F
acebook
is simply
the most
popular
and
topranked social
media
site.
According
to
the company, it
has more than 1.39
billion monthly active
users. Facebook has
a community and
outreach unmatched
by any other social
platform existing today
and it will continue to
trend in 2015.
Most
businesses
already
acknowledge
opportunities therein. However, remember
that most Facebook users are attracted to
information about family, friends, and social
activities rather than your advertisements, and
the posts which garner the most “likes” are ones
that engage users.
T
his media has grown since 2012 to
become one of the most powerful social
media profiles for small businesses
existing today. Its use has increased to 94%
in 2014 and its reach looks set to increase
in 2015. Using this platform presents your
business as a legitimate professional who is
both an apt businessman and skilled service
provider.
o
Implications of LinkedIn – For brick and
mortar businesses, LinkedIn presents the
core values and benefits of professional
connections. Any business can use the
media to increase connections with other
service providers in the same niche. It also
smoothes connections with suppliers,
potential employees, and customers.
o
Social Media Use Tips – Maximizing the
use of LinkedIn will require building a
strong complete business profile including
employee profiles, so remember to design
and help employees present complete
portfolios with pictures and families.
Once that’s done, ensure the profiles are
optimized with targeted keywords and
o
Facebook Implications – The core benefits
messages that attract relevant/desired
of using this social media platform lie in
businesses.
advertisement,
marketing
campaigns,
and customer metric collection through
It’s important to join
interaction. By channeling targeted messages
relevant groups
to your chosen demographic group, you’ll be
in the niche you
able to learn a lot about customer responses
serve as this
to situations, speculations, and user
helps you gain
experiences with your products.
more insights
from peers
o
Social Media Use Tips – Establish a presence
and position
on Facebook and complete the profile
your business
with descriptions, pictures, and links. Be
as the best.
professional in all your communication
A d d i t i o n a l l y,
but ditch the corporate marketing jargon –
you can use
users dislike that because it doesn’t allow
presentations
them to interact with you on a personal
such as SlideShare
basis. Corporate talk is confusing and most
to
deliver
people will just click away when they feel
illustrations
and
disconnected from your message.
publish leadership
content
through
With Facebook, you also have to keep
the platform. This
constant interaction and distribute quality
basically aids in
content frequently to engage customers and
pushing up potential clients’ perception
peers. To fully reap the benefits of Facebook,
of your business through strategic
be sure to create fan pages, Facebook ads,
positioning and marketing.
and make judicious use of pictures, memes,
videos, polls, and host giveaways or offer
discount coupons.
Story
T
of the Month: Fitness Kickboxing with Dave
witter
is yet
another
s o c i a l
m e d i a
platform
that
has
been
long
considered
a
powerful
communication
and marketing
tool.
The
network allows
your business to
create a profile
and
upload
images, post short messages inquiring about
your customers, respond to questions, and
even using it as a customer support page in
real time.
o
Twitter Implications – At its best, Twitter
offers a platform to broaden message
outreach since it hosts nearly 288 million
users (accurate as of March 2015). You
can engage customers in any way you
want using short targeted messages (160
characters) and especially as a tool to
open up meaningful conversations.
o
Social Media Use Tips – Tweets have a very
short lifespan and Twitter heavily relies
on traction/attraction (your followers
and those you
follow).
You
should
use
Twitter to engage
potential clients
and
associate
with
reputable
businesses
by
fo l l o w i n g
them and
retweeting
t h e i r
messages.
Because
w e l l -
established brands tend to have a lot of
followers, engaging with such brands will get
your Twitter account seen by the same group
of customers you’re both targeting. This can
prove to be an effective and cost-effective
way of reaching out to potential customers.
Make use of relevant hash-tags (#) as you’re
tweeting or retweeting to broaden visibility
and outreach. Using images can also increase
reach and intrigue customers.
B
logs are not only powerful marketing
tools, but they’re also low-cost and very
effective in getting your messages across.
They’re basically websites that act as social
media bases where your business has unlimited
opportunities to post content, incorporate
links, connect with peers and leaders, invite
guests to give interviews, describe, promote or
review products and services, and educate your
customers about your products.
o
Blogging Implications – With blogs, you’ll
have control over all content and interactions
as well as how you portray and market your
brand. However, it requires you to update
quality content on a consistent basis, and this
requires resources and time to accomplish.
Blogs should therefore be approached
patiently and cautiously.
Many blogging platforms such as Blogspot
and Wordpress also do not allow blatant
promotional pieces on their platforms. This
is easily rectified by purchasing a domain
name and hosting your blog on your own
web hosting server, giving you 100% control
over its content.
o
Social Media Use Tips – Optimize the blog
for search engines to improve visibility
and ranking, and make sure to incorporate
links which refer customers to resourceful
content. You can make additional profit from
advertising for other partners and appearing
in their blogs as well to boost outreach. As
a gateway linking to other sites, you can )