What do you do if you don’t have enough money for advertising? What can you do to get the best bang for your advertising dollar? And what the heck is “social marketing” and why should you learn how to use it?
Previously I shared how you should create your message first before starting to market your company/products. Because a consistent message is more memorable than one message in every format, it is crucial to do this.
So what about social media? How can these pages help your business? How can these pages help your business?
Well they can actually help a lot, and cost little to nothing in the process.
the first thing you want to do is to create a Facebook group for your business. There are two options: a fan page or a group. You can do both. You can update and post messages to the group page. You can also post links and messages to the Fan Page. In the sense of being more open to all, the Fan Pages are less restrictive than other pages. If your business is clothing and you want to describe your line of clothing, this would happen. Write about your photography business that specializes in weddings. You want to provide value for your members/group members, and have them return to you again and again.
Do you think that’s all there is to it? Your page should be updated at least once a week. You can link to any blog posts you have just published, or a blog related to your business. It’s important to keep it current. You might change the image. Personalize it! (For a great article on branding – go to candidimages101.blogspot.com). If you have any questions, ask your fellow members. Use the event feature to invite members to events – perhaps it’s a sale or coupon code. It is important to make it interactive so that they keep returning to the site. If there is nothing new, they won’t stay long as a member.
Having said that – use the interactive (messaging and event invitation)
judiciously
and
somewhat sparingly
– there is nothing worse than having the same group message every day about something. I tend to tune-out then turn off those group connections.Don’t forget you can also link in your external blog site to your Facebook page. This will automatically update your Facebook page every time you blog posts are updated. The Twitter widget allows you to link your Twitter account.Please create your page and join any other groups interested in your content. You can then post a link to the site on several pages, along with an engaging message. Be careful to not make too many postings. Facebook will suspend your account, perhaps permanently!And then there are Facebook ads. Oh my, what an amazing tool! This is where you can focus your message on a particular age or a certain location. I first learned about this from a young real estate agent who shared that his ads get posted on a page when the persons status changes from single to engaged or married – he sold 28 homes in 2008 all through internet connections!This part is not free, but it is not out of reach for most of us. This level of Facebook is new to me, so I will be trying out ads targeting collegiate sports programs. There are so many options! There are many options! So it is a really targeted media if you have a specific group in mind that you want to reach.
Getting deeper into Facebook and posting real ads is where you start adding up costs. If your ad generates sales and is written well, your return on investment will be good. I will write an update on how well that has worked down the road.
Twitter is another social media that is becoming “all the rave”. Again, I have to admit that Twitter is not something I’m as well-versed in as Facebook. Celebrities and athletes find this very useful for gaining a following. So many people are eager to learn about the inner workings of celebrities! You can also be a businessman like Joe Vitale and thousands of people will follow your every word.
For me, Twitter has a greater practical purpose in that it allows you to create “a day in… ” tweets. Twitter is truly a micro-blog. You could, for example, tweet your daily life as a photographer using photos again. This could be “off to photograph shoot”, “calming down bride”, “helped fix the wedding cake” or “downloading media”. etc. It could be quite interesting for the person thinking about a career in photography!
Twitter is also useful for posting notice of the start of events, or contests – short notices that let people know status has changed.
And then there is LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn.com can connect you with thousands of people. Some job openings can only be posted to LinkedIn. Sometimes you want to get connected to a particular individual, and one of your connections on LinkedIn happens to be in their network – so you can ask your connection for an introduction.
You also make and receive recommendations on LinkedIn – so you can search your friends profiles and see who they recommend, and add your recommendations too. And finally, when you connect to different networks in LinkedIn, you hear about opportunities that you might not otherwise have heard of.
Summary
As you can see, all three of these social media pages have more pros than cons for being able to build connections and opportunities for your business. You can also connect to other social media networks. Remember to be careful about what you publish online. It is there forever. It could come back to bite you if you do regret it later. Stay focused, stay professional – even in your personal Facebook pages – and you won’t have any problems.
FACEBOOK:
Get a Facebook account for your business – either start a group from your own Facebook page or create a “fan” page for the business
Invite friends and clients to join your page
Post regular updates – message members if you have specials or special events going on (interviews etc)
Post interesting links
- Use Facebook advertising to target your audience e.g. If you are interested in wedding photography, make sure your ads go to those who have changed their status from “single” to “engaged”. You can also invite friends and clients to join your page
- .Post interesting links
- . Use Facebook advertising to target your audience. Then your ad only pops up on the relevant page.
- TWITTER:
- Get a Twitter account
“Tweet” according to what your company does – e.g., if executive, can tweet when off to important sales meetings or closing deals; if photographer, tweet when off to photo shoot
- Set up your profile based on what you are sharing about your company. You might tweet about “a day in the life…
- ” You can share a YouTube video that is funny and clean (though it may seem sarcastic or insensitive to some) like the groom and bride boogying into church. Link to articles that are related to you or your company. E.g., if I hear of positive stories, I’ll tweet the link because our company is all about being positive
- Tweet special events, contests, coupon codes
- LINKEDIN:
- Get a LinkedIn account
Take the time to complete your profile
- Invite people you know into your network
- ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS from people you know – people do look at these and it contributes to their decision whether or not to hire you, or use your business
- Take a look at your friends profiles – maybe they know someone you have been wanting to meet… ask for an introduction
- Make recommendations – and only recommend those you truly do recommend, not just because someone asked you to post something. Your network will be open about their recommendations, so you should be as honest as possible about yours.