Social media is media that makes use of social interaction & uses accessible & interactive publishing techniques, allowing users (or readers) of a tool to interact with the content rather than simply read static content. This can be achieved by adding ‘Comments’ to blogs and YouTube videos & ‘Re-tweeting’ (passing on) Twitter posts. This is different to websites that simply transmit news.
The content can then be passed around in much the same way as viral marketing whereby you allow others to help promote your business.
Social Media is a new way to market business products & services online. It should be used alongside traditional offline marketing and other online marketing such as a company website.
There are plenty of social media tools to use, all of which will help to promote your business but there are certain things to consider. The main points being:
- Spend time building up your followers/ readers
- Do not try to oversell your company
- Be seen to be giving useful content for free
More so with social media than other ways of marketing, you need to ‘get involved’ with the medium and devote time interacting and regularly updating social media accounts to make them work for you.
Blogging needs regular interesting posts that will engage a target audience. I recommend a minimum of one post per week & not more than one per day, unless the information is time critical.
There are many of social media tools to use but never start using a new one. Always wait to see how popular a tool is & gauge whether it is right for you & engages your target audience.
If you are not sure which social media tools to start using or your time is limited, I would recommend you start by setting up Facebook & Twitter accounts and, if you have interesting video content or the budget to produce it, a YouTube channel too.
As for blogging, you can setup a company blog. But it would also be beneficial to consider publishing articles on other popular blogs that are popular with your target audience; and to consider not only banner advertising but articles of interest written in such a way to include links back to your website or blog, rather than wanting other blogs to simply write an advertorial about your products & services.
For example, to attract football fans during this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, Domino Pizza created free football related games & added them to a Facebook page. They then asked had Buzzin Media write & publish a football related article including relevant backlinks to their website & their Facebook page. See
By doing so, readers of Buzzin Football were more inclined to click on the links within a football post than click on a peripheral banner advertisement.
The main thing to consider is that all social media requires ongoing management. This is a service we can offer you or advice you on. But remember, don’t just dip your toes & expect miracles. This may take time but the effort will be worth it.
Buzzin Fly is an internet marketing & website development company
www.buzzinfly.co.uk
Buzzin Media is a UK based blog network. We currently have 32 popular blog titles covering business, entertainment & sport
www.buzzinmedia.co.uk
