What can social media do for you? This is a wonderful question! You may be skeptical about the benefits of social media, or maybe you’ve done a little and have given up… The truth is, social media can help your business grow to new heights faster than ever before in the history of business. What’s more, social media is a free tool that allows you to communicate with more people in less time than any other form of advertising. The key is… knowing how to USE IT PROPERLY. You can’t just logon and start getting leads. There is a strategy that you must know, which I teach in my coaching programs–but that’s not what this article is about. Today I’m sharing with you the 6 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Help Your Business…
Locating your target market is super-easy to do, thanks to websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. Today, everyone is social! A majority of people are online chatting, sharing and bonding with their friends, relatives and associates. This new social, digital world is a virtual gold mine for the marketer. We are able to pinpoint with incredible accuracy those people in your target market. We can build communities of people within certain niches such as doctors, lawyers, luxury buyers, moms, teens or even car buffs. We can pool just about any type of person to our network by providing valuable content that is filtered in a relevant way.
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Social media is a way to stay in front of the people you’re trying to reach, your existing customers as well as potential customers. Maintaining your presence on social media sites helps you get attention. A value-driven, authentic social media marketing strategy will create interest in you and your business, and keep people listening to you, thinking about you and talking about you. This buzz will spread out to people who don’t even use social media websites. It’s amazing what a little social media a day can do!
If you are doing social media correctly, then you will create a bond with your audience, with individuals in your target market. Scientific studies show that relationships are being built faster and more deeply through Facebook than they are face-to-face. This closeness; this accessibility will lend itself to more sales revenue for your business. As Zig Ziglar once said, “People go out of their way to do business with those they know and they like.” Proper use of social media will help people feel connected to you, perhaps even more so than they are to your competitors. This bond is priceless when it comes to selling because trust and rapport are the essence of successful sales.
Social media gets you in front of those in your network–constantly. Just because you make a sale or provide a service doesn’t mean you are forgotten. Social media allows you to make the essential “touches” needed to stay connected with your clients long-term. This ensures more referrals, and a greater likelihood that the client will return to you when the time comes to make another purchase.
Social media gives us an unprecedented opportunity to listen to your target market, as well as your competitors and your industry as a whole. It opens up the lines of communication and helps you to see if your marketing message is coming across effectively, or if you have more work to do. There are many tools to use for listening to your target market, but I’ve found, for most small businesses, just conversing with people online in a non-salesy way gives you volumes of information about mindsets and what’s most important.
When you strike a positive note with your audience, they will become more curious about you and compelled to visit your website. People will also flow to your website when you post interesting and relevant content from your site on your social media feeds. When people come to your website, you have the opportunity to shine, and to show them what you have to offer. Make sure that your site is worthy of their attention, and perhaps some extra time by having valuable resources, proof of your credibility and tools for them to use.
Once your social media presence is strong, and your content is precise, and you’re marketing message is properly devised to suit the specific needs of your target market, you will naturally see an increase in inbound leads to your business. This will be in the form of Facebook emails, regular email, phone calls and website inquiries. If you’re positioned properly, and you’re getting your message across in a way that’s digestible in the realm of social media, you will reap the benefits in new clients.
Sometimes people will watch you–or “stalk you” as they say for a while before they make a decision to contact you for a purchase. This gives you the opportunity to establish credibility and build rapport. When it comes time to change the relationship from a social exchange to a business exchange, half the battle is won. You will already have rapport established and you will appear credible–if you are using social media correctly.
Social media tools offer a more efficient means of transferring our branded message to the masses. There is no better form of advertising than direct one-to-one relationship building that’s possible online. The time you spend learning the ropes in social media and creating your strategies can be considered an advertising expense that will pay dividends for many years to come.
1. Social media is economical. Less expensive than other forms of marketing such as print, billboards, magazine ads, brochures, television ads and radio.
2. Social media is GREEN. Social media is less harmful to the environment in that it requires very little industrial resources, other than human engagement online.
3. Social media reaches more people. Using what sociologists call “social multiplicity,” you can reach an unlimited number of people with online engagement.
4. Social media reaches people faster. People are using social media at an increasing rate. Using social media to market your small business products and services helps you to get the word out about your business faster than any other form of advertising and promotion.
5. Social media targets specific demographics more easily. People hang out with like-minded people on the web, and everyone is on the web in one capacity or another. As such, you can more easily locate those in your target market that you seek. You can more easily find your ideal client among the sea of masses.
6. Social media helps generate buzz. When you do the right things using social media, you can stimulate buzz about you and your business through social media channels. The ultimate goal is to get people talking about you in a good way.
7. Social media encourages viral marketing. Viral marketing is the process of your brand’s message spreading among the masses, without further input from you, other than the original message. This can be by video, by statements, sales, posts, tweets or articles. Once your information reaches the viral level, it is passed from person to person, which works much like word-of-mouth referrals.
8. Social media allows you to control your message. When you use social media, you can carefully share your message with your network over time. If you sell a complex product, you can educate your network as to what you offer, and why they need what you sell.
9. Social media gives you to the opportunity to shine online in a public forum. Everything is out-in-the-open with social media. If you do something great, you can share it with your entire network. This kicks in the “herding principal” and that of “social proof.” People trust those who are able to show the results they are getting for others.
10. Social media generates leads. The leads garnered through social media are “warm leads.” People who know you through social media feel like they really KNOW you. This causes a better client relationship, and builds trust and rapport before the sale is ever made.
11. Social media boosts traffic to your website. Your whole social media strategy should be to funnel people through to your website. Anytime you post information that is useful, it should originate from your own website.
12. Social media helps boost your SEO rankings. The more traffic that comes into your website, the higher your rankings in search results. In that your social media efforts promotes your website and generates traffic, it will also boost your rankings.
Pssst… Did you know I am a Social Media Coach? Yep! I coach small business owners and real estate agents in the art of social media. My 7 Step Coaching Programs Encourage, Educate & Empower you to become famous among your target market, make more money and live a better life. Contact me now!
