SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: Marketing Considerations for Small Business

It’s clear that social media marketing has grown dramatically during the last few years and that with more than 800 million active users, the amount of Facebook users is easily more than twice the size of the complete population of the United States!

Its growth has been astronomical now, millions of people are posting more personal and business information online than previously. It’s happening at lightning speed with a large number of posts, tweets and uploads occurring every hour.

Recent research conducted by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) commissioned by Sensis Pty Ltd (May 2011, p. 10) indicates, that “62% of Australian Internet users use a variety of social media marketing sites, with many visiting every day and most at least a few times a week.” It’s no surprise that with the millions of prospective customers from across the world using these sites, every day, that so many businesses are determined to include social media into their marketing mix. Nonetheless it also important to get a knowledge of how these sites are being used and what’s involved with maintaining or resourcing your organization presence on these sites. Your web footprint can stick around for years so don’t underestimate how this can affect the perception of your brand available in the market place. Spend Motivational Content thinking about whether social media is right for your business.

1. Seek first to understand – It is crucial that you understand the basics of how is social media really works and how it’s being used. What are people and businesses doing with social media marketing? What gets them results? A few of you may be thinking, how do you do this? Perchance you could consider trying it out on your own by setting up a personal account, then testing a few of the features, or get yourself a trusted friend to show you their account and show you through. Alternatively you can find so many resources and ‘how to’ items online about social media, you could run a search on Google or on YouTube on a particular topic of interest watching the video tutorials to obtain informed.

2. Understand your purpose – What is your purpose is for using social media marketing? What do you desire to achieve for your business by using it? It’s really important that you identify your purpose so you can get involved in social media marketing (or any marketing activity for example). You need to workout why you are engaging. What do you expect to achieve? Do you simply want to build brand awareness, engage with your customers or identify new sales opportunities? Be sure you be realistic about what you think you will be able to attain.

3. If you decide to engage in social media marketing, which sites are best for you? – With the plethora of social media sites available, which ones are best for your business? Consider where your target audience would socialize online, and think about the amount of time and resources you’ll realistically be able to invest in maintaining and administering your site presence. Which ones are right for you? You will probably find that some are a better fit than others.

4. Quality Content – In the event that you decide that social media marketing is right for the business, carefully think about the amount and quality of information you intend to share in the web sphere. Remember it’ll probably stay there for a long period, so you must make sure it accurate and reliable information that is valuable to your target audience. It has to be relevant, otherwise people won’t read it.