Social Media Marketing: The basics every business needs to know

The arrival of social media on the internet was originally designed to connect people around the world, share information and create a communication tool that was better than sending letters through the post office. Big business saw the potential and launched social media into an entirely new direction. Large and small companies were finding creative ways to promote their business online – after all this is a billion dollar industry that offered a level playing field for anyone who could figure out how to use social media.

Google has 620 million visitors daily and 46% of internet users will interact on social media on a daily basis. Considering that 63% of users will recommend online brands the internet creates a unique selling situation. Your business is now open 24/7/365 and your goal is to figure out  how to take advantage of the most powerful sites online.

Social Media Buzz

LinkedIN is your personal and business profile. This social media site is the center where 121 million business professionals go to connect and share their industry insight. There are senior executives looking to stay connected and newbies looking to find jobs.  With 1.5 million users joining new groups every week this is your opportunity to network and build relationships.

 

Four key steps that will make your LinkedIN profile successful:

1. A clean and complete profile that gives you credibility.
2. Have quality connections will increase your reach and visibility.
3. Add video, blogs and links to your profile keeps people engaged.
4. Join groups and be active in the conversations, this will open a variety of new business opportunities.

 

Twitter provides the opportunity to interact and inform. Tweeting is your opportunity to reach more than 100 million worldwide users and with 55% of active users accessing via mobile devices, you can now reach a targeted audience when and where you need. There are an average of 350 million Tweets every week so you need to find the balance between too many Tweets and too few in order to be seen.

 

The four keys to making Twitter successful for business and simple but effective:

1. Invest in a personalized background and upload your picture to fill your space with important information.
2. Put each connection into a group for more targeted marketing.
3. Share content via ReTweets. This is the strongest way to build good connections and start conversations.
4. The content you Tweet should be information your target audience needs and include links. More than 400 tweets/minute contain a YouTube video!

 

YouTube allows you to visually showcase your business. When search engines like Google show results for your criteria, they will pull videos, pictures and blog pages before they list your website. This means visual content is critical to being found online. Consider that there are 490 million users and more videos uploaded in 60 days than the three major TV networks created in 60 years.

 

Making YouTube effective requires four simple steps.

1. Create a personalized channel keeping your brand image in mind as well as the needs of your target audience.
2. Recognize that how-to videos are the most popular and create your videos in an engaging way.
3. Share your videos on all your social media sites and on your web/blog.
4. Comment on and subscribe to other videos that are in your industry to gain recognition and enhance the value of your channel.

 

What makes a social media post go viral? The simple fact that the information is relevant to a target group, it’s engaging and worth sharing, and it informs rather than sells. Still not convinced of the power of social media? Google Kahn Academy and discover how a simple family tutoring session is now a million dollar non-profit supported by The Bill Gates foundation.

 

Sheryl Theisen is the Owner of hYperstrand Marketing. You can find more marketing ideas at www.hYperstrandmktg.com or 630.940.7920.