Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. SMM covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos and images for marketing purposes, as well as paid social media advertising.
Why Social Media for Small Businesses?
As a startup or small business owner, you know there’s a lot to accomplish with limited resources. Traditional marketing can be a drain on your funds but social media marketing is low-cost and gives you a direct line to current and prospective customers. It is a trade-off though. What you save in dollars you will invest in time for your SMM campaign.
Decide Which Social Networks to Engage On
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and the list goes on. You may have a social network that you prefer over other, but it doesn’t mean that all your followers feel that way. Some will tell you that it is best to market on all the networks and others will advise you to not stretch yourself too thin.
Get started, but start small. Begin by doing a little homework and see where your audience is engaging. Pay attention to keywords and search results and how people interact with popular topics so that you will have a good starting place.
Identify Your Goals and Audience
People will form a perception about your business when they interact with you online. How do you want your business to be perceived? What are you trying to promote? Who are your target customers? These things need to be carefully assessed so that you have a streamlined purpose for your social media marketing campaign.
Create a Plan and Be Consistent
When it comes to your posts, your message and how frequently you use social media, keep it consistent! It is truly the key to success with any social media campaign. Plan for what you’re going to post, how often you are going to post and stick with it. This should be anywhere from a few times a day to several times a week depending on your goals. If you expect to have an engaged following you can’t go from posting once a month to five times a day.
Social Listening
Social listening is an excellent tactic to monitor what people are saying about you, your competitors and what type of content is working better than others. Social media conversations are happening all the time. Respond to comments, mentions and feedback even if they are negative.
Conclusion
Although social media is free, it does take time, effort, research and lots of planning to build a presence for your business. Once you get started you will notice a lot of immediate feedback and your following will grow and your business will reap the rewards!
NFinity Web Solutions
As one of Utah’s best SEO experts, NFinity Web Solutions keeps up with the constantly changing trends so that you don’t have to. Consider choosing an online marketing and social media expert to help you navigate the complex world of internet socialization and call today at 801-803-6488.