A Short Guide to Business Promotion through Social Media

Business promotion through social media is a big deal these days. The fact it is free to contact so many people has marketing professionals foaming at the mouth. But, luckily for you, they are wasting a lot of time and effort on social media without realizing it. That is where you may take advantage, as all you need to do is recognize the limitations of social media so that you do not spend too much time on it.

Hey boss, I got 20,000 Likes on Facebook, give me a promotion

This little phrase has been uttered by many, with the biggest problem being that bosses have said, “Well done, here’s your raise.” Promotion via social media does not mean getting lots of their metric approval markers. For example, your video on YouTube may get 10,000 thumbs up, but you would have gotten the same if you had uploaded a video of a hamster chasing a cat.

Go in with a plan and stick to it

Going in with a plan is the best piece of advice you will ever receive about social media. You need to set goals, have a timeline, have a way of measuring your results, and have a way of judging the ROI of each campaign. If you do not have a plan then you are wasting your time.

Social media is a massive time vampire

It is possible to lose weeks of staff hours per year on social media, and the fact that posting is free is no compensation. It is free to have your staff stand on street corners with a megaphone, but it does not make it a great marketing campaign.

The advert makes the promotion

Think in terms of quality of post as oppose to how many people see it. Sure, you need a lot of people to see it, but a lot of people seeing a poorly written advert is far worse than a handful of people seeing a fantastic one.

Get your message to the right people

Social media does have some functions that allows you to target certain people and certain demographics. Make sure you are not casting your messages to people who don’t care.

Social media is free to post but costs a lot of staff hours

As mentioned earlier, it costs you a lot of expensive staff hours when dealing with social media networks, which is why you need to figure out the ROI of each campaign and then ensure that your staff only spend a designated and cost effective amount of time on social media projects.

Incentivize people to spread your message

Give people a reason to spread the word. Giving people an incentive to pass the word around is not going to make your content go viral, but that fact alone should not dissuade you from doing it. One person on social media has the power to influence a lot of people, and it is just a case of firing enough shots into the wind until one hits. Give people an incentive to pass on your social media message, and you may find that it goes a lot further than you expected.

Social media has influencers you can pay off

This is especially true on YouTube and Twitter. It is already commonplace for companies to pay people off on Twitter and YouTube in order to have them comment about a certain product, company or service. Just be careful how you do it.

For example, Oprah Winfrey Tweeted about how she loved the Google surface tablet/laptop and how she loved hers and had bought ten for her family and friends, but at the bottom of the tweet it said, “Posted via iPad.” It is a funny cautionary tale about who you pay off and the mistakes that may be made.

Facebook

Set up a Facebook fan page and post about your website and service on there, remembering to link to your website occasionally.

Google+

Do the same thing with Google+ as you do with Facebook, except that it is called a Google Page.

Google+ Authorship program

Sign up for it so that you can add your electronic profile to your written content on other websites.

YouTube

Add videos that have some informative or educational content and link it back to your website.

Pinterest

Get people to ping parts of your website, preferably by using Ping widgets.

Twitter

Do the same with Twitter as you do with Pinterest. You may also be an active voice on Twitter if your marketing campaign calls for it.

Author’s bio:

The article was provided by Sonia Jackson who writes for http://www.cool-essays.com. She answers all your questions about writing and editing.