Using social media platforms to direct visitors to your site or to special offers, requires a well thought out strategy for it to be really effective.
Twitter might work well for President Trump, but he was famous long before he was POTUS. You can tweet all day long if you want to but for the non-famous, there are automated tools that will do most of the work for you. Choose a plugin that you can pre-program with a specific strategy that will match your Social Media Marketing Plan.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Using various social media platforms to recruit a following and/or customers is the basic principal behind social media marketing and there are THOUSANDS of social platforms to choose from. You are probably most familiar with the general and widely popular ones like Facebook and Pinterest. Some lesser known social media platforms are more niche specific, while others are location based.
Even though ALL these networks can be generalized under the term “Social Media” they can be radically different from one another. Just consider the more popular ones and how each is different in function and the way people communicate.
Social Networking Sites
There are social media sites that rival one another in function and design. For example the social media sites like Google+ rivals Facebook in social interaction with the added edge of all of Google power and resources behind it. By collecting “friends” and “followers” people will have your posts in their newsfeed and you have a greater chance of them seeing something that will interest them to take action on.
More business orientated and a wonderful place for networking is LinkedIn. A lot of people overlook it but here is where you will find people serious about whatever it is they are exchanging information about. Often people use LinkedIn to actively seek partnerships and help.
Photo Sharing Sites
Photobucket, Instagram, Flickr, and Picasa are all well known photo sharing sites. People now use their cell phones to take a picture, tag it, and upload it to their favorite site then tell their friends about it. Pinterest is where people can post images they find on the web by “pinning” it to their profile. The image is linked back to the site page that was pinned so if someone else clicks on it they will get sent to your website.
Book Marking Sites
When a person comes across a page or post they like they may “bookmark it” using their favorite site. This can Facebook but other sites that will drive traffic to your page are Delicious, Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and more.
Video Sharing Sites
There are several ways to use video in your social media marketing plan by taking advantage of some of the more prominent video sharing sites such as Metacalf, Vimeo, Viddler, and of course still the top dog in this video game is YouTube, which has several ways to use video to market. Using a combination of their build in tools along with an advertising campaign can really get top exposure for you.
Social Media Marketing Plan in Action
A couple social media marketing tips:
– Begin with the plan to build your following so people will see your message. On Facebook join groups that are in the niche that you service. Get to know the people and interact with them. There is also a cool little tool that you can use to “strip mine” the members from the facebook groups so you can market directly to THEM.
– On Twitter you can see who the other people are your niche and following their most recent followers. As well by searching using the ie: #socialmediamarketing hashtag specific to your product or topic will find the people who are CURRENTLY talking about what you have to offer.
There are tons of these little social media marketing tips that can build a list of followers.
Social Media Training
Learning how to use various forms social media marketing is just another source of traffic and leads for your business. This is one reason why people love social media. We are all driven to the next NEW thing. This is why we watch the news but get annoyed when they are just rehashing what you have already heard.
Social media is a place where people communicate and keep in touch. People love it when you are funny, interesting, compelling, or informative. If someone finds something they like they will take an action. This could be “liking” it, linking to it, or sharing it on another platform by tagging it. Social media marketing when done right can really bring you traffic and drive up your sales.
