Easy SMB Marketing

It surprises me how many small businesses are still not using social media to help market and promote their products and services. While the low numbers of participation could be due to simply not knowing how to use this medium. It’s still worth the time and effort, and the benefits are unlimited.

Fact is, there are business owners that are just too darn scared of even using social media. So to help ease your fears I have gathered some tips and advice to help you get started.

Choose wisely

Pick a social networking site you feel comfortable joining (could be a site geared towards music, business or even arts and crafts) Keeping in mind that you’ll want to join a network that is within your interests and goals. The main home pages usually have a “sign up’ button. Simply click and add your information. Don’t rush it and start joining dozens of site – get a feel of how social media works and just take it from there.

A new report on the media buying plans of advertisers and agencies indicates that having a “presence on social networks” is one of the top priorities of their media plans for next year. According to the 2010 Media Planning Intelligence Study, released by the Center for Media Research in conjunction with InsightExpress, found that:

* 57.7% of respondents “ideally” plan, and

* 56.3% “realistically” plan to include social media in their media plans next year.

The key phrase here is “plan” as without a well researched social media strategy, there will likely be numerous failed social media initiatives.

Here is some steps social media strategy that Sally Falkow developed and has presented at several social media bootcamps:

1. Listen to conversations – what good or bad things are they saying about you and your competitors?

2. Establish share of voice – there are already conversations going on – what share do you have?

Twitter is the new marketing tool everyone uses. Even though the purpose of Twitter is to help people socialize it has now become a great and amazing marketing tool to be exploited.
I will present you 5 different ways in which you can transform your Twitter from a basic micro-blogging platform into a income booster.

1. Extend your marketing strategy
It’s important to use Twitter as an extension to your current marketing process. Take what you’ve already got as ads and strategies and implement it on Twitter too. This can’t serve as an independent mean of getting yourself known, but it’s best exploiting it like a new discovery. Don’t give up what you’ve already created, but extend it to what’s new and catches the eye of the public.

There are many different mediums available to expand one’s Internet business. When the methods for marketing were limited to a well designed website and a few articles, many people had little trouble marketing effectively. However, as technology has advanced and the marketing solutions have grown, people find that having an automated social media marketing service is an invaluable resource.

Creating a marketing plan that is holistic, reaches the market that one is targeting, and is consistent, is a challenge. When one is attempting to perform the tasks necessary to make a marketing campaign effective there is often no time to maintain one’s business.

Using a social media marketing service allows a person the ability to utilize professionals and their services at an affordable cost. The services often provide marketing services for every medium that is in touch with that market. This includes articles, videos, press releases, etc. The service provides the kind of information and quality content that motivates the reader to visit the website.

Facebook is not just another web-based site on which children can send meaningless messages to one another and practice the art of bad grammar and spelling without their parents watching. If used cleverly, Facebook can be a useful tool for businesses and can allow business owners the chance to network with others.

You surely do not need to be told what Facebook is but, for those who have been living in a cave for the past ten years, Facebook is a social networking site which allows individuals and businesses to set up their own page and find friends, leave messages, post pictures and communicate with others in real time. It’s free to set up and you can use it from anywhere in the world where you have access to the internet.