Use Social Media to Market Your Business

Small businesses can save money by moving more of their offline marketing efforts online. This article discusses the increasing audience of online consumers and three effective social media marketing methods that any small business can implement online.

Steps

1. Blog
   • You don’t have to be a penned wordsmith to be a good blogger. Blogging comes in many formats and the key is that blogging is conversational.
     • You can try traditionally penned blogs.
     • You can record audio tracks which is known as podcasting.
     • A third method is microblogging and a popular platform for this is twitter. In 140 characters or less microblogging allows you to engage prospects and carry out easy conversations.
   • Blogging is a critical component of social media marketing because it allows businesses to provide information through the use of fresh, relevant content.
   • Incorporating blogging as par of a company’s internet marketing strategy provides the company with a good opportunity to be found in the search engines for the company’s desired markets.
2. Network Online
   • One of the most popular and highly addictive web 2.0 mediums for online consumers are the social networks.
   • Social networks allow consumers and business professionals to network among friends, strangers, acquaintances, and professionals all in one place.
   • If small businesses keep an open mind and keep their networks open they have the potential to grow their networks exponentially by allowing other consumers into their fold.
   • Social networks also allow businesses to update the public on new improvement in product lines, what an average day is like at xyz company. Social networks are varied in purpose and the amount of social networks can be mind numbing, but the most popular platforms determined by marketing research about consumer online behavior are currently Linked In, Twitter, and Facebook.
3. Syndicate.
   • Social networks and blog platforms are relatively low on cost investment, but they are far from maintenance free marketing endeavors.
     • To blog and create viable weekly online content the time commitment involved is a minimum of 5-10 hours a week.
     • How can you effectively communicate online through providing fresh and relevant information AND then market that information to all of your contacts across all of the social networks? The answer is syndication.
   • Syndicating content allows your message and your information to be reached across the worldwide web. You can syndicate your content by using an online social service that will broadcast your updates across the social networks. You can also syndicate your marketing collateral by using a service that will syndicate your flyers across social networks.

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