If you approach it as part of your marketing strategy, social media can bring you LOTS of business.
Here’s what it takes:
KNOW where your audience is online. B2C businesses can do quite well on Facebook. B2B tend to fare better on Linked In and Twitter.
One marketing blog reported B2B marketers close up to 84% more leads using Linked In as compared to Twitter or Facebook.
So, know where your audience spends their time.
Next, review your competition. See how they use social media. Take notes. What do you like and what do you not like?
Set up Google Alerts for your business and industry related keyword terms. What is showing up?
Who’s using social media well in your field?
Set goals. Ultimately, you want it to boost your bottom line of course, but you have to create an audience—a community really—of people who can help make that happen.
One of my clients has a goal of reaching 2000 Twitter followers by a certain date–we’re not interested in buying untargeted followers.
He’s nearly at his goal and our strategy is to curate content of interest to his followers and through the occasional tweet that takes people back to his website – a blog post or even a landing page.
Tweets that Generate 1436 Visitors
I used the strategy of tweeting twice a day with a link to his site. One of those tweets generated 238 click thrus. Another tweet sent 156 people to his site.
All told, this simple Twitter campaign drove more than 1436 people to his website in two weeks. From there they could download great content, sign up for his email list and even email or call.
Who Will Do The Day-to-Day?
Don’t leave this to chance. If you do, it won’t get done.
Someone needs to take ownership of the social media efforts. Who will plan the posts? Who will build the community and start developing strategic relationships? Who will make the posts and check back in to see the comments?
This could be someone in PR or marketing or you can hire someone like me to do the heavy lifting. Whatever you choose, you need to have a plan in place and expect to dedicate some resources to the effort at the beginning.
Social media marketing done right and with consistent action is like taking a tiny snowball and rolling it down a ski slope in Colorado during a snow storm. It’ll get larger and larger and pick up momentum until you can’t stop it.
What benefits have you seen in your social media? Love to hear about your successes in the comments below.
