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Using social medial to market your business

Guest post by: Rene Truter

Article Overview: You may have heard this phrase being bandied about, but aren't quite sure what it means or how it can be of use to your business. Let's demystify the online world of social media.

Using social medial to market your business

Tagging, blogging, connecting, twittering... if these mean nothing to you, then you're clearly not taking advantage of the captive audience the world of social media puts at your fingertips (literally).

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and business networking sites like LinkedIn and BNI give you the opportunity to profile your business and form relationships with potential customers, service providers and strategicpartners.

While your customers could come from all over the world, if your company is not quite ready to export, rest assured that there are millions of South Africans using these communication tools and thousands ofSMEs with this type of online presence.

The time is now for getting in on the action and the best part of the deal, is that you can do all this for free! All it will cost you is some time and a little planning.

Making the most of free web space

While using these sites is pretty simple, there are certain ways to harness their potential to generate business.

• Use your business profile to form relationships, put a face to your business and start building demand for and trust in the services or products you offer
• Don't be nervous about trying to become an expert blogger. Look at existing conversations that are relevant to your business and start interacting
• Don't expect immediate results. Building relationships takes time, but maintaining a presence and regularly updating your contacts on what you're doing, will bear fruit soon enough
• Other than making your business visible, use your conversations to explain what makes your service or product unique or what you can offer that your competitors can't
• Use this time to get to know your customers and what their needs are. Asking questions can be a good way of assessing how to align your product or fulfil a need.
• You can use these sites to provide good customer service to existing clients by following up with them and answering questions they may have about your products

Do some research into the various networking websites on offer and decide which one would be the most relevant to your business. These sites will often provide stats on user demographics (location, average income, age group, etc), which will help you settle on the sites most likely to be worth your time.

Copyright© 2010 Business Partners Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Article Tags: Internet, media, networking, online, social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to promote business online? - Ark, There are several ways to promote business online but what matters is how effectively you place your business before the market. One has to plan the steps carefully and must take a test effect in order to get the best results. A promotion of a product/service or anything else affects your market only when it could effect you and so the seller is the first customer itself. For promoting online you can write articles related to the service/product that you are providing but then you need to write about the benefits of the product not your site. You need to first make your target market understand the effectiveness of the product/service. Try to be informative and professional with all your approach, and when you direct the user through a link/hyperlink in your article/blog content make sure that they are being directed to the desired page. Promote your content through social medias, social bookmarking sites and your email. Social media is only single market place i feel where you could get your target at one place. Try to build your leads and client network through social networks, interact with them effectively, don't present yourself as a seller you must promote your business but present yourself as a adviser. Try to attract them by posting offers and discounts and always be prepared to explain them regarding that. Note one thing that it is you both the side and so it is not difficult to impress yourself but then you need to develop strategies. Remember one thing, If there not a Need then Generate the Need! -- Thanks
I have an invention, now what do I do? - I am sure that a lot of this is covered in different topics, but as a new inventor, I have some questions. Bit of info for you, so you know where we are. 1. I have a working prototype. 2. This is a web based piece of software. 3. The software has to do with social media. (Although it is not a social site) 4. It is a tool for social media users. Cross platform, meaning, Facebook, twitter, linkedin etc.. all the major ones. 5. We have active users. This is a tested solution with real users. We did a market test and had 40-50 users signup within 1 day. We are currently not accepting new users until the beta is completed. 6. We are ready to start looking for Venture Capital or Investors. Where should we start? Patent? First to market? NDA's? Anyone have experience in this realm? What should we do first? .
Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Kevin Lee, the site's Admin, has asked me to create a poll to determine if users would like to see a new section/category called "Social Media Marketing." With the rise of social networking websites marketing a business using social media can produce amazing results; very high ROI since the market is young.
Re: The State of Marketing - 2011. An infographic. - Interesting Graphic, Wonder what the numbers would look like for Online Only Marketing? For 2012, I see word of mouth increasing even more through social business networks as their market share increases. I haven't been able to find the latest market share data, but certainly the growth of such sites is phenomenal. A problem with word of mouth goes back (before Yates) that negative news travels faster than positive news. Many member that join theses site use the spam approach to business and quickly lose their credibility as they post their links on individual posts and in groups where their post is neither relevant nor appropriate. (Calls for an article on Social Etiquette) Word of mouth and online marketing, in my opinion start with YOU, build your brand and be consistent with at brand: your profile, and pic should tell us who you are, what are your values, give us something to relate to and tie it in with your primary product or service If you are into social business networking, join many and get YOU, your name out there. When we know you, you product will take care of itself Most member here seem to brand themselves (their name); however, even among the largest social business network I see to many cartoons, dogs, cats, cars, spouse pics, or I see biz names - these don't tell me who you are with out studying your profile I believe that the value of word of mouth is obvious, what are the mouths going to be saying about you?
Re: Owning a social network software...How is it?? - Hi, I am a big fan of social networking software (75% of our business) but what we constantly have to remind people is the concept of a social network has been around for ages. It just so happens MySpace & Facebook made the ability to do it free & online mainstream and the rest is history. Our company finds that pre-developed social networking applications do not create good internet business. The simple reason is a social network is not an internet business; all it is a group of link minded individuals that are able to communicate with one another through the medium you provide. A construction company can build an office building...but that does not make it a profitable business. You need to (1) build your business and (2) build social networking software features around that business. So my advice to you, just like facebook.com opened up their code, make your social networking software open so ANYONE can modify it to meet their needs. Jeff


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