Do you integrate social media with your marketing efforts? Here are some benefits…
- Developing a business model involving social media for your small business: Your number one priority should be your business goals and objectives. Social media is not a quick fix for a broken business. It’s ok if skeletons fall out of your closet—own up to them, and be real about mistakes. Being transparent in social media gains trust.
- Know your audience: Find out what they’re thinking. You have to understand how you can inspire them and genuinely help them. If you inspire your audience to connect with you and help them achieve their goals, then you will be successful.
- Defining social media success: Social media success should be measured based on your goals and objectives first. It’s impossible to measure your progress if you don’t have clear goals. There are many different levels of measurement. Early metrics are different than later metrics when implementing social media. They are also different based on what the business role or leader is interested in. At some point, it has to generate some revenue. One thing that keeps a company from seeing profit is a lack of a real sales funnel. It’s not worth it if you’re not meeting your goals and objectives.
- Effective tactics to get customers hooked: Getting to know your audience will help you better inspire and connect with them and you’ll be able to write more compelling and relevant content. Make sure your website and social media align with each other. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. It may not bring immediate ROI, but if they’re hooked it will pay off in the long run. You want them to profess their love for you, even though they may not buy from you. They will influence people who will buy from you.
- Finding inspiration for marketing campaigns: Thought leaders, your community, and outside your virtual world are great places to find inspiration. Focus on your customers’ wants and needs. Make satisfying them your biggest priority and you set the market. Get away from the Tweet machine. Two hours at the mall, park, or beach can spark five blog post ideas. Inspiration can come from the energy of the campaign itself and what you can expect from the end result. When brainstorming for campaign ideas send a few tweets on the subject and write a blog post. Your audience will give you the answer.
- Avoid Random Acts of Anything: RAM’s will eat your ROI for lunch and dinner and leave you with nothing. Random acts of anything are bad. The key to stomping them is integration and focus on your goals and objectives. People think integration takes more time, but once you get it going, it moves at turbo speed.
- Marketing hurts your growth: Social Media Examiner recently posted that marketing hurts your company’s growth. Marketing sales messages are a thing of the past. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are not for broadcasting about your business. Use them to inspire and connect genuinely with real people. So many people fail at using social media because they can’t let go of the fact that it’s no longer a broadcast. If you don’t have time for conversation in social media, game over. Broadcast tweets will not connect you with real people. When you connect and add value for your audience, you earn the right to send a few broadcasts about yourself.