Social Media and It's Impact on Business Part 2
As promised in last weeks blog, I will go through the basic steps of setting up a successful social media marketing campaign and discuss the ways this will give you an internet presence. I could go into great depths on each one but it would take many pages to discuss all the tools that these social medias provide. With that said, I will give you a basic overview of how to get started with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and You Tube. I will also go over how to use Hootsuite to manage all these social media platforms.
The first social media platform that is very important in creating a successful social media marketing campaign is Facebook. Facebook is one of the most widely used platforms in the world. Facebook is also one of my favorites because it has many useful applications and systems. You can now apply for your own Facebook email and even customize a personalized Facebook “Like” page for your business. The first thing you have to do is go to Facebook if you haven’t already signed up for a page and set up your own personal profile
http://www.facebook.com. Once signed up you will want to create a “like page” for your business at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. You will want to choose the category that best fits your business. Once that is set up you will want to add pictures, engage people in discussions, and provide useful content to individuals who are visiting your “Like Page”. One thing that I have learned is that if you don’t provide useful or interesting content or pictures, you will loose your following base and all your hard work will be lost. Once you have your “Like Page” set up, it is now time to get traffic to your page and link it to your website and all your other social medias. One way to get people to follow you is to suggest your page to your friends that you already have set up through your personal Facebook page. Another great way to get people to your page and to start following you is to ask strategic friends to suggest your page to all of there friends. I was able to build up a following base of 2000 “Likes” for Your Custom Image in about a year. This can be quicker or slower depending on how many friends you have and how many strategic partners you are able to engage. It will also increase or decrease with the content that you provide or don’t provide to your potential customers.
The second social media that is very useful to use is LinkedIn and can be found at
http://www.linkedin.com. LinkedIn is a business platform and should be used to strengthen business networking. As with any social media platform, you will want to fill out your information to start your page. Be creative and consider this your cover letter and resume! You want to create a great impression of yourself and the services that you are able to provide. LinkedIn can and will open many doors if used correctly and efficiently. One of the most efficient tools (located at the bottom right hand corner of your home page) is the “See who viewed your profile”! You can click on this and gives you the names of the last 5 people that viewed your profile! If you choose to upgrade your LinkedIn account, you may then see everyone who views your profile. What does this mean? It means that that person who viewed your profile must be interested in your services or what you have to say. The next step is engaging that individual with a message. I have used this technique which I have learned from Brian O’Neil who is the owner of Sales Empowerment Group out of Chicago and it has increased my “Warm Calling” significantly! Warm calls lead to meetings and meetings lead to SALES! Sales=Happy Business Owners!
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile oryour blog, sent to your followersand are searchable on Twitter search. Twitter feeds can be linked to your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles along with a slew of other social media platforms. It could be the single most effect tool out there to keep people updated on new products, services or exciting news of your company. To build a successful twitter profile, you will have to think outside the box. Start following people who you are interested in and groups that may want to use your service. Don’t go overboard with tweets on your business but lead into products that you can provide. This will get people interested in you and it will build trust in your relationships. Down the road, these relationships can be turned into trusted sales and referrals!
The last social media that I am going to discuss is YouTube. This can give your clients and/or followers a sense of who you are and what you have to offer. With it being a video platform and also owned by Google, YouTube videos posted to your website can help boost your rankings in the search engines. With that in mind, you can sign up for a YouTube account with your Google account. Video blogging is very crucial in helping your potential customers learn about YOU! One question…. Would you rather read about a product or watch about one? From my personal experience, I have had a much larger response on the videos that I have posted versus the pictures or even content that I wrote about the products my business had to offer. People are visual and want to be engaged. YouTube is great for this and serves it purpose as being the most widely used video platform on the internet.
Now for the secret on how to integrate all these social medias and save yourself oodles of time. HootSuite is a great platform to integrate all these together and can be found here
www.hootsuite.com . You can link all your social media platforms into this and post only to one platform or all of them with a single click. You can also schedule messages to be sent out days or even months in advance. This has saved me hundreds of hours of time and enabled me to get very creative in my blogging/posting!
There are many other social media platforms and techniques out there to help you in creating a successful social media campaign. These are considered the Big 4 in my book and should be the foundation of any great campaign. It is important that you and your business “Stands Out” and is “Visual”. With that said…… “Make It Custom….Make It Yours”!
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