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Chapter
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Introduction
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Different types of social media networks
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Why use social media for your business?
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Which social media channel should you use?
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Dos and don’ts of social media marketing
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Conclusion
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What is social media marketing?
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A Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Chapter - 1 Introduction
In this age of digitalization, customers as well as their demands dominate businesses. Before purchasing a product, they prefer to see reviews on Google search results, referrals or the website. To go with the flow, you need to know what people are saying about your business. In order to interact and influence people, you need to actively take part in relevant communities. To manage your online reputation, you need to engage in social media. Even a few years back, social media was a completely new thing. But now, it has taken the world by storm to such an extent that it has become something that no business should afford to ignore. Today, there are millions of active users on different social media sites.
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Chapter - 2 What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a form of digital or internet marketing that uses social networking websites as a marketing tool. The main aim of social media marketing is to produce content which users will share with their social networks in order to help a company broaden their customer reach and increase their brand exposure. With social media marketing, your business can get direct feedback from customers as well as potential customers, making your business seem more personable. This is the platform where you can communicate with your investors, customers and employees.
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Chapter - 3 Different Types of Social Media Networks
When you hear the term social media, your mind automatically goes to something like Facebook and Twitter. But do you know that there are a whole lot of different platforms out there that are worth looking into? Read below:
ď ś Relationship networks The discussion of social media is incomplete without mentioning major social networks such as Facebook. With relationship networking, you get to keep all your communications in one place, on your Timeline, Wall or private messages. With only a click, you get to share updates with your networks. Relationship networks can be of two types – personal and professional. Personal or romantic relationship networks let you find users in your area or looking to connect on a more personal level; whereas professional relationship networks let you connect with other professionals in the same field as yours, find work and share recommendations.
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By using relationship networks, businesses or brands get a unique chance to connect to their users on a personal level. If you want to reach out to your audience and create a brand value of your own, then it is important that you have a Twitter account or a Facebook page where you can answer all the queries of your customers regarding your products and services.
ď ś Media sharing networks Both Facebook and Twitter have great image and video sharing capabilities and most of the posts that are shared on these channels contain text. But in channels such as Instagram and Flickr, the principal focus is on the image. Here you have to select, edit and upload files before writing captions and mentioning other users. In sites and apps such as Vimeo, YouTube and Snapchat, the primary mode of communication is video.
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If you want to establish the presence of your brand on a media-sharing network, then the first things that you need to consider are your available resources. You may find it beneficial to consult a digital marketing expert in order to see which media-sharing network is appropriate for you and your business.
ď ś Social publishing platforms There are blogs and micro blogs on social publishing platforms where you can share both short and long written content with other users. And there are various social publishing forums such as Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger and WordPress to share this type of content.
You may already be familiar with the advantages of Twitter for business. If content marketing is included in your promotions strategy, then your brand can gain a lot of visibility by keeping a blog section too. A blog can aid in increasing awareness of your brand or business and help in generating more relevant as well as engaging content for all your social channels. This way, you can create a niche for your brand as a leader in your field.
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ď ś Online reviews There are many sites that publish online reviews and testimonial, and more often people tend to read and trust these types of reviews. There are reviews available for hotels, latest employers as well as restaurants, and so much more.
In order to maintain client relationships, it is important for your brand to have the ability to leverage user reviews, both negative and positive. You can choose a customer success team member who can address reviews on sites that are relevant for your brand. Then you can ask them to reply to the queries that your clients have. This way, your brand value will increase.
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Chapter - 4 Why Use Social Media for Your Business?
If you are still not convinced about how social media can help your business grow, then you need to go through some of the most compelling reasons that are described below:
1. Increased brand awareness
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If you are on social media, it becomes a lot easier for your customers to connect with you. Get your sponsors, business partners and employees to “like” and “share” your page. This way, you are more likely to increase customer retention as well as brand loyalty. More than 91% of marketers have claimed that their social media marketing efforts have increased their brand exposure to a great extent.
2. Higher conversion rates
If the visibility of your business increases, then it gets more opportunities for conversion. Each and every video, image, blog post or comment that you make, leads viewers to the website of your company and
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in turn, increases traffic. If a brand or business starts getting interactive by posting statuses, commenting and sharing content on social media, then that makes the brand seem more human and hence more accessible. This is because people want to do business with other people, rather than companies. It’s part of the relationship building process.
3. Improved rankings in search engine
In order to obtain traffic to your business website and achieve higher page rankings, SEO or search engine optimization plays a very important role. It is true that social media does not increase your search engine rankings directly, but studies have shown that above 58% of marketers who have been using social media for one year or more, have seen improved search engine rankings.
4. Rich customer satisfaction
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Social media platforms are for networking and communicating. So creating a voice for your company using these platforms does a great job in humanizing your company. Customers like it when they know that if they post comments on your pages, they will receive a response that is personalized and not automated.
5. Increased brand authority
In order to make your business more authoritative, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction play a huge role. It makes you appear more credible when consumers see your company commenting, posting original content and replying to all the queries of customers. Interacting regularly with your customers makes them feel that your company cares about customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers use social media to let the world know about your products and services. This, in turn, will increase your brand value as well as authority.
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Chapter - 5 Which Social Media Channel Should You Use? There are various social media channels out there. You need to know all the top channels that can help you grow your business. Some of them are discussed below-
Facebook Facebook is the largest social media platform that has around 1.8 billion active users and it provides free as well as paid marketing opportunities to both large and small businesses.
Businesses can use Facebook as a platform to build up subscribers, provide regular updates and engage audiences directly. Businesses can use a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising system that is provided by Facebook Ads to provide targeted ads to the relevant audience. Your target audience on Facebook can share your posts or content on their own Facebook accounts and help in increasing your brand visibility by “liking” certain posts.
Twitter Twitter is a micro blogging and social networking platform that has about 320 million active users. This social media platform is popular among entrepreneurs, celebrities and businesses to provide short and regular updates.
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You can create a Twitter page for your business and use it to reach out to your target audience and attract followers. Users can “Tweet” posts with a character limit of 140, which makes the platform compatible with SMS as well. You can take the help of Twitter Promoted Tweets and reach out to a larger audience.
Google+ The second largest social media site in the world, Google+ has more than 540 million active users. And the best part is that it integrates with Google’s other important services for businesses as well as individuals.
For businesses, Google+ offers a professionally oriented platform, with the help of which they can carry out direct relationships with facilities such as live video conferencing.
Your profile on Google+ is directly linked with your listing on Google Places, which is a tool that local businesses can use so that they can show up on maps as well as local searches.
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Other Google services that Google+ integrates with are Google Places, Google Authorship and Google, the largest search engine in the world.
LinkedIn This social media channel is aimed at a professional market that consists of both businesses and individuals and has more than 277 million users.
You can browse through professional profiles on LinkedIn and search for valuable business leads as well as employees. For professional connections, LinkedIn can be regarded as the number one social media resource. If you create a company page with LinkedIn, you will get a platform where you can not only showcase your business, but also connect with potential leads and customers.
Pinterest Pinterest has more than 70 million active users because of its unique, visual approach to social media. You can use Pinterest for the purpose of sharing visual bookmarks that are known as “Pins”.
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Pinterest offers additional features using which you can promote Pins and analyze results. If your business relies heavily on visual media such as those on the design, jewelry, photography and fashion industries, then Pinterest will be most suitable for your business. You get to connect your Pinterest business profile with other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Instagram Instagram is another popular image and video based social media website that has more than 600 million active users.
As this social media platform deals mainly in images and videos, it is perfect for businesses that are based on travel, food, fashion, design and technology.
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What you can do is link your business website with your Instagram bio page. Of course, in order to generate traffic, you can always refer to it in your comments and posts. You get to post snapshots that are creative and other illustrations in order to showcase your company’s products, integrate promotional codes and host photo contests.
YouTube YouTube is the most popular video sharing social media channel with more than a billion users. The important social features that it has make it just about impossible to ignore.
YouTube offers a free platform that you can use for your business to publish video content such as product overviews, tutorials and more. The social features of YouTube include ratings by way of likes and dislikes, integration with Google+ and video commenting. YouTube offers its own paid advertising program, with the help of which, you business can have its ads appear in other people’s videos.
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Chapter - 6 Dos and Don’ts of Social Media Marketing In today’s online world, incorporating social media marketing into the marketing strategy of your business is of utmost importance. Take a look at some of the dos and don’ts of social media marketing.
Do start with a realistic and effective work plan. There are other online marketing processes such as content marketing and search engine optimization, and your social media strategy should be such that it works together with all these processes. And for this, you should have good in-depth knowledge of who your target audiences are along with a realistic goal set. Do stay attached to your social media marketing campaign. Be consistent! You need to be posting regular updates on a regular basis. You need to make it a part of the daily routine of your business. Do not go overboard by setting up profiles on almost all social media platforms. Setting up profiles on some of the largest platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ will do. Keep your branding consistent across all platforms – use the same handle/name if possible. Always listen to what your audience says. Social media is the platform where listening is as important as speaking. Know what your customers have to say and try to answer all their queries as soon as possible. Do post regular content that is interesting as well as engaging. You should start your social media marketing efforts with your blog or the content that you publish on the internet. Do not expect immediate results from your investment, in case of paid advertising. This is the case with almost all forms of digital marketing. Your social media marketing efforts will take time to show results. Be sure to track your results. Check which paid social advertising programs or which social networks that you use are delivering the most traffic to your website.
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Chapter - 7 Conclusion
In this world, where there are more than 70% active users of the internet, it can be said that social networks have become a kind of alternate space in which people interact and communicate. It has become essential for all brands or businesses that are looking to be a part of this huge digital market and create a sensation around their business. Of course, in today’s business landscape, the importance of social media has become indisputable. So if you are still not into this game of social media marketing, hurry! Or else, your business will lag behind.
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