Social Media Marketing should be on the radar of every business large or small. The issue is where should it sit in the scheme of things and how much weight should it be given in comparison to the rest of the marketing mix?
The debate around where a business should put the bulk of its precious marketing spending, time and effort has been in progress since trading was in its infancy. Now with the growth, of the internet the discussion has moved from traditional print advertising versus online to more specifically, search advertising v. social media.
As with most things in life, there isn't one answer that fits all scenarios. Most businesses would be wise to spread the effort and cost across a number of platforms and closely monitor the results to see which format works best for their type of business. In addition, what you are trying to achieve at this particular development stage of your businesses will have a significant bearing on your marketing decisions.
Social Media Marketing is a "slow burn", meaning that it takes time and effort to build your brand reputation and trying to force the issue with less than scrupulous techniques is likely to be the road to ruin. Having said that, done properly it can open the door to a sales channel that is difficult, if not impossible to access by any other means.
With an estimated 1.15 billion users on Facebook, 500 million on Twitter, 300 million using Pinterest and 1 billion users and 4 billion daily views on You Tube, not to mention 343 million active users on Google +, businesses ignore this marketplace at their peril. Of course not all of this huge audience will be interested in your particular product or service, but let's be honest, what business owner in their right mind would not be keen to tap into even a tiny percentage of this market?
The key to success in accessing your share of these viewers is first to go back to basics and a) Understand Your Business, b) Understand Your Customers; c) Understand the Market.
Remember! It's not "How Do I Sell?" it's "Why Do They Buy?"
Spend some time visualising your "ideal" customer, what do they look like? What are their preferences? What are their buying motives? When they trawl the web for information, what need are they looking to satisfy? Having decided on what that it is, your task is then to deliver a solution that will interest them sufficiently for it to capture their attention and motivate them to return to your page to see what else you have to say.
You must also pace yourself in this effort to provide information. In this digital age we all suffer from information overload. We are all bombarded by e mails and advertising messages. It has never been easier to find information, but also it has never been easier to click onto the next item if your interest isn't held by the current page.
It's therefore imperative that you provide a balance between interesting and too pushy. Between information and sales messages.
As a rule of thumb, a ratio of 4 or 5 to 1 of information to sales messages is usually viewed as being acceptable, but my view is to always err on the side of caution and go for more "tell" and "less sell".
Always bear in mind that people buy from people that they know, like and trust. So start building rapport with your potential customers at the earliest possible opportunity and watch your social media audience grow.
For your business to be successful in the modern era of online and social media marketing, you need to have an effective presence on the internet and in the social media arena. And that presence needs to be easily found by the search engines and your customers. BRC Solutions works with businesses in a wide range of sectors to get the competitive advantage they deserve. To find out more about how to use social media to market your business go to www.brc-solutions.co.uk. Click on the link NOW and set your business on the path to success.
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