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5 Methods To Sell A Car With Social Networks

Is the vehicle in your garage bothering you? Or creating problems for you? Fed up of taking it to the mechanic every week? It’s time to sell it then. Do you think you can sell it on your own without the help of any car dealer? If yes, then you have to go for some new and hit method of selling it, instead of using that same out dated and boring way of advertising in the newspaper or sticking an advertisement on back mirror or window of your car.

You can now “sell your car online” with the help of so many social networking websites. Currently, it’s the most hit way of selling cars. It’s cost effective and reliable at the same time. Newspapers might charge you for posting your ads but most websites do it for free. Some suggestions of selling your vehicle with social sites are written as follows.

1. UTILIZE YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT –

If you have a Twitter account it’s time to use it. Or if you do not have one, sign up immediately and create an account. This way even with the limitation of 140 characters you will be able to convey your ad to a lot of people. By applying hash tags your post will appear in different feeds. You can even ad a link of a website for the detailed information regarding your car.

2. GET FLICKER TO UPLOAD PICTURES –

Visuals convey a much stronger message then words. People would want to see what you are offering and what they are about to buy. If you have a nice digital camera, grab it and take dozens of pictures of the car from inside out. Make a gallery on flicker and edit the pictures by highlighting the fine points of your car.

3. MAKE VIDEO AND UPLOAD IT ON YOUTUBE-

YouTube is the second most used search engine after Google. People upload their personal and professional videos daily on this site. If you want better results, Make a video of your car and capture detailed features and functions of the vehicle in the video and post it on YouTube. Interested buyers would love to see it.

4. USE BOOKMARKS ON SOCIAL SITES TO AVAIL EXTRA EXPOSURE –

Whenever you post an ad on any classified website, on any video you upload, you better post the URLs to social networking sites and ad bookmarks too. This way you will be able to generate traffic to your link. People who are searching for used cars will automatically get attracted to your ad.

5. LINK ALL THE ABOVE THINGS WITH YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT –

The most used network these days among all generations is Facebook and its functionality integrates with all other networks, so you can add all links from other sites right into your profile.videos from Facebook, links from Twitter and other websites can be directly posted on your Facebook wall so it could be visible for your friends and they will know that you are planning to “sell your used car online”. The news will spread like a wildfire.

Sit back, relax and Make your life easy by choosing to sell your used vehicle with social networking websites. Everything is just a click away, so do not waste your time running after car dealers and ad agencies.

Social Media Marketing: A New Era of the Booming Online Business Industry

You need new and inventive ways to connect with your customers and prospects. Social media is currently a very powerful tool to reach the masses.There are many ways to utilize social media. A highly utilized method is through influencer advertising. If you think it won’t work, just look at the thousands of companies that are having successes with it. Every organization and business is now connected via social media.

Having owned Physical Therapy clinics in the past, I wish I had known social media marketing strategies as I have now. Looking back on what was accomplished with conventional marketing, (advertising in local papers, radio, bringing lunch to doctors, distributing flyers and business cards, etc.) I would have grown my private practice better with this powerful tool. Being a business owner opened my mind to self sufficiency and to always seek out better ways to position myself towards my lifestyle goals.

WHAT IS INFLUENCER MARKETING?

The best advertising method of all times is word of mouth. It costs nothing for someone to tell someone else about your products or services. Another advantage of word-of-mouth marketing is that it keeps you on your toes. You must ensure customer satisfaction for them to refer your company to others. Influencer marketing goes along the line of a friend telling a friend about an experience with a product or a service.

First you start by identifying strategic individuals within your target market. These people are going to influence others. The idea is unpretentious- instead of Taco Bell telling you how amazing their new Taco is, a spectacular review from a famous food critic can do more. The food critic is the influencer. In this hypothetical scenario, Taco Bell uses them to generate influencer marketing.

HOW TO BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTE INFLUENCER ADVERTISING

One example of influencer marketing is a company called Fab Fit Fun. This company sends out monthly box subscriptions to those who love their products. Now, you never know what is in these boxes. It could be anything from a scarf, to a throw, and even some make up and perfume. Many people are leery about monthly subscriptions that charge directly to their credit cards monthly. These boxes automatically ship whether you want it or not. So how does this company overcome this hurdle? Well, they get celebrities like Rhianna and Tori Spelling to do influencer advertising for them. A simple video of Tori Spelling opening her box subscription, going through each item enthusiastically and then sharing it on her social media network just made this subscription system a hit.

Another company came up with an idea. The Younique cosmetic company came up with a product, a mascara that gave a dramatic lift to the eyes. Now, there are more companies out there who have the same product. How did they step up their game? Their Moodstruck 3-D fiber lashes looks great on just about anyone.

To prove their point, they gave out free mascara tubes to the general public. All these recipients had to do was to post a video of themselves on social media using the mascara. What happened next was history. The company had so many orders that they were on back order for six weeks. Every woman wanted to increase their lash volume. By showing how well this mascara does, the company created a hype. The demand was overwhelming.

Now, I kind of went all girl here. Mascaras and Fab Fit Fun. However, this is just a few of the many creative ways that companies conjure to move their product on the market. What made their strategy work?

It was providing VALUE. By providing more value than the other companies and being talked about on social media gave them an edge over their competitors.

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

We have heard of ordinary people posting simple funny videos on You Tube, Facebook, Pinterest, on Instagram which goes viral by simply being shared multiple times on all social media networks. This just proves that people are watching. They are hanging out on social media. They see products, events, and they share it on their social media circles. This is very powerful.

It is no wonder that during the past few years, big online retailers like Amazon, Wayfair, and the rest have utilized social media advertising. Even brick and mortar businesses like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, have gone online to expand their market. It is sad to contemplate that it is also due to this era of online advertising that many companies have to close their doors. The competition has become rabid. Those who do not step up to the plate lose. The most recent one closing as you might have heard is Hhgregg.

FINDING A KEY PLAYER

What if you can be the influencer in your online business? Yes, you can be the Key Player in this success. Yes, it is more than possible. This is how many online entrepreneurs have positioned themselves as the experts, coaches and founders of online business systems which has created wealth for themselves and others they have mentored.

How many times do you see pop up on your Facebook page “sponsored” ads of webinars, free E-books, free courses, free videos or free reports? This is the power of social media at work.

The new era is here. An average entrepreneur can leverage his advertising budget by effectively using social media to his advantage. This is because customers hang out on social media networks. This is a very effective way of reaching out to to prospects and introducing your product or services.

Moreover, if your ad also comes with an added value, customer response is overwhelming. It is going above and beyond what everyone else offers. This has been proven many times by local businesses offering products and services. A free dental cleaning coupon from a dentist can end up in a 4-5k sales in orthodontics or other dental services because of the one free offer.

Online coaches and online business experts who offer free webinars have been known to make thousands of dollars from memberships or purchases made by participants in one webinar alone. I sure have attended some of them, and although I have never really purchased a product or a system initially, it had opened my eyes to the possibilities. There are ways to earn income online and work your way to a passive and residual income.

Whether your goal is just to make extra income to supplement your current one or to make it a full time occupation, there are multitudes of systems and programs that you can get started with online. Many have plunged into online businesses full time and never looked back.

The key is to find your niche, find what feels good and right for you. Explore your passion, your talents and your goals. Then act on it. That first step is always the hardest.

Most successful online entrepreneurs not only “engage” in their business; they also “live” it.

After all, it is up to us to explore all possibilities and take advantage of opportunities presented to us. With the onset of the Social Media Marketing Evolution, the future of digital marketing is here.

An Incredible Guide to Use Social Media for Business

Remember how “Paper Boat” created a mass engaging campaign on social media last year? It actually made them become one of the brightest stars of the startups in India. Not only the newbies, but the well-known companies like Make My Trip, AirBnB and Nike plus Social awareness groups like Deepika Padukone’s Live Love Laugh Foundation used the power of Social Media to create ripples on the World Wide Web. If used in a right manner, Social Media can give a massive upsurge to your business.

Let us see how:

Using Digital Media is an inexpensive deal. If your brand is cool, it can get cooler with the hype you can get on Social media. Considering the rise of internet usage in India, we are adopting the digital trends with a really fast pace. So, it has become really essential to have a digital profile.

Make sure to use these Social Media tips in your campaigns:

Post videos: The rate of video engagement is really very high. There are predictions that digital videos can replace the ads on TV. Keeping this in mind, if you invest on videos, you can get true engagements on social media. Live video streaming, creating personal stories as web series, vlogs and making engaging videos related to your business can help you gain more traffic.

Upload personalized content and creative pictures: If your content and images are catchy, unique, personalized and speaks of the brand’s story, you can get more likes. People are bored of the monotonous and old fashioned stock image of brands. Posts including fresh content and creative pictures related to real activities help in gaining more traffic on social media.

Concentrate more on Mobile: As we all know that Smart Phones are slowly replacing internet usage on desktops. So, create the content which is mobile friendly. Also, create posts for the local audience and distribute it according to the right format, time and location. It will help you in targeting maximum people.

Create technology driven posts: No matter how and what we think about Artificial Intelligence, we are curious about it, and we love to read and discuss it. As we all are embracing the machine culture to our everyday life, putting it on Social Media can create interesting engagements. Creating posts related to technology, innovations, facts related to technology and Artificial Intelligence can help you gain more traffic. You can club technology with travel sector, health care, education and even the daily activities like using home appliances and equipment. It not only makes life easier but can help you grab more likes.

Hire a professional: Handling Social Media for business is a little different from posting from your personal account. You should always hire the professionals for the job, if you think you are not handling it correctly. People who are professional understand the trends, they know how to make strategies and how to deal with issues coming on the way. They know how to get more engagements on your content and they can create impressive digital marketing posts. They have the knowledge of the major platforms and they can offer a seamless lift to your current status on the web. You can also outsource your digital media to the agencies working in the field.

Be available: There is no particular time on which a potential customer can visit you and look for business. So, it is always suggested that, be available to your audience, if not 24×7, at least during your work hours. Reply all the questions asked by your visitors, if you cannot do that on the spot, make sure to tell them to wait and once you can, answer the questions. Having conversations with people who pitch you on digital media can help you in getting recognition. Reply to your messages and comments. Be thankful when they share your posts, it will create communication and improve your social media reputation.

Use meaningful Hashtags: Hashtags are popular and you can get a lot of traffic to your digital media profiles with the use of this powerful tool. It helps in categorizing the posts and making your content noticeable to people who are looking for similar stories. It will also help you in discovering the posts from your competitors. With the help of hashtags you can connect with various brands and people of similar interest and create an engagement. Using hashtags, which are related to your business can bring a massive traffic.

Now, when you know the tips for making engaging posts, creative images and impressive content for your social media campaign, let us check where to put these posts.

Here are the popular platforms for social media:

Facebook: As we all know that Facebook is one of the top social networking sites in the world and it tops in India, it can give you great business. Ever since Facebook came, more and more people are joining it. You can create your business account on Facebook or start a fan page. It is one of the best platforms for any business to get global audience.

Facebook Messenger: Also known as Messenger, it offers text, voice and video communication and you can use it for the promotion of your brand and also for telling your customers about the new things happening in your company.

Google Plus: People were not very sure of its success when it was launched in 2011, but today there are more than 500 million users on Google+, which is also known as G+. You can easily add people of similar interests and organize your connections with this platform. It has a global reach and you can post and share your images, texts, videos and web links on G+. Being a product of Google, it helps in indexing the content on Google really fast.

Twitter: It is a micro-blogging site which offers a unique feature of sending your messages in 140 characters. If you can be miser on characters and you know how to build unique and catchy content, you can advertise your business effectively. You can interact, communicate, pass information, talk about the latest news and target your audience with your products by using Twitter. It is a powerful platform where you follow people and they do the same. You can like or re-tweet posts which you find interesting and send personal messages on DM (Direct Message).

LinkedIn: It is a professional community where people can build their business or professional profiles. If you want to connect with professionals working in the similar field LinkedIn is the perfect platform. Here you can check the profiles of professionals because it has their education qualification, past work experiences, business network. Also, if you want to build a network of local professionals, you will find countless registered users.

YouTube: Founded by three former PayPal employees, YouTube is the most popular platform for video sharing. Each month, more than 1 billion visitors hit the website. You can upload your videos and reach maximum potential clients through video advertising on YouTube.

WhatsApp Messenger: For instant texting, WhatsApp is a great platform which you can use for your business. You can share texts, images, videos and voice clips through your Smart phone or Tablet. It is an effective platform for instant communication with your customers. You can also run your company’s ad campaign on WhatsApp.

Instagram: Instagram is a Social Networking platform where you can upload your pictures and videos. It has an amazing feature of filters through which you can edit your pictures and this makes Instagram a unique platform loved by millions of users. Instagram came in 2010, and Facebook bought it in 2012. Since then, the number of people on Instagram has up surged in a very high pace (as Instagram is linked to Facebook profile). Popular for its hashtags, Instagram can help in getting your business content viral instantly.

If you are not a part of these platforms, you must join these and start uploading your stories. It will not take much time to reach your target. So, you know what to upload of Social Media, where to post your content, your work will not end here, you will have to monitor your activities and the results. So that if you are not getting the desired traffic or result, you can change the strategy or work harder.

Managing and monitoring Digital Media:

It is not an easy task to manage all your accounts for Social Media and it is a time consuming task to login and log out from each of the sites. To make your task easier, you should start using Hootsuite and to manage your multiple Twitter accounts Tweetdeck is a perfect option.

· Hootsuite: It is one of the amazing options to monitor your postings on social media. It helps you in checking any activity involving your company or name. It also shows the areas of your interest.

· Tweet deck: If you use Twitter, you must not miss this resource. It will help you in managing multiple Twitter accounts plus it helps in organizing the mention and other engagements. You can jump into any topic of interest by searching it instantly.

Analyzing your social media insights:

To analyze the insights of your social media for business, you can use any of these services:

• HubSpot: If you want to see how far your social media efforts have gone, you must use this resource. It will let you know all about your social media posts.

• Facebook Page Manager: If you run a Facebook fan page, you must check the insights. It will help you in monitoring the traffic. You can check the most popular posts, from where the traffic comes and you can also connect with your audience by replying to them directly.

• Seesmic: For those who want to manage all the Social Media accounts from a single resource, this is a great application. You can use Seesmic on your desktop as well as a Smart Phone.

• Klout: Another amazing platform to check your Social Media reach is Klout. It helps in checking the most popular hashtags, posts and your overall progress of the Social Networking Sites.

How to Use Social Networking in Your Marketing Strategy

Any business today will understand how crucial it is to have an online presence for the future success of the business. With the right use of the Internet marketing tools available, you can allow your business to flourish in even the most competitive market. Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available today. As more businesses are gaining an understanding of the efficacy of Internet marketing tools, social media is becoming a more popular option. With most potential customers spending at least part of each day online, marketing on the Internet is the easiest way of reaching customers across the nation and around the globe.

What is Social Network Marketing?

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn are the most popular social media networks for both online and offline businesses. The proper use of these sites will help you reach more customers. The biggest advantage of sites like these is that they offer free sign-up, which makes them among the most cost-effective advertising tools available. Through your social media site, you can advertise sales, invite customers to special events, and connect to a whole new group of customers without spending money to market directly to them. Other Social Networking Tools Within social media sites you will gain access to many other tools that will enhance your online presence and allow you to connect with more customers.

• News aggregators are social networking tools. These news feeds allow you to stay on top of the latest news in your business, based on the topics you select. Sites like Digg give you access to news aggregation services that will give you the information you need. Placing a Digg icon on your blog or in articles will also give you the chance to appear in the Digg news feed, further expanding your market.

• Tracking tools will also come in handy when planning your social networking strategy. With Internet tracking tools, you can stay on top of how many times people click links within your site, so you’ll know which strategies are working. They will also give you access to information about how many times people share links on social networking sites.

• All-in-One tools allow you to maintain many different social networking accounts with ease. With the right tools, you can access multiple social media accounts at once so you can communicate with more customers. With creative use of the right social networking tools, you can find your way to the success you want for your business.

Marketing With Social News Sites

There are a number of things you can do to improve your social news site.Interacting and being social as much as possible is a great part of being successful online. By setting up a blog you can interact with your visitors easily.

A fantastic way to network and socialize with people on the internet is to have a blog. Too many entrepreneurs tend to hide behind their web site. While it is important you invest a great deal of time into your web site, it is even more important you show people your true personality.Blogging gives you the opportunity to do just that.

Just as you have to market your social news site, you will want to market your blog as well. This allows people to know about the blog and what it has to offer. You want people to know that your site has more to offer than the same repetitive content you see all over the internet. And having fresh and enticing content can be a great way to get people to come to your blog.

There are a few ways you can go about blog marketing. First, write as many articles as possible and submit them to article directories. As mentioned, there is a lot of duplicate content online. By writing articles, you can display your knowledge on various topics and show what kind of ideas you have. People will come to your blog when you place a link to your blog in the resource box.

Being social is very important with your social news site, it is extremely important when marketing a blog too. Posting in forums is similar to blogs in that you post on a particular topic and get the chance to interact with a number of people who are interested in what you have to say. You are not the only one leading the conversation, this is the only difference; you are just contributing and adding to a thought and idea.

The first two ways you can market your blog will not cost you a penny. You may have to purchase advertising if you are looking for immediate exposure to your blog. You can pay for a spot in the search engines which cost a lot of money, or you can place banners of your blog on other peoples blogs for much less. Paid advertising is not cheap, so make sure to pay enough to reach a top position; otherwise it is pointless.

If you are hoping to have success with your social news site, it is vital you are social and try to network. Having a blog can be a great way to do this. You can reel in people to your blog, get new business contacts and socialize through your blog by using the blog marketing methods listed in this article.

I Have Heard of SEO, SEM, and Social Media But What Is Web Presence Optimization?

Web Presence Optimization is a holistic approach to internet marketing. Today, consumers interact with local businesses online via a plethora of different methods. Web Presence Optimization ensures that consumers discover your business during all phases of their online activity. So the million dollar question is, “What are consumers doing online?”

Consumers are surfing, searching, and socializing. And consumers are doing all of this activity on thousands of websites, search engines, and social sites. The internet has evolved into a very big digital landscape! Today there are thousands of internet marketing companies soliciting small business owners. Each of these companies is trying to sell one piece of the digital landscape, each claiming there way is superior to the other.

Let’s just break it all down to a few forms of online advertising that most small business owners are already familiar with. First, you have search engine marketing, pay per click, PPC, this method goes by various names, but it all equals paid placement on a websites, directories, and search engines.

Then there is search engine optimization, SEO, again a few different names. It all equals getting your website to show in top positions of the organic search results for a few different keywords.

Next, there is Social Media. These companies work on getting consumers who frequent websites such as Facebook and Twitter to follow, like, and share your company with other consumers online.

Finally, there are companies that monitor and repair your online reputation. These companies focus on getting consumers to provide good reviews about your business online. Some times they find bad reviews and help you mitigate with unhappy consumers.

Web Presence Optimization is a combination of all these methods and more! Sounds exhausting huh? Web Presence Optimization is truly a holistic approach to targeting local consumers as they go about their normal activities online. The benefits to Web Presence Optimization are Social Discovery, Search Discovery, and Reputation Management.

In plain English, Web Presence Optimization equals more market share! For instance, imagine that you are checking out of super market. You just remembered you had to pick up some beer for the get together later on tonight. At the check out stand there are three coolers. Two coolers are packed full of Budweiser and the last cooler is full of various other brands.

Fact is because Budweiser has more shelf space (2 of 3 coolers) they will ultimately sell more of their product than the competitors. Web Presence Optimization works the same way! When a consumer is in the market for your product or service and they see you all over the page, not just once but multiple times, you will sell more than your competitors.

Easy Ways to Find Content For Your Social Media Network

Finding fresh an interesting content to post on your social media network or for your blog can be a difficult and frustrating venture. Sometimes your brain goes into overload, and just doesn’t want to come up with something innovative or original.

That’s OK. We can’t all be geniuses, and original geniuses at that, during every waking hour and thinking moment. To help ease the overload, here’s a few tips on how to easily find content to publish across your social media network and on your blog that will help drive traffic to your pages–without busting your brain.

Other Facebook Pages

Sharing posts by other business Facebook Pages is a great way to easily post content on your Facebook page. You can also post to your other social streams by using Buffer, which is integrated with Facebook’s sharing options. Log in as your business Facebook Page and click on Home (upper right corner) to get the news feed featuring posts from other Pages that you have Liked. Scroll through the feed to find interesting and relevant content for your page, whether it be a community event, news item or just a fantastic photo. Click the Share link–you now have the option to share it immediately to your page, or you can schedule it for later using Buffer (the green button), which can also post to other networks.

Google Reader

Google Reader aggregates fresh content from Web sites and blogs based on search terms that you define into one easy-to-read page. You must have a Gmail account to set up Google Reader. On Google’s toolbar, click on More (on the right) and then Reader. You can subscribe to prepackaged feeds that Google has set up, or input your own specific search term to find feeds. Scroll through your feeds, then share using Buffer if you’ve got the app extension installed on your browser, or use Google+.

Google Alerts

Stay up to date on all Google search terms related to your business across the Web with Google Alerts–and gather content for your social media network and blog. These alerts can be emailed to you or you can add them to your Google Reader list, which may be an easier option rather than trying to keep track of emails. Again, you must have a Gmail account to sign up for alerts and to add them to your Reader. It’s easy as one, two, three–go to google.com/alerts, sign in, and add any search term related to your business. You can narrow the results by choosing only News, Blogs or another taxonomy, or subscribe to Everything, which I recommend, if you want to track your industry across all spectrums.

Trap!t and Zite

These two apps are fantastic to use with an iPad to search for content relative to your business and your interests. They gather content from around the Web, based on topics you choose, and present them in a magazine format with headlines, summaries and photos.

Zite allows you to share content directly to Twitter or Facebook, or save it through Evernote or Pocket for later referral. The only problem is, there is not an option to share on a Facebook business Page. You can only share to your personal Facebook page. You can’t schedule posts either.

Trap!t utilizes Buffer so you can schedule posts of content you find to your social streams, including Facebook Fan Pages and LinkedIn. It also saves content to Evernote and Pocket, as well as to its own reading list. Trap!t can also be used on a regular browser.

There you go, brain-fried-free content to share and grow your business’ Web presence.

Social Media for Business: Why Social Media Marketing for Local Small Business?

Wondering why social media for business is hot news in the media right now? Here’s a balanced view of social networking and social media marketing.

Fortunately, whether social networking will work for your business starts with a decision that many small businesses have made in the past few years. There’s lots of information to help you decide how social media marketing could work for your business and whether it’s worth it.

Who Is Using Social Media? Have You Already Launched?

Are you using social media marketing strategies and tools to build your local business, to market your products, programs and services, to serve your customers? Your competitors are.

They are making sure their customers (and potential customers) are served 24/7 with:

Location details, maps, links to web sites and service or product details at Google.
Customer reviews and recommendations at Yelp.
Event announcements, contests and coupons at Facebook.
Valuable information and education at their web site.

Tough Economic Times for Small and Local Businesses

These are tough economic times for small local businesses. If you are a small business owner, you may be wondering what to do to find new customers, keep customers coming back and still have profit left over for the wallet in YOUR pocket. Are you spending money on yellow pages ads, newspaper ads and doing more Discounts or Sales Events than ever?

More than half of the US economy is fueled by small and local businesses. Your business is one of many that spend money on advertising – or you are simply surviving with word of mouth marketing, some foot traffic and the occasional customer who comes your way because they saw your ad in “old school” advertising?

“Old School Marketing” VS. New Media Strategies

But while you are waiting for your “old school” advertising to attract more customers, hundreds of thousands of potential customers have switched to searching for most of their information online. Their fingers aren’t doing the walking in the yellow pages anymore.

More and more, your potential customers buy products and services only after they have been reassured by the recommendations of others, something that social networking online and recommendations presented online offer the discerning shopper.

Small Local Businesses Adopt Social Media Marketing Strategies

According to a report released this week from the Small Business Success Index (SBSI), small businesses are increasing their use of social media. Over the last year, the adoption rate has gone from 12 to 24 percent, which doubles the usage.

The report was sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business. It found that small businesses have turned to social media as a result of the economic downturn and are using social to identify and attract new customers, build brand awareness, and stay engaged with customers.

So, now that we’ve gotten this far, what’s next? As Abby Johnson explains, up to this point social media has been more about fun than business. Now that the newness has somewhat settled, Chris Brogan, the President of New Marketing Labs, believes it is time that social media is taken more seriously.

Why Participate in Social Media? What Are The Benefits?

There are many ways your small business can benefit from participating on one or more social networking sites. As a business owner you can:

Increase awareness
Maximize exposure
Boost credibility
Build community and brand loyalty
Multiply profits
Learn more about your customers

What Are The Drawbacks?

No matter how it’s hyped right now, social networking is not a perfect marketing or business building vehicle. There are some significant drawbacks, including:

It can be incredibly time consuming.

It can take quite a lot of time each day to participate on social networking sites. The key to success is often the amount of interaction you have with other members of the network. Small business owners generally don’t have hours every day to participate on social networking sites. To post and comment on other people’s posts can suck valuable time out of a business day.

It can be slow to generate results.

Depending on your goals, the social networking route may take a lot of time, effort and patience. It takes time to build a network online. And, if you’re short on time, the small amount of time you have may mean taking the tortoise approach to building a following and boosting your business.

It’s just another marketing tactic to learn and master.

Each marketing tactic you add to your marketing plan is another method you have to learn and practice. This learning takes time, energy and sometimes some money. The learning process can feel overwhelming, especially if you are short on time, energy and money.

There are so many options.

With literally hundreds of social networking sites attracting all different kinds of participants, you’ll want to focus on the networks where your efforts will pay off with contact with your target audience for your products or services.

There’s good news.

With the right plan and approach many of these drawbacks can be overcome or eliminated.

Out with the Old – In with the New

You have focused your time, money on being a business owner, or a specialist in your field of practice. Small business failure statistics illustrate that you may not have a handle on your marketing. Even in this economy, 60% of small businesses are spending the same amount on advertising, primarily “old school” marketing (like print media, business brochures and cards) and 26% want to spend more. Sixty-nine percent of businesses want to spend their money on online marketing.

Social News And Bookmarking Sites – What Every Online Business Owner Needs To Know

If you run a business online then you’re probably looking for a way to increase the number of sales and the number of visitors to your site. One simple and cost effective way to do this is through social news and social bookmark sites.

Social news and bookmark sites are community driven. The community vote for the content that they want to see reach the popular pages. If your content reaches the front page then you are likely to attract tens of thousands of new visitors to your site. Imagine – all that traffic from one article!

Many website owners will spend vast sums of money on traditional advertising, yet treat social media sites almost as an afterthought. If you’re not using social bookmark and news sites then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business.

Understandably, most people who run a small business or website are pushed for time. There are only so many hours in a day to get things done, but not using social media sites as a marketing channel is a big mistake. Here are just some of the reasons why you need to start thinking about social media marketing:

Drive traffic – social media sites will definitely drive traffic to your site if you reach the popular pages. You can attract a large number of visitors to your page that might otherwise take months to achieve from traditional internet marketing methods.

Reach influencers – by submitting your content to social media sites you can reach key “influencers” on the web. Why does this matter? Well, since most of these influencers have their own websites, reaching the popular pages will often mean that they will link back to your website, which helps you to climb up the rankings in search engines and also helps spread your products.

Build authority – building authority in your particular niche will undoubtedly increase sales. People are more likely to buy something from someone who appears to know what they are talking about. Reaching the front pages of social news and bookmark sites will help you build trust with your audience. You’ll also come to be regarded you as an expert in your field.

Grow your brand – social media sites can also help you to grow your brand. You can almost think of it as a form of public relations. You are increasing your visibility on the web and again, this helps you to gain trust with your audience.

Understand your customers – some users will leave comments about your submitted content. While not all will be helpful, there might be some valid suggestions from users. If you listen to your users and engage in a conversation with them they are far more likely to trust you in the future and you can also get some useful feedback on your website.

Increase sales/subscriptions – this is what every business or website owner wants. Not only can you increase sales in the long-term by building up your authority, but using social news and bookmark sites to promote your business will also see an increase in sales in the short term.

If you’re not using social news and bookmark sites as part of your overall marketing strategy then you’re missing out on potentially tens of thousands of new customers. Just one piece of content can drive traffic to your website and increase sales dramatically. So what are you waiting for? Start today and watch your online business grow!

Social Media Advantage For Brands

Social media has become mainstream and as someone said: every media becoming social. I always think some brands and their attitudes to social media, content marketing, management. It is clear from every angle, except from view, that most brands are overlooking the “social” in front of the social media. This is what sets social media apart from other kinds of media. To excel in social media, you begin with cultivating a social media mindset. Most have not understood what this platform offers.

All that we are currently doing is majorly titled toward social media abuse which is based on advertising and shameless ego promotion. This affects corporate brands more though.

Most have concentrated mainly on mainstream traditional media. They have neglected or can we say they are unaware that the only way to survive in this time is a two-way communication media which embraces not only the traditional but online media platform. As we know, the current trend today is for brands to first learn about their brides-customers, get their attention through the use of social media platforms like blogging, Youtube, Xing, Facebook, Del.ici.ous, Bookmarking, RSS, Podcasting, videocasting, Wikis among many other available online media.

The evolution of these new media has opened up opportunity to seek opinion, interact, court, date and offers irresistible proposal that will hook the bride. Today customers are no longer buying one mode fits all offer by the traditional media. Some corporate brands here seem to hinge non-participation in online community building on such excuses that we are not yet online, neither are there recognized consumer fora which have major convergence of consumers online. Also no regulatory authority here pays attention to or gives any attention to whatever they have to say can. They also claim that online forums here have no impacts on corporate performance. Some also claim that social media is alien to us. My answer is that social media is not alien. The fact remains that many things had been part of us only that we do not accurately labeled them until the westerners help us out.

The idea of social media, content marketing is rooted in cultural rituals where a couple gets engaged before they could start dating. The process require that suitor’s intention has to be established through family contacts, integrity checked and a cogent promised is made that he is interested in a serous relationship and not flings. Without these background checks, no one officially allows the intending couple to start dating. If this is violated then, the bride to be would be disciplined.

Drawing a parallel in this ancient ritual, the customers want the brand today to show that what matters is her, not money making. The customers want to be sure that out of arrays of suitors-products, services- your brand can take the initiative of starting a conversation, the customer wants to be sure your brand is not just flirting, looking out for short flings but a real relationship that will enhance her lifestyle. Brand through social media, content and social marketing set up a bate by loading the right words in their contents to convince, educate, entertain the bride that they are out to make her life better even before selling anything.

Customer wants to see how much of your intellectual property will be made available without charges. The customer wants to find out you are a giver. One of their love languages is gift sharing. A giver without string attached always takes the show. Social media, content marketing requires a lot of commitment. It takes time before social media and content marketing make huge impact. Any brand that can show high level of commitment in social media will always carry the day.

Typical case studies of brands with efficient use of social media include Tony Hseih. Tony followers in Twitter today is over one forty million. Hseih is the managing Director of Zappos.com. Tony through his ‘tweet’ has course to meet with customers at a bar while many in his position will rather hide under the guise of busy schedule. Tony uses Twitter to build interaction with customers; he uses twitter to solve problems for clients. The strength of Tony Hseih and Zappos communities has been used to strengthen relationships with Zappo’s brand offline. Zappos client freely gives their ideas on what they want. This aids, leads to co- creation of brands products, services.

As busy as Richard Branson of Virgin group is, he also maintains a twitter account. He has used his twitter account to answer questions from angry customers as well as virgin potentials. The virgin group also has an integrated website that allows news update, blog among others. Southwest Airlines has used social media to build strong connection that impacts on the brand’s offline interaction

A good example of the use of social media to spread messages and connection was recently demonstrated by Michael Jackson’s personal doctor. As we are all aware, it was once insinuated that he killed Michael Jackson through drug overdose. About a week ago, he used YouTube video to spread his part of the case. This video spread across the internet as well as mainstream media. Popularity of virtual community has been soaring high with more people paying attention from academics and marketing communications practitioner discussing it in advance countries, yet Nigeria brands have assumed ‘I do not care attitude’. Nations and brands are not considered backward just because of their location but based on attitudes, disposition to the use of technology that will aid progress. Building emotional connection, loyalty with the brand is becoming an easy thing through social media.

Social media has become a great platform to identify with, interact, communicate brand element. This often starts in online forum and lead to offline beneficial relationship. Today, nearly three billion of the seven billion potentials are now connected in social media platforms. Agreed the ratio is still slow here but the number is increasing daily. Through social media brands can ignite confidence in the hearts of the bride, build thought leadership. Your brand competitors may have better product, services but will surely lose out to you if you can build strong connection with them before you ask them to buy through massive advertisement.

If your brand can give away enough information, answers to concerns and prove that you are on the verge of seriously neglecting your own best interest, of tight schedules, in order to serve these greedy, needy brides that desire your brands become more open, honest with them which is the essence of social media. Social media do not allow cover ups, unnecessary protection of corporate brand’s failures. I am of the opinion that if our banking industry’s Managing Directors have been active in social media, there is possibility of gaining public sympathy instead of this anger, tantrum they are now receiving from various angles. Their followers would have been able to defend them and take appropriate position that may have given them soft landing in this trying period.

Since our brands have concentrated on one form of media, mainstream, tell me why should their brides not block out their useless bragging through advertising? Tell me why is it difficult for brands n our environment to see handwriting on the wall that their brides now desire their authentic voices that are not coloured with jargons of self- serving moneybags? The brands’ brides are now also afraid; skeptical of marketing. Why should the brides be loyal when the element of trust is shaking?

Having established that let us now examine proper way of participating in social media which is now being exchanged for web.2.0. For brands to actively participate in social media, brands need to observe, listen, find clients’ hibernating medium. In doing this, brand should first define its social media strategy through careful evaluation of brand’s resources, analyze the target audience, and identify objectives. Having done this, brand must carefully pick or access platforms that fit their goals. This will inform the decision to run a blog or just to participate in other forums like Twitter, Facebook, discussion board, social media bookmarking, stumbleupon among others. Be sure you know that such platforms are used by your niche audience. Identify the top influencers of your industry online through recognitions given to their opinions, comments, awards etc.

To do this effectively, brand may consider creating the position of community or social media/knowledge management manager or hire consultant who has track records in skills like community management, online reputation management, monitoring, tracking, podcast, video cast, web links etc. These skills do not require a programmer’s knowledge and in actual fact, they are used by customer relations, brand, and Public relations experts. The only requirement is passion that is backed with proven results. The said manger or consultant must also understands forum rules, reputation software, know how to distribute contents without creating offense as this may be counter productive. Great ability to create qualitative content for blogs, create profiles and claim such blogs in online directories is also essential. Social media, content marketing, management is seen as collection of open-sourced, interactive and user- controlled online application used to expand the experiences, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes, the social media landscape is basically about conversation before any marketing campaign.

Brands must therefore consider Rajesh Setty’s suggestion that it must demonstrate that your brand cares, is curious to find out what is the concern of the customers, contribute, make sure the content is worth their attention, clarify issues, build conversation that will lead to strong relationship, bring in a lot of creativity, demonstrate the brand’s character and values cherished, build community, tribe, brings change, instill courage and be highly commitment to a cause its believe in.

Let me conclude this piece by highlighting how brand can start participate in social media and content marketing. Content marketing is an art of understanding what your customers’ want, need to know and the science of delivering it to them in a useful and compelling way. The content has to be engaging in a useful and compelling way. To start, the brand has to build trust and credibility. This is huge work. This becomes easy if your brand can take time to listen to customers first. By that brand discovers their problems and the content is therefore tailored to provide solution.

Avoid talking too much about your brand or your expertise as much as I do know the fact that your brand need to establish the line that your brand is worth their attentions. This can make your brand’s efforts become suspect. Your customers want educational content without initial marketing spin. The content also has to be compelling, entertaining to earn the scarcest entity on the wed- time/patience. Great content must guides, clarifies, enlightened and connect. The language of the content has to be in tune with your industry. Contents that solve problems drive traffic and increases sale rate.

Social media and content marketing make your clients see your brand as unique resource, trusted advisor and a brand that makes them look good. This will make them to gladly exchange their money and loyalties for your commitment to the relationship. When you have so much to give, they will not wait to tell others about your brand. There are some other factors that come into play here but let us conclude today’s piece by saying that brand has several opportunities when it annexes the two way communication of mainstream and evolution of new media.