You know you this, right? We all need to market our business on Social Media. Thought so. The big question is, “What Social Media Should My Business Use?” There are many options for marketing your business on social media, but for sake of time, let’s talk about the social media giants that are right in front of our faces each day.
Wait a minute…just to be sure we are on the same page: You realize that your blog/website is your business home on line, right? Even if you have a brick and mortar business, your blog/website is what people look at when they are online. Don’t be homeless. If you do not have a blog, click here to get started now. That link will take you to a page to get set up using the same system that this blog is produced on. If you are going to want to sell your products or someone else’s products, you will need a blogging platform like this one – not a free one. You need to be able to control and own the material on your site.
Market Your Business on Social Media
First of all, this is not an article about stats or traffic or any metrics to determine which social media site performs best for your business. If you want to know more about that, there are many sites that will provide the details you want. You can start by looking at The 5 Easiest Steps to Measure Your Social Media Campaigns published by KissMetrics.
This article is for you – the person just starting out with your online business presence. Everyday you are bombarded with tips to market here and strategies to market there. Videos, training, and the list goes on and on. I know. I have been there…right where you are today.
I had to step back from it all and decide some things for myself. You see, I am on social media practically every day now…but it was not always like that. In fact, I didn’t like any of the social media stuff at all. But, I wanted to start a new business and an online business fit the model of freedom that I wanted. So…to have an online business, you have to be, well, online.
Which Social Media Should My Business Use?
So here are the questions that I asked myself that helped me determine my online path. If you are confused about the whole social media thing and not sure where to start, these questions might help you too.
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What are your Comfort and Experience Levels?
Let’s start with determining which social media platform you are most comfortable on and where you believe you have the most experience. Make a list of all of them that you know. Then, rank each one on two levels.
First, what is your comfort level on the platform? 1 being totally uncomfortable and completely lost and 5 being comfortable and somewhat confident.Second, how experienced do you feel on each of the platforms? Again, 1 being totally uncomfortable and completely lost and 5 being comfortable and somewhat confident. You list might start off something like this one.
Ok, so now you have one or two that you feel pretty good about. Which one is best? That depends…see the next point.
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What do you want to achieve?
It is important that you start with the desired outcome in sight. You will likely need different strategies to produce different results.
Here are some of the ways that using social media can help you in your business.
Learn more about your target audience and have a direct connection with them.
Expand your target audience, even go global if you desire.
Increase eyeballs on your blog or website which will help your audience learn more about you and decide if they really like you and what you are about. It they decide yes, the like factor just went up and the trust element will increase.
If you want to build your name or your brand, you want to consistently produce content full of value and constantly drive the traffic (eyeballs) to your blog. Why? That’s your home. Your storefront.
HootSuite produced a great article about 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business That Every Skeptic Should Know. They published it about a year ago but the info is still relevant.
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Do you have a Marketing Budget?
You can have a presence for free on any of the platforms in our list above. Each of them has their own way of determining your reach (number of people) who see your post/content and it varies for each one.
It is important to understand what your marketing/advertising budget is. I know you can run an ad on Facebook for $2/day. When you talk about your budget, there is more to it than the actual cost of the ad.
Graphics are a big help with social media ads. If you cannot create them OR if it takes you forever to do it, outsource it. The same with copywriting. Do not be afraid to hire someone else to do what you do not know how to do or do not have the time to do it.
So what if you had $100 as your budget. How would you spend it? BufferSocial has a helpful article about that – check it out. You have $100 to Spend on Social Media Marketing. Here’s One Way to Spend it.
That wraps it up for today.