Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn
One thing is certain in the world of social media – tools will change. Right now, the tools listed above are hot, hot, hot! But don’t get too hooked into counting on any one. Does this mean you shouldn’t use any of these tools to grow your business – nope. Does it mean you shouldn’t put in the time to learn how to use them effectively – nope. It just means, that you need to adapt your business tools to your marketing plan as quickly as technology adapts to marketplace trends. You need to reach your audience wherever they may be as effectively as possible!
Social Media Goals
There are many reasons why YOU as a business owner SHOULD be using the hottest social media tools:
- To create awareness of your products/services
- To engage and connect with potential clients
- To inform and empower your current clients
- To demonstrate confidence in your services/products
- To provide an avenue for past and current clients to be advocates of your products/services, making it easy for them to refer you to their friends and business associates
- To find strong resources for your business by connecting with like-minded business owners
- To network with other business owners who offer complimentary services to your own
- To show your support for other business services and products you believe in (perhaps, you can cross link to one another’s websites or blogs) and retweet each other’s promotions
- To share info about upcoming events of interest to your followers
- To direct traffic to your website and create SEO (search engine optimization) opportunities.
Using Social Media Collectively
Use the tools available to you in tandem with one another.
For example, once this post is ‘ready for publishing’ we use Twitter to post it to our followers, and our Twitter profile is automatically set up to post to our Facebook profile. Voila – in one click! Now, our followers can ‘retweet’ or ‘repost’ to all of their friends and business associates if they find our post interesting and informative.
- List all of your social media accounts on your official website and vice versa. We do it because we want to engage potential clients in conversations about how we can help their business. We feel confident in the services we offer and we want to shout it out to the world – don’t you?!
- Set up Networked Blogs, RSS Graffiti or something similar so that your blog articles stream to your Linkedin profile automatically.
- Use plug-ins and bookmarks on your blog and/or website to make it easy for readers to ‘share’, ‘tweet’, and ‘post’, your latest information to their own profiles with one click.
- Consistent tweeting and blogging is an easy, quick, and affordable way to always have fresh new information on your website that gives people a reason to return there again and again.
This article only scratches the surface of what social media can do for you if it is used strategically. We recommend that you have a digital marketing plan in place first, complete with goals, timelines, tactics, recommended vehicles (digital tools including social media) and delegated service providers where necessary. Having a schedule in place identifies specific checkpoints where you are able to measure progress and adjust your plan as you go. Your success depends on it!
This is the first in a series of articles about social media. Interested in other articles from ‘Fresh Ginger’? Subscribe now so topics are delivered straight to your inbox.
Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.
