How to use social media for marketing purposes

You may have heard it’s a good idea to use social media to market your business but you’re not sure how to do this. Before you dive into the social media world, the first hurtle is to know if you can update content on a continuous basis. The second hurtle is if your products or services can attract the social media audience. This blog addresses the later.

Here are a few professional BtoC Facebook pages:

Seventh Generation, The Gap, Cheetohs, Starbucks, Pizza

What do the above Facebook pages have in common? If you said, popular topics, you are correct. The best social media pages are made from general topics people love to use or talk about. Sustainability, clothing and food are some of these topics. How do you create a popular Facebook pages for your small or medium sized business? Create a page on a general topic and promote your company in the Info tab. Create an individual tab with html and the FBML include and promote your company this way. Make this tab your Default tab so users see this first when viewing your Facebook page. If you have an HTML guru on your staff use that person otherwise it pays to hire a professional.

Here are a few successful Twitter pages:

Oprah, Ellen Degeneres, or go to 25 of the best designed Twitter pages

What do the above Twitter pages have in common? The Tweets are daily or multiple times a day, they utilize the background image to promote the product (Oprah herself, Ellen’s sound stage or a craft via design elements) and they customize the URL to promote the name of the person or company. Use your Twitter background to promote your craft, like this typography Twitter page or your company, like this freelanceer’s Twitter page.

Best Practices for hosting a social media site:

1. Always interact with your fans. Always post manual updates and respond to comments as soon as you can. The point of a social media page is being social, right?

2. Don’t create a page unless it’s professional. Research what makes the best social media page then jump into creating one.

3. Don’t create a social media page unless you can update it every few days.

Video, doing it yourself

Video is a good way for businesses to show product demos, interviews, or other useful information. With prices dropping in many areas such as video cameras, edit software, and computers (and ease of use)  it is becoming easier for an individual to produce their own multimedia. Video cameras can be purchased for under $300 and with cameras like the Flip camera or the Kodak Zi series, it is more affordable to buy and use your own camera. Of course if you use your own camera it is highly recommended that you use a tripod, this will help keep your video from getting your readers motion sick and it looks more professional. Read more

What is the difference between social media sites?

According to CNN, Nielsen found Facebook users are 25 percent more likely to be affluent than MySpace users. Twenty-three percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 compared to only sixteen percent of MySpace users. The report unveiled MySpace users “tend to be ‘in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods” in comparison to Facebook users. “Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs,” said to Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen.

How does this research impact your business?

The impact of more demographic research by the three most popular social media sites lends itself to creating strategic marketing campaigns (The word ‘campaign’ may emanate an expensive bill but a marketing campaign can start at a few hundred dollars). Companies who want to reach an affluent audience may concentrate content on Facebook or LinkedIn, but companies that want to reach an audience with smaller salaries may want to concentrate on content with MySpace.

CNN reports the Nielsen research shows almost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year, but companies that wish to use only one social media site and reach a broader audience should use Twitter. “Nielsen’s survey didn’t find a dominant social class on Twitter as much as they found a geographic one: Those who use Twitter are more likely to live in an urban area where there’s greater access to wireless network coverage,” said Mancini. More information like this Nielsen report can help tame marketers frustrated social media antics and allow them to concentrate on sites that will result in higher leads.

How can you monetize and prioritize using social media?

Besides promoting the popularity of social media, this research promotes the need for a social media strategy. The demographic differences between the large social media sites can help marketers plan a social media strategy and focus attention on the sites that may lead to higher leads. Many marketing agencies can help create a simple social media strategy that is customized for your business. Ask the agency if they offer an a la carte options (Web Biz Consultants does).

Take Away Lessons

• Pay attention to new information about social media. This is one phenomenon that is not going away (Although social media sites like Facebook or MySpace may be replaced with another option). Social media is so popular that large research companies like Nielsen Claritas is spending time discovering specifics about this phenomenon
• Have a specific social media strategy to leverage leads and information effectively.