Reader Robert Justin writes:
"My wife and I run a small antiques business. We are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, but aren't really sure how they would tie into what we'd call our "marketing strategy". It seems like most people on Twitter just talk about themselves and what they had for breakfast this morning. How are these sites supposed to help us connect with our customers?"
Ideavise Responds:
Robert,
Your question is a good one.
Social marketing is a tool to build a following around your product or service. Like any other tool, it only works well when used, and when used as designed. Too many folks think that social marketing is a silver bullet, when it's actually just a great addition to more traditional marketing avenues. This also brings up another point. Building a web presence in general is not an overnight affair. Like traditional marketing and advertising means, it's about being consistent and gaining people's trust.
I agree with your comment that many social marketing users largely talk about trivial things, like what they had for breakfast that morning. That's a shame, because it diminishes the value for the rest of us who have something valuable to say. I'd suggest that you ignore the trivial comments and use social marketing properly—to focus on connecting with your core audience.
One of the best things about social marketing is the ability to create a dialogue with your customers. No longer is marketing and advertising a one way affair. Places like
Facebook and
Twitter are great places to start conversations. For example, lets say that you've just attended an estate sale where you were able to procure a few wrist watches which are very rare and highly sought-after. Using social marketing, you would have the ability to announce their impending arrival to your social network—giving them the inside scoop before they even hit your store. Soon, the word gets around that if people sign up for your new arrivals list on Facebook and/or Twitter, then they'll have the inside track when the latest article becomes available. People love that stuff.
(A quick note: I use Facebook and Twitter as the most prolific and obvious example of social media marketing. There are other sites as well, but these two represent a lion's share of the space where most business's are putting their social marketing efforts.)
Here are list of things to do when starting with social marketing:
- Do set up a Facebook fan page for your business—it's okay to bug your family and friends to be your first fans, but it's also important to grow it from there.
- Link your resources so that every post is available across all sites (i.e., your blog post would autopost to your Facebook page, Twitter, etc.)
- Keep your blog posts relevant to your product or services—offer people value, not just noise and the occasional discount.
- Reach out. Ask your fans/customers what they'd like to see from you and your business? Is there something that you can help them learn? Is there a service that they'd like to see you offer? Chances are that you may never get an answer if you don't ask the question.
As you would expect, there are also a list of things NOT to do with social marketing. For example:
- Keep it on topic. Don't start a business fan page on Facebook and post about things that could be construed as personal opinion; politics, religion, etc.
- Don't resort to trivial social marketing posts just because you haven't posted anything for a while. Like personal conversations, it's best only to speak when you have something meaningful to say.
- Don't respond to flame-baiting, or get embroiled in a web-based argument. If someone is put off by something that you've written or done, offer to take the conversation offline UNLESS the outcome is something that you feel is in every customer's best interests to know. Then address the issue in a public forum where it can be demonstrated that you're going the extra mile to take care of your customer.
Lastly, keep the momentum rolling. Not all of your customers are going to read your blog or visit your Facebook fan page. Use the questions, comments, specials, discounts—all of your web-based marketing content—and aggregate the best, most relevant portions of it into a quarterly email newsletter. Work on building your Facebook fans, but don't ignore your other fans which may be coming in via RSS or email newsletter subscription.
Interested in starting a social marketing effort for your business? Have questions on any of the above? Give
Ideavise a call. Our specialty is small business—we know what it's like to work with a limited budget and constrained resources. For a free, no-obligation needs assessment, call us at (719) 355-3579. We'll help you figure out which areas of your business can be improved the most for the least amount of money.
Thanks for reading.
—Jason @ Ideavise
