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How Where and Why of Social Media Marketing

Guest post by: Andrew Schwartz

Article Overview: Social Media has hit the mainstream. Over 160 Million people are on Facebook, additional millions are on Twitter. Business colleagues reconnect on Linkedin. Students crib their book reports from Wikipedia. Someone you know is looking for a couch on Craigslist. You need to know how to use Social Media for your business.

How Where and Why of Social Media Marketing

Social Media has hit the mainstream. Over 160 Million people are on Facebook, additional millions are on Twitter. Business colleagues reconnect on Linkedin. Students crib their book reports from Wikipedia. Someone you know is looking for a couch on Craigslist.

That feeling in your stomach is telling you that your business needs to find a way to use Social Media. The question is how? Well, here are some answers:

Social Media Planning is not too different than Traditional Media Planning: If anything, it’s another layer of communication that you can place around your business. The basic ideas are all the same. You need to know how to talk to your audience, where to talk to them, what to talk to them about and why you want to talk to them in the first place.

How To Talk to Your Audience :

You need to use social media. Set up accounts on the major Social Media Networks (or actually use the accounts you already have). With a little bit of time, you’ll find that the systems are easy to understand, and that you’ll be able to communicate with people quickly. Remember that Social Media is like a cocktail party - you don’t want to hard-sell. You want to create relationships and foster new connections. The more people who know you and know your business, the more valuable your reputation becomes. The more valuable the reputation, the more sales you can generate.

Where To Talk To Your Audience

Once you understand how people use these networks, your business will need its own set of pages. We’ve been helping businesses set up these accounts and find that having a presence on the network can be incredibly valuable. We’ll help you understand the ways that your business will need to talk to your audience through the creation of groups, fan pages and business specific custom pages. Your Tweets, Facebook Updates and ongoing back-and-forth with your network will keep your relationships active.

What To Talk To Your Audience About:

As you become more comfortable using Social Media, you’ll find that different reactions come from different kinds of communication. Tweeting about your lunch may not be as interesting to your audience as tweeting about a new event you’re promoting, but each hold their own value. Social Media, in part, allows for a humanizing of the communication between your business and your customers. That being said, you need to keep in mind what you are trying to get your audience to do. In any kind of marketing, you need to have some kind of call to action. You need to have some activity that you’re asking your audience to do, or you’re just wasting the time and money it took to put the ad together. Identify what you want them to do, and talk to them in a way that nudges them to do it.

Why You Want To Talk To Your Audience:

Most importantly, know why you’re using Social Media marketing. Actually, you need to know why you’re marketing. Does your business need more customers? Do you need to manage your relationships with your customers better? What do you want to tell your customers, and what do you want them to do for you?

Social Media Marketing is another great tool you can use to grow your business. AdSymetrix can help. We can provide total response measurement and track any response from any ad you place anywhere. We can help you set up your network and use the tools of Social Media Marketing to spend less and sell more.

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Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Just as an update, Evan has extended the poll's expiration date and says he'd like to see at least 25 "yes" votes before implementing the new category. Moreover, it would probably be called "Online Marketing" instead of Social Media Marketing".
Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Everyone, 2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category. I'll implement [u:1g2tv6tf]ONE[/u:1g2tv6tf] of those new categories, but can someone first tell me what the difference would be between the existing "Marketing" section and one of those new options mentioned above? Thanks


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