Social Media Marketing and your Business

Posted on 13. Sep, 2011 by Douglas Richardson in Tribe Syndication

As a business owner, and you’re not aware of “Social Media Marketing” (SMM). You are either so busy with the customers that are coming into your business, or you live under a rock out in the desert somewhere with no internet connection! All kidding aside SMM is the fasted growing segment of advertizing out there and in many cases it is FREE for the taking!

SMM sites such as FaceBook; Twitter; Linkedin and YouTube are visited literally by hundreds of millions of people a day! Now I know that the first thought that comes to you is, Hey, I am not a national or international business! My customer base is fifty or less miles from Bend or even smaller! Well read on this applies to you also in more ways than you may realize.

Nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media when researching products and services, according to BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing tracking study. The misconception that only young people use (SMM) for shopping, but in fact nearly all of the buying public now use them. Marketing has shifted from a one-way broadcast to a multi-point conversation. In the past, communications were broadcast exclusively through mass marketing channels like radio, TV, newspapers door to door distribution of directories like the Yellow Pages.

Businesses are wise to think beyond their websites and reach out to prospects and customers where they spend their time online, whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, other social networks, or through blogs or podcasts. This strategy involves establishing a presence in multiple locations of SMM, where prospects can engage with your company in conversations that will eventually lead to business relationships.
This also helps your business become the “go to” when someone needs an expert in that area of interest.

Between the four sites listed above there are hundreds of millions of users going to these sites daily. The fasted growing demographic among Facebook users is the 35 to 65 year old women. Another statistic: 300 million people visit You Tube every month and watch more than 12 billion videos, according to ComScore’s January 2010 figures. Did you know that You Tube is the second largest search engine on the internet at this time. People go there to learn how to bake a cake or how to create a Fanpage on Facebook.

Proactive businesses are making plans to get the prospect to follow them, friend them, subscribe to their channels, etc. Once connected, your business can start offering information, expert prospective on topics your businesses specializes in, recommendations, news, coupons, membership privileges, etc. in an effort to get prospects to give permission to follow up with them through email, text messages to their mobile phones, regular mail, or what ever form of communication they prefer. You and your business are building relationships with prospects, earning their trust and ultimately, earning their business.

Once you have established relationships with your prospects online, you need to continue to provide valuable information and continue to make offers because it is proven that it is much easier to get an existing customer to buy from you again than it is to get a new customer to buy from you the first time. It sounds simple, but this is where most businesses fail on an epic level. Most businesses miss the opportunities for incrementally increasing income because they don’t follow up with their customers.

Most business owners find it difficult to allocate their time to develop a marketing program. Approximately 26% of small businesses have a SMM program in place. A SMM consultant can develop an online marketing plan and organize the resources to execute it so it generates results cost effectively without impacting your primary focus, of managing your business.