Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media?

Simply put, social media is networking electronically. Social media is another way for you to meet, learn about, communicate, help and get help from people. There are many ways to engage in social media. The most popular ways currently include blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

How does Social Media translate into free marketing?

The most important thing to understand about social media is the ultimate goal: trust. This means that your goal is to establish yourself as the subject matter expert (or SME) in your field. Think back to how you attracted clients in the past. Was it luck, or was it because you established trust with them? Every time you talk about your business in a way that educates another person, you are building your credibility as an SME. It is the same way with social media – only now your potential clients don’t run into you by accident, they come looking for you!

What is Facebook and how can I use it in my business?

Facebook was and still is a way for people to keep up-to-date with each other. People build profiles where they can post public updates, photos and events to share with their friends and relatives. They may also send each other private messages. To do this, each person must ‘friend’ the other – meaning both agree to enter into a relationship where they each may view the other's profile. It is completely voluntary.

Because of its popularity, businesses wanted to be able to promote their products and establish brand recognition on Facebook, but business profiles are not allowed according to the user terms. This is where the 'page' comes in.

Once you have established your personal profile, you may build as many pages as you desire. These pages do not reflect back to you, personally, unless you want them to. The great thing about pages is that people and other pages may 'like' it (you may have seen those little blue 'like' buttons all over the internet), and that means they will see any updates you post to that page – but you do not have to be ‘friends’ with these people. You can have as many followers as you can get to ‘like’ your page – and none of them will be able to view your profile unless you become 'friends.'

Taken one step further – each person who 'likes' your page now allows your updates to be seen on their profile – meaning, every person they friend now sees it, too! You have just exponentially increased your exposure without doing a thing.

What is Twitter, and why would I use it?

Twitter is not just for teens - and not just for frivolous updates. Twitter is a great place to quickly and easily establish yourself as an SME and for you to find others who are SMEs in areas you might need help. If used correctly, Twitter is also the most powerful search engine on the internet. You do not have to spend hours a day to keep your content fresh and relevant. You simply must bear in mind that Twitter, like Facebook and live networking, is all about relationships.

How can YouTube help my business?

Video is still relatively new in terms of internet searching - and yet YouTube is the number two most-used site behind Google! Because most small businesses have yet to utilize this powerful medium, you will be far ahead of your competition - and, again, building that trust that is the keystone of your business.

People will spend more time looking up videos than reading text, and are more likely to retain what they see AND hear than what they just read. A short introductory or how-to video posted on YouTube and accessible via your web site greatly increases your exposure to the types of consumers that are looking specifically for you.