With the use of Social Media on a constant rise, most business owners associate gaining Twitter Followers or Facebook Fans as an effective plan for their campaign. Sadly, this is not true. Having a huge following on every Social Media Network available, will not necessarily help your business.
If you are new to Twitter then you might want to take a look at How Twitter Fits into your corporate marketing plan. Social media involves platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and even Press Releases. Social Media is an essential medium for every business today. A good Social Media plan can help you achieve:
- Good Search Engine Rankings
- Increased Conversions
- More Traffic
The most popular Social media website we should take a look at is Facebook. Facebook has approximately 1.6 million business pages and 200 million visitors logging in everyday. You can view Facebook statistics here.
It is easy to setup accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter, but how can one make sure that all our efforts are worthwhile? Before we touch base on this, here are some more things you should know:
- Twitter and Facebook users have been known to spend online
- People who purchase online are relying on recommendations
What this means is that more and more customers / consumers are relying on recommendations from friends and other users while making purchases online.
Social Profile
Each and every business is different. The products are different, the target audiences are different, and the methods of effective promotion in turn end up being different too. While charting out a promotional plan for your company, it is best if you could set aside some time and determine who your ideal customer is.
Here is an example customer profile based on selling eBooks about “organic low fat recipes”.
- Jane is between 25 to 40 yrs old
- Jane has an average income of $25,000 to $50,000 per year (she should be able to afford the organic foods, these are pricy)
- She is single and conscious of her eating patterns, health, and weight
Although this profile is just a starting draft, once you understand your customer more, the profile will get more detailed and specific.
What will this achieve?
Imagine you focused all your efforts to figuring out who your customer is, what they like, and where they hang out online. As you get more comfortable with your customers online habits, you will no longer need the sales mentality, rather will suggest things based on their likes and dislikes. Therefore, your customers are more willing to do business with you because you care and are wanting to build trust.
Now it’s time to focus on how we can use Social Media to our advantage.
Focus on You Marketing Activities
Going by the above example, you know Jane loves to spend money on Organic products. She is health conscious, she wants to look good. So how would you use this to your advantage? You give her what she wants. Provide her with tips on living a healthy, balanced life. Suggest her places where she can get discounts on organic produce. (Ideally you would tie up with other business owners who have newsletters and products catering to her needs). Theses suggestions can easily be conveyed via Social Media.
Taking this approach a step forward, you would focus and zero down on all of your activities on social networks as well.
- Reserve a Twitter, Facebook and Linked In Account for you business.
- Use your business name for this account.
Jot down the following things for each of your social media accounts.
- The Primary keyword / Primary product – low fat recipes
- Any other items which interest your prospect – organic food, weight loss equipments, balanced lifestyle tips, exercises
Now What?
Use your social media accounts to send messages based on these topics ONLY. Focus is important. Your customers don’t care about where you spent your evening. They want information which will help them. That is what we should provide them.
You might notice that once you change the type of messages you send across (Tweets, Facebook messages), a few people might unsubscribe. That’s is definitely totally OKAY because they were never interested in what you had to offer in the first place.
Now that you understand the need for relevant quality followers, it is now time to start your Social Media Plan. If you use the tips provided above, you will be amazed at the results!
True Latha, just having a social media account and followers is not enough to achieve what we need. As you said, identify the right profiles which suits our business / service. Having relevant followers will help to gain trust and push more sales. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Latha !