What can you do when you have little or no money to set aside for advertising? How can you get the most out of your investment? And what the heck is “social marketing” and why should I learn how to use it?
I previously shared how you should create your message first before you start marketing your business/products. This is important because presenting a consistent message over and over again in different formats will be remembered much sooner than a different message each time.
So what about social media: Facebook and Twitter? What about LinkedIn? 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 create a Facebook group for your business. You can create a group, or a Fan Page. Or both. The group page is where you can post your updates and messages. The fan page is where others can post messages and links. Fan Pages tend to be less restricted in the sense that unless something is grossly abusive, anything gets posted.
The first part of the Facebook page is a brief description of your business. For example, if your business is clothing, then the description would be about your clothing line. If your business is photography with wedding experience, then write it down.
Then there’s a section for recent events, and it can be anything from tips, sales, interviews, favorite web pages… anything related in any way to your business. Something that gives value to your readers/group members and keeps them coming back for more.
Once you’ve set up those pages, you can invite people to join your group.
Is that what you say? That’s all you have to do? Nope!
You should update your page at least weekly. Link to a new blog post you’ve made, or perhaps a blog related to your business that you particularly like. keep it cool Change the image maybe. Make it personal! (For a great article on the brand, go to candidimages101.blogspot.com.) Ask Questions – Send your members a message if you need feedback on a new product. Invite members to events using the events feature; maybe it’s a special sale or a coupon code. The point is to keep this interactive and worth keeping coming back. If there is nothing new, they will not stay as members for long.
With that being said, use the interactive (messaging and event invite) judiciously Y a little in moderation – There’s nothing worse than having the same group message about something every day. I tend to go offline and then turn off those group connections.
Don’t forget that you can also link your external blog site to your Facebook page. Then, whenever your blog is updated, it is automatically updated on Facebook. You can also link your Twitter account with the Twitter widget.
On your own page, join other groups that might be interested in what you have. Then, when you have a special, for example, post on some of those pages a link to your site with a short catchy message. Just be careful not to post too many! Facebook will suspend your account, perhaps permanently!
And then there are Facebook ads. My God, what a tool. This is where you can target a specific age, a specific location to really focus your message on the people you want to reach. I first learned about this from a young real estate agent who shared that his listings are posted on a page when a person’s status changes from single to engaged or married: he sold 28 homes in 2008 through internet connections!
This part isn’t free, but it’s not out of reach for most of us. I’m just starting to explore this level of Facebook and will be testing ads targeting college athletic programs. The possibilities are enormous! You set the price you want to pay for ad clicks and the limit you’re willing to pay each day. So it’s a very targeted medium if you have a specific group in mind that you want to reach.
Going deep into Facebook and running actual ads is where it starts to add up. But if your ad is well written and generates sales, then your ROI will have been proven. I will write an update on how well it has worked in the future.
Twitter is another social network that is becoming “all the rave”. I admit again that I am not as familiar with the uses of Twitter as I am now with Facebook. I think celebrities and athletes are finding this extremely useful in building a following – many people want to know the minutiae of a celebrity’s life! Or if you are a successful business person like Joe Vitale, thousands of people are hanging on your every word.
I see a more practical use for Twitter in creating “a day in the life of…” tweets. It really is a “micro-blog”. For example, if you use photography again, you could tweet your day in the life of a photographer. That could mean “to the photo shoot”, “reassuring girlfriend”; “He helped fix the wedding cake”; “download media”; etc. etc. It could be quite interesting for the person thinking about a career in photography!
Twitter is also useful for posting notices about the start of events or contests: short notices that inform people about the change in status.
And then there’s LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn.com is more of a professional business directory that can link you to thousands of people. Sometimes job postings are only posted on LinkedIn. Sometimes you want to connect with a particular person, and one of your connections on LinkedIn is in your network, so you can ask them 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 on LinkedIn, you hear about opportunities you might not have heard of otherwise.
Summary
As you can see, these three social media pages have more pros than cons for building connections and opportunities for your business. There are many other networks as well. Just remember, you should always be mindful of what you post, anywhere, because it’s somewhere in cyberspace permanently. And if it’s something you later regret, it can come back and bite you. Stay focused, stay professional, even on your personal Facebook pages, and you won’t have a problem.
FACEBOOK:
- Get a Facebook account for your business: 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 special offers or special events (interviews, etc.)
- post interesting links
- Use Facebook advertising to target your audience, for example, if you want to do wedding photography, target ads that go to people who upgrade their status from single to engaged; If your product is for students, target colleges and universities. So your ad only appears on the relevant page.
TWITTER:
- Get a Twitter account
- “Tweet” according to what your company does; For example, if you are an executive, you can tweet when you go to important sales meetings or closing deals; if you are a photographer, tweet when you go to the photo shoot
- Set up your profile based on what you’re sharing about your business. For example, you might want to tweet about a “day in the life of…”
- Also tweet interesting links that don’t always have to be specifically related to your business. If you come across a really funny video on YouTube (and pure fun, what’s just sarcastic to you can be hugely insulting to someone else) like the bride and groom dancing in church, by all means pass it on. Otherwise, link to things that relate to your company or what your company is about. For example, if I hear 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 to your network
- ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS from people you know – people look at you and contribute to their decision to hire you or not to use your business.
- Take a look at your friends’ profiles: maybe they know someone you’ve been wanting to meet… ask for an introduction
- Make recommendations, and only recommend those you really recommend, not just because someone asked you to post something. You’re trusting your network to be honest with their recommendations, so be honest with yours.