in social media networks. Of course paid advertising yields dividends, however, if you do not have the budget for it, you can still gain visibility in social media networks like Facebook by adopting a smart social marketing approach.
Creating and marketing your Facebook page is one of the simplest strategies for promoting your small business online. The good news is that several support organizations have taken the initiative to help small businesses market and promote themselves!
For example, SSB- Supporting small business is a page where small businesses can literally shout about what they are doing and offer services to other small businesses. So, the FB page effectively acts as a platform for small businesses to let potential partners and customers know about their wares.
For instance, let’s say you offer bookkeeping and VA services, you can advertise yourself for free and let other small business know how you can assist them. The page owners also take initiative by promoting different business through their posts.
The only thing that you need to do in order to put your promotional message on the page is to like it! In fact according to the recent Facebook changes, you can now also post on every page you like. So, if you have a new event or sale coming up, you can post a message on pages wherein you feel you might be able to catch your potential clients.
The advantage of posting on dedicated Small Business Support pages like SSB though is that you can be sure that your post won’t be removed (unless of course its offending) and you will be reaching an audience of active fans who post on the page and follow it regularly, as it serves their personal interest.
Another great way to get your business visibility is by joining communities related to your niche area. The biggest upside of this is that when you post in a community messages are sent out to all members, so you have a greater chance of being heard. The thing to remember here though is that most communities may not accept overtly promotional messages, unless they are dedicated to supporting small businesses.
Social marketing approach when drafted smartly can do wonders for your business’ branding! It’s all about being aware of the most cost-effective strategies.
Marketing solutions and FB applications are two subjects that a lot of small businesses have been seeking answers too. Facebook applications especially have aroused a lot of interest in the online marketing sphere. So, here’ some key info that will help you select the best ones for your business:
Notes- These are like mini blogs that can help you promote your business by sharing informative and interesting original content with your Facebook contacts.
Rate Points Reviews and Testimonials- This application allows you to display your satisfied clients/customers reviews on your Facebook page and generates a rating for your services.
Slideshare- This application allows you to share slides and presentations with your community members and fans. It’s an excellent application to make your fanpage more interactive.
Wildfire apps- These apps will help you run contests on Facebook at affordable rates. It offers multiple contest options including, quiz contests, sweepstakes, etc.
Tabsite- Through this application you can create multiple tabs on your fanpage and create a mini website.
Eventbrite- This is a great Facebook app for promoting your company’s events and other promotional activities. It also allows you distribute tickets through it.
Networked Blogs- The application will allow you to link your blog to Facebook page, thus saving you from the extra hassle of updating your page every time you update your blog.
These are just a few examples. The list of Facebook applications that small businesses can use as marketing solutions is huge! Keep track of this blog for more information on fb apps.
Marketing solutions can yield excellent results as long as you choose to employ the right strategies. Good luck!
Social marketing approach has to be designed very carefully, if you want to make an impression in today’s competitive marketing scenario.
Agreed social media is cheap, has an extensive reach and can give you great results! The question is, how do you get it to work for you?
The tips below will hopefully help you develop an effective social marketing approach:
Don’t spam social media discussions with your links and promotional posts. It will put people off. Instead focus on saying something relevant and embed your link in your signature.
In case html coding is not allowed, end your post with something like, for more info, visit: your website name.
Integrating your social marketing efforts is also important. For example, let’s say your social marketing approach involves, creating blogs, forum posting, social media marketing and article marketing. Now in order to get the best results you must post links to your published blogs and articles and at the same time create social media friendly widgets like Facebook like buttons, Facebook send button, face pile, etc on your Blog page. You will find the codes of these applications by clicking on the social plugins section on Facebook.
Another important element of your social marketing approach should be to associate yourself with good causes related to your niche area, it will get you a lot of positive publicity. In case you can’t find any cause related your area of operation, consider supporting animal and environmental causes closest to your heart.
Social marketing approach can yield excellent results for your business, as long as you strategize well. Good luck!
Social media blogs are the latest and one of the most successful ways to promote a new venture. Anybody who uses the internet can start a blog but not everyone is successful in attracting loyal readers that keep coming back.
There are a few simple things you need to keep in mind if you want regular followers. First and foremost, make sure you choose interesting topics for your social media blogs. “Interesting” here is subjective, as the topics must appeal to your target market.
For example, if you run a fashion boutique, then interesting topics for you would include- fashion tips, styling mantras, body type fashion, etc. A keyword research on topics relevant to your niche area can also help you come up with the most searched subjects.
Your writing style should be according to the topic you choose. If it is a serious subject, your tone needs to reflect it, for lighter subjects, inject jokes and puns wherever appropriate. However, make sure that your tone is conversational in both the cases.
A great way to connect with you readers is to add personality to your social media blog. An impressive about me page is a good idea. This is an area where you can sell yourself and create the impression that you truly are an authority figure in your niche. Share you experiences and success stories while ensuring that you keep your tone humble and friendly.
Social media blogs can help you build a strong rapport with your target market. In the next few posts, I’ll share tips on how to integrate your blog with various social media networks.
Social media sites that you choose for your campaign play a critical role in determining its success. Ideally, the sites that you choose must have:
An identifiable user base of members who fit into your target customer profile: This means you must study the social media sites first and check how active the communities related to your niche area are. For example, let’s say you run a home security equipments business and are wondering whether SMM on Facebook and Twitter will serve your purpose?
A good way to determine the same is to study the communities on Facebook first. Your target market is pretty vast, however, prospects most likely to get converted into customers for you would be single women, working parents and well to do homeowners. So, the best thing for you to would be to run a people’s search for these groups on Twitter and a community search on Facebook. If you notice that your target customer groups are active on these social media sites, you know you are on the right track.
In fact when it comes to social media sites, going niche is also a great idea. This means that focusing niche networks related to your area of operation are likely to get you better results. Taking the home security equipments example again, networks of working moms, parenting networks, etc, would be great platforms to promote your products that are most relevant to these groups.
Social Media sites if chosen well can truly do wonders for your business’ growth!
