Advance Social Media Startegies for Your Small Business
Posted by Eric Corwin on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 @ 07:10 AM
5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Social media marketing and the businesses that utilize it have become more sophisticated. More small businesses are beginning to understand how to best leverage online tools to build a community and recognize that engagement and interaction are the foundations of social marketing, but most don't know what's next.
What follows are five advanced strategies for small businesses that may already have small online communities and understand how to create an online presence, but don't know what to do next.
What Is An Advanced Strategy?
The definition of an advanced social strategy is a technique that
goes beyond the normal social media presence. It introduces or
reinforces a marketing message while pushing a user to another profile
or business site. Before moving forward with an advanced strategy, it’s
important that your business understands social marketing, has
experience engaging consumers, and that you possess a basic
understanding of online marketing.
Strategy 1: Multimedia Usage
The term “A picture is worth a thousand words” has never been truer.
Consumers are now using the web to look for product pictures and
videos; they want more information and want to see what they’re
considering buying. The good news is that it’s easy for a company to
create and publish videos and pictures.
In addition to taking photos of products, you can also take pictures
at office events as a way to highlight company culture. This not only
helps convince others to work with you or to buy from you (consumers
see that you are down to earth and one of them, instead of a stuffy
company), it also helps your HR department recruit new employees. Who
doesn’t want to work for a company that celebrates birthdays and has a
good time?
Videos are useful for explaining complex how-tos or concepts.
Showing step by step directions can have a greater impact than even the
most well written article. Businesses don’t have to invest huge sums of
money to create good videos, either. I highly recommend the relatively
cheap Flip camcorder, which takes great videos and is easy for even a
non-technical marketer to use.
Multimedia can break down the faceless business-to-consumer sales
flow and make your company appear friendlier. Use videos and images to
show that your business is fun, you care about your employees, and most
importantly, that you care about your customers.
Example: WorldMusicSupply.com
WorldMusicSupply.com, an online retailer of musical instruments and accessories, has used YouTube to build a strong online community. Their channel has built over 7,000 subscribers and has over 260,000 views.
Strategy 2: Integrate Offline and Online Advertising
Many small businesses do some sort of offline advertising, whether
it be radio, print, or cable. Social marketing allows a business to
extend their offline sales pitch.
Including your Facebook Page or blog URL in offline ads act as
social proof, inviting potential consumers to see your community and
increase trust in your business. Not only can integrating online and
offline advertising help the conversion process, but it can also help
build your community. Introducing potential consumers to your social
profiles means they may join your community now and buy later.
Strategy 3: Message Adaptation
As businesses start to become more sophisticated with social media
they are starting to leverage more online platforms. However, most
deliver the same message over multiple platforms instead of tailoring
communications for each individual site.
Social platforms each have an ecosystem of their own. What might be acceptable on Tumblr (
) might be considered spam on Facebook (). A specific style of writing might spread on Twitter (
) but fail on FriendFeed (). Understanding that each site is different and then customizing your message ensures they do well on each respective site.
Not only does customizing messages across sites help the message
spread but it keeps users from receiving multiple identical
communications. Be sure to maximize your potential by sending a user
that follows the business on Twitter and Facebook two different
messages, instead of the same thing.
Strategy 4: Local Social Networks, Beyond Yelp
For a small business, local search can be a big win. Being visible
to consumers looking for a business in their area is extremely
important. Make sure your site is included in local business
directories in order to help ensure that consumers find you when they
need you. Sometimes finding that many sites can be difficult, however.
First, make sure you check your competitors. Where are they listed?
Check their inbound links to check for business directories you can add
yourself to. Also, make sure your business has been added to Google Maps (), using the Local Business Center.
Take the time to include all the information you can and update any
old news. For many consumers, this will be their first interaction with
the business.
Example: Bella Napoli in New York
Bella Napoli is a small pizzeria in New York that has done a great job of making sure they appear in as many local searches as possible.
Strategy 5: Contests and Discounts
Building a community is only the first part of social marketing.
Using that community to drive sales, propagate marketing, or
crowdsource operations is the true power of social media. One way to
excite the community is to collectively do something to create a
contest or offer an exclusive discount (i.e., the contest can create
competition between users). Not only does a contest build buzz
organically but if contestants need to, for example, publish an article
that gets the most comments in order to win, the contest itself becomes
viral.
A good social media contest should include some sort of sharing or virality as a requirement for winning.
Discounts are also a great way to connect with your community. By
giving exclusive coupons to your social community, you’re rewarding and
reminding them that you are not only a brand to engage with, but also
to buy from.
Example: NetFirms.com
NetFirms.com
decided to make it easier to register a domain by allowing people to do
it via Twitter. Those who participated or spread the word by tweeting,
were also entered into a prize drawing.
By Samir Balwani
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