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Last week we dealt with SEO and how to make your SEO
specialist’s life a little easier.
We gave you a little list of do’s
and don’ts to keep in mind when
asking someone to create your site.
we also tried to explain a little
about what SEO is and why you should
be considering SEO. Didn’t read the
article? Here’s a
link.
If you’re confused by the title
of this piece, where have you been?
Social media is the single most
important internet marketing tool
you could use and the possibilities
are endless. So are the social media
that are available to you. Some,
like de.li.cious, aren’t used that
much anymore while others, like
Facebook, are some of the most
popular in the world. All you have
to do is figure out how to make sure
that they work for you.
The
great thing about a well thought out
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
strategy is that it requires almost
no money investment. SMM does
require you to invest time and there
are steps that you have to take to
make sure that your time is invested
wisely.
Step One:
Analyse your online
presence. This sounds easier than it
actually is. To analyse your online
presence you need to:
• Measure the amount of
visitors you get to your site (if
you have a site).
•
Figure out how often you add
new content.
•
How you’re doing on your
social network profiles (once again,
if you have any). If you do, you
need to decide if you
want to optimise. If you don’t, get
some.
Step one basically boils
down to how active you are on the
internet, how often you interact
with your readers, users, etc.
Step two:
Learn about your target audience. Do
the research on the boring things
like demographics and interests. It
will do you good to find out about
things like who your audience is,
how old they are and where they
live. What are they interested in,
where do they go, what do they do in
their spare time? These are all
things that you need to know in
order to build an effective
marketing strategy.
Step three:
What do you
want your SMM to do for you? What
goals have you set for your SMM? How
long should it take for your goals
to be reached? These are all
questions you should ask yourself
before you start. You need to set
measurable and attainable goals.
You’re not going to get a million
followers in a week so don’t even
think that it is a reasonable goal.
Once you’ve figured out these
three steps, it’s on to Step
four, which social media do
I choose? You have many options,
some of the most popular include
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
Google Plus.
Facebook
is the best known of the four major
social media. To date it has 800
million active users, 50% of which
log in on any given day. It is still
the most popular and most widely
used social platform in the world
and you should use it. Imagine the
power 800 million people have to
grow your brand...
Twitter is quite possibly
one of the most innovative social
media out there. Tweets are recorded
in real time and are actually picked
up by search engines. News agencies
around the world use Twitter as a
way to communicate breaking news.
Imagine this: Osama bin Laden is
killed in his compound. Through
normal news channels this story
would have taken at least a few days
to travel the world. With Twitter,
Americans were celebrating in the
streets within hours of someone
‘tweeting’ the news. And with 175
million registered users, your brand
identity could also have that global
reach.
LinkedIn
profiles allow business people to
connect with other business people.
Researchers can share information
with one another and market research
becomes that much easier. LinkedIn
is a social medium designed to
connect professionals with other
professionals. By getting in touch
with people in your field or
directly with people who need what
you sell, you can help your business
take off. To date, LinkedIn has over
70 million members and you should be
one of them.
Lastly,
Google Plus is Google’s
answer to all of the above. Since
its launch in June this year, this
new kid on the block has already got
20 million users. With ways to
integrate your personal page and
circles onto a business page, you
can get the best of all worlds. Plus
works using the best of the major
social media out there. It has real
time feeds like Twitter, friendship
groups and status updates like
Facebook, Skype capabilities and
YouTube-like video sharing. Plus
provides the perfect opportunity to
get in on a social network from the
ground up.
Other platforms
available to you are blogs, YouTube,
Skype (which allows you to speak to
your customers face to face) and RSS
feeds (that help your users keep up
with what you are saying, updating,
tweeting or plussing).
Whichever social media you choose is
up to you. You just have to find one
that works the best for your
company. And you can always call on
the professional and friendly SMM
experts at Jasper Consultants if you
get stuck.
Next week we’ll be
talking about content marketing and
how to go about creating good,
relevant and useful content so join
us then.
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