Social media is becoming an essential tool in our everyday business mix. Many companies are increasingly using social tools to monitor conversations about their products, competitors, brands to engage with their customers to build strong lasting relationships. According to Forrester Research social media marketing will grow at an annual rate of 34% much faster than any online form of marketing and double the average growth rate of 17% for all online mediums. A new research from AMI Partners indicates that almost 70% of small and medium businesses actively use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN to promote themselves. Simply pushing content out through your social networks is just not going to cut it, it’s very important to strategically use your social media tools tools to increase your exposure and reach your target audience. So what’s your marketing & social media plan? How do you plan to engage your audience and promote your brand?
Here are 3 simple reasons you can use social media to grow your business:
Brand Recognition:
your customers are now spending more time on social networking sites than before. What are you doing to brand your company? Do you have logo, bio, information about your content all throughout all social networking sites? Always make sure your brand has a social media presence getting your name out there is incredibly important, using social media will enable your company to reach a huge number of potential customers. Start by engaging with the customer first and allowing them to interact with your brand. Studies suggest that people need to hear a company’s name at least seven times before they trust and respect enough to become a customer. For example with my brand “Loren Jewels” I make sure we have an online presence via Twitter and our Facebook account, we update our pages daily and make sure our brand is being represented through out all channels.
Find New Customers:
You shouldn’t neglect your personal social media accounts as potential avenues to promote the activities of your business. Make sure to post content about your business on a daily basis. It’s important to remind your friends about your business they are your promoters and sales force. Posting regular updates relating to your business and activities can remind your friends about what your company does and influence them to use your services or make referrals. I’ve received many new customers through social network by promoting my brands on a daily basis. Don’t be afraid to promote your business or allow your friends to promote you, by doing so I’ve been able to grow my Motives Cosmetics, Market America and Loren Jewels businesses.
Niche marketing:
Social media enables you to reach very specific subsets of people based on their personal preferences and interests. You can create unique social media profiles to target these audiences or create strategies based on addressing individual interests. For example If you are in the health & beauty industry you can search doctors or wellness professionals on Twitter by using the hashtag #doctors or #wellness you can search on Facebook by search Doctors within your network. Niche marketing is great, it helps you reach a very specific market who are most interested in your product.
What social media tools are you using to grow your business? Any tips send me a tweet @lorenridinger
