WHAT WE’LL COVER: A definition Tactics of social media marketing Tools of social media marketing Tips for social media marketing Summary
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING “Social media marketing consists of the attempt to use social media to persuade consumers that one's company, products and/or services are worthwhile. Businesses using social media want to sell their products or services of course. But as blatant advertising on social media would, in most cases, alienate their intended audience or even get them kicked out of the particular social community they're trying to infiltrate, businesses need to use other methods to promote themselves. To use social media marketing effectively, businesses have to be perceived as members of the social media community, willing to interact with other members.�
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TWITTER Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on followers’ home pages. Messages can link to the product’s website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in. Wikipedia
FACEBOOK Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.
As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads continue to an uptick in spend across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually. Wikipedia
BLOGS Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services.
The longer description can include reasoning and uses. It can include testimonials and can link to and from Facebook, Twitter and many social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers. Other promotional uses are acquiring followers and subscribers and direct them to your social network pages. Wikipedia
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TOOLS Whether you use freeware or social media software, there is always room for free social media marketing tools to help you carry out your campaigns. 1) Polly.IM: This free tool monitors Twitter to find out what people are saying about your brand. When you’re notified that someone is talking about your business on Twitter, the tool suggests your responses and will send messages to customers on your behalf. 2) Timely.is. With Timely.is, you can find out the times during the day when people most often read your post. To save you time, this tool gives you the ability to write your tweets in advance and have them go live during those times. 3) Roost: For the busy small business owner, this free tool is a must-have. Roost allows you to create a single post and send it to your Facebook and Twitter pages at once.
You can pick the date and time you want your posts to go out. Roost also makes content suggestions to help you maximize the impact of your message. Miami Herald
CONTINUED… 4) OnlyWire: Only Wire offers a free service that will send it to more than 40 social networks at once including Yelp and LinkedIn.
With the free account, you can send up to 300 posts a month. For as little as $10 a month, you can send more if you need to. This tool is used by major brands, including Time Warner, GE and Cisco. 5) CrowdBooster. When you use social media to market your product or service, you want to know that it’s working. Crowd Booster is a free tool that analyses your social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter and shows you what’s working and what isn’t. It’s used by major brands like Ben & Jerry’s and JetBlue. Miami Herald
TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SUCCESS •
Write blog content for your target audience, which is not necessarily yourself. This happens with start-ups a lot. They blog about being entrepreneurs, which is great – if your target audience is entrepreneurs. Blog about the things that your community wants to know about. Mark Suster
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If you follow more people than are following you, you could harm your Twitter account’s SEO potential. Search engines “trust” those with more Twitter influence, and following many more people than follow you isn’t always an indicator of that. Marketing Profs
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What does your social media strategy really need? It needs to answer simple questions. Who am I speaking to? What do they want from me online? How will this strategy evolve? It’s not tools or tactics or having the perfect definition for either one. It comes down to these basic ideas that are all about tying social media to your businesses needs. Smart Blogs on Social Media
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Consider the timing of your social media posts – time of day, time of week, and time of year. If you're posting to your Facebook Page in the mornings but your audience isn’t looking until after office hours, your updates are lost in the mix. If you work for a seasonal brand (think snowboards), how do you need to better tailor your content during the summer vs. the “onseason?” Search Engine Optimization Journal Blog.hubspot.com
SUMMARY Look at the list of social media marketing case studies and then pick one to identify the various aspects of this lesson from. Then you can re-cap what you have learnt which is:
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Social media marketing consists of the attempt to use social media to persuade consumers that one's company, products and/or services are worthwhile by businesses as an alternative to traditional marketing methods
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Twitter, Facebook and Blogs have specific tactical opportunities for social media marketing
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There are various tools that can be used to create, execute or amplify on social media marketing strategies
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There are various things that you need to do to achieved success in your social media marketing strategy and all aspects should be considered before executing phases of your strategy
CREDITS 1. Images: CC from Flickr (click on CC pictures for attribution)
2. Information: Please click on source names in slideshow for their original source