Is Your Business Tweeting As It Should?
Is Your Business Tweeting As It Should?
Is Your Business Tweeting As It Should?
As a social media consultant, I often run into small business owners who ask me about Twitter, Facebook and social media in general. They've realized that print media such as yellow pages and newspaper ads are not bringing in the "results" that they used to as more and more people go online to find information and reviews on products, services and companies.
People hear that if they take their business online,they can make more money and increase client acquisition. Is this true? Many companies have successfully embraced social media outlets and have generated millions of dollars in sales. Dell Computers for example has made lots of money selling products via Twitter. Other companies have signed up for a Twitter account, sent out a few tweets, got a few dozen followers and then gave up.
In my experience, companies and people that are already famous seem to have an easier ride on social networks. That could explainwhy famous brands and people tend to have lots of followers both on Twitter and Facebook.
What do you do if you and your company aren't famous yet? Get on the social media bandwagon like many of your competitors! If you own a small business and you're nottaking advantage of the social media craze, you could be losing potential revenue and additional clients. It doesn't matter if you're running a plumbingor a high tech company. Proper social media marketing can be an effective public relations and advertising tool.
If you have the frame of mind that Twitter is about silly tweets andyou think it's a waste of time when you have better things to do with yourspare time,then you have the wrong notion, just like tens of thousands of business owners out there. When it comes to social media marketing, there is a right way and wrong way to do things. You can tweet about your lunch and you know nobody really cares about that or you can tweet about a blog post commenting on your brand new product or service that solves a problem or makes life easier for people.
Amateur marketers think that they can make money by spamming Twitter with ads. That's the wrong way to develop a social media presence. It willbe ineffective and short-lived. What you will want to do is create unique and interesting content and then tweet to bring people to it. On your blog, you can add information on how to order or how to get in touch with you. In other words, don't use Twitter or Facebook as an advertisement bulletin board.
The more original your content, the better. Additionally, if you plan on marketing using Twitter, make sure that the people who follow you represent thedemographicsthatismore likely to buy from you. There are methods available to help you find "niche" marketsthroughkeywords that people tweet. For example, if your company sellswatches, you will want to have followers who are interested in watches andtime management. If you sell summer camping gear, you will want to develop followers that are interested in camping, the outdoors, hiking, fishing, etc.
It's a good idea to have all of your sales department employees sign up for a Twitter account but before you do that, you will want to make sure a policy is in placethat clearly outlineswhat should or shouldn't be tweeted about your business or customers.
What if you hate blogging and you hate tweeting because you simply don't have the time or your mind goes blank and you feel like you have nothing to say? That happens. In that case, you can hire a third party marketing company to create your social media presence for you as well as develop your blog and good content that would be of interest to Twitter users. Obviously, you can extend this to other media networks as well. A marketing company can create your blog, your Twitter account(s), develop your content and even help your with search engine optimization.
Guaranteed results? Well, I'd be hesitant in saying yes here because a lot of it depends on what it is you're selling, competition, demand, online exposure, pricing and web site traffic. If a company can guarantee social media marketing results for you then that's great but ask for proof!
In summary, if you're not taking advantage of social media for your business, you're missing out. If you decide to "go social," make sure you establish a budget for your online marketing efforts. Some companies will charge anywhere from $500-$2,000 per month to develop your social media presence and activity. Some social media marketing managers charge even more than that. If you hire someone to do it in-house on a 1099, it might end up costing you more. Now you know why some bigname brands are on Twitter: Dell, Overstock, Comcast, Starbucks,HRblock, Whole Foods Market, Jet Blue and many more! They're not tweeting about what they had for lunch!
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