Social media is one thing every small business owner
today know they should be actively engaging but often struggle to keep up with.
Sadly, just having a presence on social media is not enough to ensure the
success of your business but carefully branding and developing social media
marketing strategies will help you achieve more than you’d imagine possible.
Social media has changed the face of marketing in
this digital age. Traditionally marketing was all about the Four P’s i.e.
Product + Price +Place + Promote; all you had to do was to create a product,
figure out how to price it, get it placed in the market and promote the heck
out of it. However, marketing today with social media adopts what we call the
Four C’s i.e. Content + Context + Connection + Community; meaning you first
have to create content, deliver it in a context that makes it useful for people
who are starving to make connections with people, products and brands, they can
build a community around.
The best way to view social media as an entrepreneur
is to look at it as a way to open up new access points where these points can
be leveraged to create content, context, connection and community which may
result to lead generation and conversion. Once you give people the information
they need and how they can apply this information to establish connections and
build communities around them, they’d automatically want to be associated with
your brand and eventually even become customers.
Having an active social media presence is great but
your business must have a primary web hub i.e. a website or blog that ties all
your social media activity together. Your activity on social media sites
functions primarily as a way to lead prospects back to the much more fully
developed content that resides on your website. There, you can tell prospective
clients and customers all they need to know about your business without seeming
pushy. This is because unknown to most people, social media has a “no selling
allowed” culture that makes brands that are constantly seeking to sell people
stuff easily irritable. Entrepreneurs who often pitch sales directly to people
on social media quickly get on the nerves of social media fanatics and most
would want nothing to do with you or your brand. Sadly, I made this mistake far
too many times and had to learn the hard way. Always find ways that will
intrigue people to want to know more about what you do or even buy your
products. Always view your activities on social media as ads that help people
to engage, build, know, like and trust you or your brand.
Before you decide to setup a page for your business
on any social media platform, you first need to create a social media strategic
plan based on your marketing objectives. Whether it’s boosting brand awareness,
generating leads, recruiting new clients or retaining old ones, you need to
develop social media campaigns that will help you reach your audience. It
is also important to choose the right social media platform depending on your
target audience; Facebook for instance is suitable for reaching people between
35 to 60 years and twitter for the much younger generation.
Once you’ve developed your social media strategy,
find ways to use social media tools (like tweetdeck, ChatCatcher, Topsy,
SocialMention etc. to listen and join the conversation going on in your
networks. One way to be seen and heard on social media is to engage and
network. Find out what people are saying about problems your business or
products can solve or on issues of which you have some knowledge or expertise. Startup
interesting conversations on relevant issues that will catch the attention of
people in your circles and engage with them when they comment on you posts.
Occasionally go out of your comfort zone and comment on trending issues; be it
social, economic or entertainment.
Finally, build relationships and manage sales
through the use of social media tools. After engaging and networking with
people on social media, build relationships with clients and mange sales by
asking for feedback on your products and services and actually improving them
based on the information given. Let customers feel like they are a part of the
brand. Carry out promotions on social media and reward loyal customers, also
post pictures of rewarded/happy clients on your social media pages.
Social media has come to stay and entrepreneurs must
take advantage to explore it to the best of their interest and abilities. If
you don’t have a presence on social media, this is the time to get on board; if
you already have an active social media presence, the key is to remain
interesting, trendy and relevant. Be creative with your content, have a
strategic social media plan and engage and network.
By: Clement
Fianko
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