Maintaining an active social media presence for your company is a good way to increase awareness of your products and services. Whenever you publish content on your blog or on social media sites such as Facebook, it is like handing a leaflet to customers so that the may share it with their friends.
Think about it: There are an estimated 721 million active Facebook users, with 69 billion friendships among them. Assuming that most Facebook users have 100-200 friends on the site, if just one of those people makes a positive comment about your product on their Facebook page, that can be huge!
To get started using social media, ask yourself these key questions.
• Why do you need social media marketing? This is something that deserves more than just a few minutes of attention. Today people find information either by using a search engine such as Google or Bing, or from their friends. If you are not involved with word-of-mouth on the Internet, you may be missing out on a huge chunk of sales. Your customers and prospects will be able to tell if you’re not 100 percent committed. Active, vibrant social media communication requires thoughtful planning and follow-through.
• How does social media fit into your business model? While it’s unique in that it is a platform for engaging and interacting with your target audience, it’s also an extension of your other marketing channels. Social media can be an ideal way to get in front of your audience at a time they are open to listening to you. It works best for companies when they include it in as many of their promotional activities as possible.
• How will you handle engagement? Social media gives a personal face to your business. When you create a Facebook fan page, or maintain a blog that allows comments, you’ve got to be ready to answer questions, start meaningful discussions and make use of the feedback. Who will do that? Will you have rules of engagement guidelines in place? When a question or comment goes unanswered for days at a time, it makes a company seem unresponsive to its customers. Your social media presence should showcase your customer service excellence.
Our writing staff creates blogs, tweets and Facebook posts for many different types of businesses. We know that our clients’ audiences – their customers and prospects – love to share useful or interesting tidbits of information. So we strive to create a blend of content topics that makes people want to come back. We also listen and engage with our clients’ readers. We direct them to the websites where they can learn more about the product or service. We become an integral part of our clients’ marketing team.
Let’s talk about how we can help you maintain a robust content chain that keeps your audience engaged and involved with your company.