The Social Media Marketing Age Has Arrived

Social media gives the strategic marketer a veritable treasure trove worth of tools to make use of. While many people think of social media just being made up of website such as Facebook and Twitter, the full-range of the spectrum proves that there are hundreds of options for the social media marketer to take advantage of.

By Steve Duval

Marketing is an industry that changes drastically as every year goes by. Over the course of the past few years, the industry has seen a shift like it hasn’t seen since its inception. The advent of the Internet certainly shook the world, but it took the introduction of social media to really blow the roof off. Social media has changed the way many people live their lives, and has certainly changed marketing to a drastic degree. One thing is for sure, and that is if you aren’t involved in social media marketing, your business may very well be doomed. Welcome to the next generation.

Many people wonder what the term “social media” really means. After all, it is a fairly loose, catchall umbrella term. While this may bear some truth, it should not work to underestimate social media’s importance. In general, social media is thought to be any virtual platform that allows the user to take control and actually broadcast about his or her life. Whether the reason behind this is that people love to talk about themselves or that people love to hear others talk about themselves (it’s probably a combination of both), social media is here to stay. Ignoring the trend is no different than ignoring the automobile; we’re not going back in time in the near future.

Social media gives the strategic marketer a veritable treasure trove worth of tools to make use of. While many people think of social media just being made up of website such as Facebook and Twitter, the full-range of the spectrum proves that there are hundreds of options for the social media marketer to take advantage of. Take blogging, for instance. Many people view blogs as being sources of either hard fact or personal accounts, and don’t take into account the fact that blogging can be used to promote products & services. A smart company will have an interesting, accessible blog, as this will heighten the interest of the consumer. Learning to use blogging technology can take your business to levels unforeseen.

While blogging is useful, there’s a reason why sites like Facebook and Twitter define social media - they’re extremely popular, and each holds millions of members that are all targets for various forms of marketing. Sure, posting banner ads on Facebook will likely get your website more traffic and may even help to increase business. The real potential, however, is setting up a Facebook page devoted to your products or services. As with blogging, you’ll want your Facebook page to be attractive and interesting to read, complete with pictures and commentary.

Have you ever considered how effective a simple tweet about a new product you’ve released can be? Many people don’t even think about how useful Twitter can be to a marketing campaign. The bottom line is that Twitter’s popularity is higher than it has ever been, and making use of the service for marketing can be very effective.

Start using social media today and watch business increase!

Steve Duval is an internet entrepreneur who is showing others the many ways of making money online today. He teaches simple techniques that anyone can use to earn money online http://www.expressincomes.com

Tweeting Your Business To The Next Level

Twitter should be the newest addition to your marketing campaigns. Check out this article for some tips on how to get started.

By Anton Pearce

Twitter Marketing for a Small Business

The newest player on the social networking scene is Twitter. Marketing in this venue still relatively new, and for the owners of small businesses especially, this type of advertising is not only cost effective but just plain effective. It’s easy to use Twitter even if you don’t know much about computers or social marketing.

Twitter is like a mini blogging site. You can send tiny messages of 140 characters or less to whomever you wish. The newest flavor in social networking sites, Twitter can be used to build personal networks or business networks.

Different Ways to Use Twitter Marketing

While there are many different ways to incorporate Twitter into your marketing campaign, some of the more common uses are strictly to share information. Since you can share tiny blurbs of information with a huge number of people at the click of a button, Twitter is great for keeping your Twitter followers updated. It can be used to share public service announcements, news updates, business news and friend and family updates. It is built for disseminating information almost constantly.

Because Twitter is designed to constantly feed current updates to your followers, it is a natural for marketing a business. The proper way to share business information over Twitter is to tweet a link for a website containing the complete information. For business owners sharing their information over Twitter lets your prospects and customers discover you. Twitter does have very strict etiquette when it comes to advertising, and by offending the protocol, you can quickly alienate followers and potentially damage your brand.

Twitter is a great tool for promoting your company’s events. Twitter is designed to share timely news, so promoting today’s lunch special would be appropriate, but tweeting about month old news is not appropriate. Keep your tweets conversational and very personal in tone. Any advertising should be in a ‘by the way’ fashion, not ‘in your face’ advertising.

Twitter Marketing can have Lots of Personality

The more personality that your brand has, the easier it will be to tweet about. A unique voice will make your tweets entertaining. You can always wrap your tweets around a kernel of important information, and then deliver them in an entertaining and conversational manner. Your followers will look forward to hearing from you, and you will be able to get your message out constantly which is a great way to market your small business.

Another place where Twitter is incredibly valuable is with your customer contact. Twitter is designed to be conversational, and it is a great way to keep a dialogue going with your customers and prospects. You can head off service problems before they escalate, and you can solicit feedback from your customers. This is particularly helpful to make sure that you are building a good reputation for your company. Twitter allows you to correct problems and retain customers.

For more advanced guidance, sign up for Anton Pearce's 'Clients on Tap' ezine. It's absolutely free and will show how to implement systems that generate all the clients you need for your professional practice. You can do it yourself or get it done for you, either way this ezine is essential reading if you want to get your online marketing systems set up right without wasting a lot of time and money.