One of the most important roles any business owner undertakes when marketing their business is communication.
It is an essential task in any business marketing strategy to communicate with customers, potential customers, suppliers, competitors and the list goes on. Many businesses use advertising, newsletters, brochures, phone and email to communicate with their audiences, but social media is a very effective method to keep building those relationships.
There are a myriad of social media platforms to use, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr or online communities like Ning. It would be impossible to keep a viable online presence at every available social networking site, so just choose a few that you know the people you need to communicate with use. For me that is Twitter and Facebook.
Through these online platforms you can build a social media strategy to boost your business. Just think about the possibilities – millions of people use social media every day, and more and more are joining up. These are your potential customers and their numbers are swelling are incredible rates.
So how do you find these potential customers and what strategies can you use to market your business to them effectively so they become customers?
Relationship building
Social media is all about building relationships by connecting with people and creating and sharing content. Instead of thinking about social media as a lead generation or sales tool, think of it more as a way of your customers learning about you and your business at their own pace. Social media paves the way that may eventually lead to sales, but first the foundation of a solid relationship and brand awareness must be built.
We all know the importance of good customer service to keep people coming back to our business, but the relationships we’re creating go beyond customer service. Most of the people you talk to online you are unlikely to meet, but a relationship built online has the potential to be just as powerful as those built offline.
Share online
The key to building social media relationships for business is representing your brand, yes, but also sharing a bit about yourself too. Think of it as putting your personal face on your business in a way that is more dynamic than a static website or media release. You achieve this by being real, letting your passion and creativity show and interaction. My rule of thumb is to tell people what I’m currently working on, talk about what is happening in my business and share a bit about myself. I find this mix of information gives people what they need to develop trust in me and decide if we could work together, but also builds brand awareness.
Twitter
Many business people have found Twitter to be one of the best forms of marketing they have ever used. They have picked up new contracts, found jobs or linked up with someone who can recommend them for work. Twitter is very cost-effective as it only costs your time (which can add up if you can’t tear yourself away), but it reaps rewards.
Twitter is a micro-blogging website where you have to say whatever you need to in 140 characters or less. It is based on a text message, which allows 160 characters, but Twitter factors in 20 characters for your Twitter handle, or name.
You can follow people who share your interests, live nearby, work at companies you aspire to work with, potential customers, suppliers, competitors, or people who just make you laugh. You can also use it to follow news and events that interest you. Any Twitter user can also follow you (unless you have a locked account) and your updates will be published in their Twitter stream. There are no rules about who you start relationships with - and that is one of the drawcards of Twitter.
Word-of-mouth
But the best thing about Twitter for business, as far as I am concerned, is word-of-mouth. If you think about all the different ways you gain customers, I’m sure word-of-mouth referrals will be close to the top, if not at the top, of your list. In a time when we are sceptical of advertising, word-of-mouth works because your customer isn’t hearing about how good your product or service is from you, but from a third party. This makes it more legitimate.
Twitter allows potential customers to follow you, read what you tweet, check out the links you post, talk to others about you and ask for referrals. Twitter also helps you to stay current with events in communities that interest you, such as book publishing, Australian tourism or online retailing.
The more valuable followers find your content, the more you will be retweeted and the more followers you will gain, which builds your popularity on ranking sites such a TwitterGrader. This will also lead to an increase in your #FollowFriday recommendations, where tweeps suggest you as someone to follow to their network.
Other ways to use Twitter for business:
- Tweet the latest blog you have written to drive customers to your site
- Attend Tweetups in your area
- Promote competitions or giveaways
- Run time-sensitive sales
- Conduct polls and questions for fast answers and raw market research
- Tweet what you are reading to show your network what interests you
- Upload product/business photos via Twitpic
- Use a widget to publish tweets on your website
- List yourself on sites like Twellow and Twibes so people can find you by your business type and/or interests
- Monitor your brand via Twitter’s in-built search tool to see what others are saying and react quickly - @bigpondteam and @nab do
- Invite people to retweet and share your tweets via content sharing sites like Tweetmeme
Facebook
Now we’ll move on to using Facebook for business. Facebook is a free social networking site, set up initially so college students could find out information and talk to fellow students online. It has since become an extremely popular way to find long-lost school friends and see what ex partners are up to, but Facebook is a great online tool for keeping up-to-date with others through messages, photos, video, audio and links.
Facebook is a bit like a business waiting room, where potential customers can get a look at what the business offers, what its staff are like and decide whether they like what they see. It is a great chance to connect with and attract new customers. Bearing this in mind, it is always good to ensure your Facebook profile tells the right story. By this I mean, include a photo that shows you being your brand, and none that go against your brand (like your friend in a compromising position while out drunk one night). Show your personality through your interests, hobbies, charities, causes and applications (within reason). Also use the box underneath your profile picture to give an interesting snapshot about you and your business that will make people want to find out more.
Business pages
A Facebook page allows you to set up a profile page for a business, band or community group and attract 'Fans' - a segment of your market, from Facebook’s 250 million users. Fans join your business page to be kept up to date with developments in your business. For information on setting up Facebook Pages, visit www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages or www.thesocialmediaguide.com.au
Facebook pages can become a hub for online activity – like a newsletter for your ‘fans’. A Facebook page could also be used as your business website, without the need to set up a separate site. There are many other opportunities to promote a business via a Facebook page, including promoting online discussions on the products you sell, competitions, or using the page to announce specials for Facebook users only.
Viral marketing
Like using Twitter to build relationships, Facebook pages are also a great way to build a loyal community who will spread the word for you and attract new customers to your business. These messages have the potential to go viral, which could be very powerful for your business.
When a Facebook user makes a comment, posts a photo, or sets up a group, everyone in their network is automatically notified. This means if one of your ‘fans’ comments on a new product you posted on your Facebook page, your brand is exposed to their entire network, which could be hundreds or thousands of people.
Groups
Anyone can create a Facebook group for any topic and invite Facebook users, who are or may become customers, to join. Groups can be used for chats, to post information, launch products, conduct research, or be somewhere for members to simply browse. Provide value to group members by giving regular and unique information and use it to find out the market’s thoughts on your business.
Paid advertising
Businesses can also pay for premium advertising on Facebook, allowing you to target Facebook users by age, location, gender, birthday and key word phrases. You can find out more information about this by clicking the advertising link at the bottom of any Facebook page.
Network your blog
You can feed your blog into your Facebook page, which updates your wall and friends’/fans’ feeds when you add a new post. Not only can the Facebook user then read your blog, and hopefully click through to your site, but the updated content keeps your Facebook page alive even if you don’t log on every day. This can be done via the settings, or download a guide from The Social Media Guide.
Now what can you do to integrate social media into your marketing strategy?
- Promote your Twitter handle and Facebook page on all your marketing, including your website, blog, email signature, forum signatures, business cards and letterhead.
- Use you blog to extend the relationships you create via social media by showing what goes on behind the scenes in your business.
- Include your customers by asking them questions via social media. This makes them feel important and they are more likely to interact.
Tools
There are many tools that have been developed for Twitter and Facebook including:
Remember to be you when using social media for business. Be genuine and don’t do the hard sell, and your customers will appreciate getting to know you and your business. Interact with others on their Facebook pages and Twitter, and keep looking for new people that will add to your network. Give them feedback and maybe even exchange reviews on products or services, but never expect anything in return. If people can see you add value to their network, it will flow from there.
Social media provides a level playing field for businesses of all sizes. Many small and micro business owners are using online platforms particularly well because they connect directly with their target market. They have found great value in social networking as customer relationship building exercise, as well as an immediate channel for customer service and free market research. When done correctly, effective social networking produces loyal customers who become your legion of word-of-mouth marketers.
Links
www.thesocialmediaguide.com.au
www.twellow.com – Twitter Yellow Pages
www.twibes.com – Twitter groups
www.tweetmeme.com – Content sharing
Johanna Baker-Dowdell is a journalist, writer, professional blogger and a public relations consultant. She owns and runs Strawberry Communications. This topic is covered in Johanna’s eBook, The 21st Century Guide to Promoting Your Small Business. The guide is $37 and can be purchased from the Strawberry Communications website: www.strawberrycommunications.com.au/ebooks
Connect with Johanna online:
Twitter - @JohannaBD
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/Johanna.BakerDowdell and http://www.facebook.com/StrawberryCommunications |
